074: Self-deception, secret strategies and non-violent communication
Sep 17, 2024
auto_awesome
Explore the intriguing concept of the 'vision chasm'—the gap between idealistic future visions and harsh realities. Discover how self-deception can mislead teams, especially during corporate transformations, as leaders struggle with vague objectives. Hear stories of misunderstandings between C-suite executives and design teams, stressing the need for honest communication. Learn how external insights can disrupt stagnation while revealing the emotional complexity of change. Overall, it’s a deep dive into the challenges of aligning visions with organizational truth.
Self-deception within organizations leads to misaligned objectives, creating confusion among employees about their roles and contributions.
Ineffective communication between leadership and teams highlights the need for transparent dialogues to align strategy with organizational goals.
Deep dives
The Vision Chasm: Self-Deception in Strategy
Sometimes, a vision chasm arises when an organization fails to acknowledge its true objectives due to self-deception. A notable instance involved a startup that transitioned towards becoming more mass-market oriented, resulting in unclear OKRs that masked its core aim of becoming investable. This mismatch led various teams to pursue ineffective goals while the actual strategic direction remained hidden, ultimately hindering the company’s coherence and success. By failing to align objectives with reality, the organization created a confusing environment where employees struggled to understand their roles and contributions.
Cultural Shifts and Identity Crisis
As the organization evolved, it clung to its identity as a startup, leading to a cultural disconnect among its employees. Many team members joined with the expectation of working in a disruptive, customer-focused environment, but as the company adopted a more corporate approach, their core values and motivations were at odds with the new direction. This identity crisis resulted in a loss of engagement and dissatisfaction among those who preferred the original startup ethos. Consequently, the culture transformed to accommodate corporate norms, leading to turnover as individuals aligned with the previous values left for more suitable opportunities.
Communication Breakdowns Between Leadership and Teams
Ineffective communication between the C-suite and design teams exacerbated misunderstandings regarding expectations and strategic direction. Design team members sought clarity and a defined strategy to ground their innovative process, while leadership preferred to see creative options based on vague ideas. This disconnect culminated in frustration on both sides as the design team felt undervalued, and leadership struggled to articulate their needs. The situation highlighted the necessity for open and honest dialogues where leaders express uncertainty, allowing teams to align their expertise with true organizational goals.
A live thinking through of the next chunk in our series of articles about the Vision Chasm – that gulf between the glorious future people are talking about and the reality of where you are today.
In this episode we look at situations where a Vision is unreachable because it's actually deceptive – either deliberate deception to keep everyone looking the other way while people deploy a secret strategy; or accidental self-deception because your reality has shifted but your narratives haven't caught up.
We talk through a few stories from our past.
1) A company workshop where trying to crystallise a vision of the future fell apart - because nobody was ready/able to be honest about the true direction of the company. Still clinging to a cultural heritage that was no longer a fit for their market position?
2) A deep misunderstanding between a C-suite and design team – talking past one another because we were operating in fundamentally different worlds. A third party was able to show us why we were stuck in loggerheads. Looking back, we can see how daft we were being. But could we have done things differently at the time?
3) How the misunderstanding played out when the C-suite brought in an external agency. In one way, it was a disaster that made a mess and broke some hearts. In another way, it was a success that broke the deadlock and massively moved things forward for the company.
References:
Vision Chasm Part I: https://shows.acast.com/triggerstrategy/episodes/061-tumbling-into-the-vision-chasm
Vision Chasm Part II: https://shows.acast.com/triggerstrategy/episodes/066-feeling-the-edges-of-the-vision-chasm