When You Don't Get It

White indoor architecture

When you don’t get it, you just don’t get it. When your expectations aren’t met at work, it can be difficult to understand. When employees, colleagues, and/or supervisors (“management and “leadership”) don’t seem to live the organization’s values or interpret the organization’s mission and goals in the same way, it can be confounding to the point of being demoralizing. I know. Add to that the selective and seemingly random accountability for objectives and you’ve got a lot not “to get”. This is why I became an organizational strategy consultant some 30 years back. It is also why today, I write.

My upcoming book series is about these strange and disturbing organizational happenings, what inspires them, and what can overcome and eliminate them. This place where things are hard “to get”, difficult to comprehend, and feel impossible to overcome, I call the underbelly of organizations. It is where our most subtle and insidious ways of thinking, motivated by emotion or limited information, drive us to bold and limiting behavior. We all exist in the underbelly of organizations, but almost never dare discuss it. We are plagued by the nagging pull of the fearful habits developed in this place. And they grow until we are so riddled with blind spots, we can’t even see ourselves in the mirror. We have become something…or someone…we are not. This is my story; it may be yours, too. The way out? Face all blind spots starting with your own.

Part of my transformation adventure was realizing how hard it is to accept one’s blind spots, even if someone is courageous and compassionate enough to help you see them. And let me pause here to note that accepting that we have blinds spots—for real—is tough and unsettling, even in the abstract. Getting down to what they are is a real blow to the ego…but must be done. Once you humble yourself to embrace change, the rewards in growth, learning, and new opportunities are great. But not everyone has the emotional grit and gumption for such an adventure. Not everyone chooses to change. Just as we can’t make people change, we can’t make organizations change. When you realize that “they’re not getting it”, find those who do.