Many once effective organizations find it increasingly difficult to succeed in these turbulent times. They find that the old ways of defining, organizing, and managing the work make it difficult to achieve results. Typical symptoms of creeping obsolescence include:

Standard procedures are old and inflexible.

Endless meetings to give input, coordinate, inform people.

Lack of long-range, strategic plan.

Units or individuals competing over control of unclear turf.

People feeling impotent and having no sense of accomplishment.

People unsure who is responsible for what.

Stacks of unfinished work on people's desks.

Complicated workflow designs.

New ideas considered slowly, or dismissed as unworkable

Managers fearing their subordinates will move up in the organization

Buck passing

No one putting out extra effort to take care of the little things--or big things.

No ownership of problems that arise--"It's not my problem."

In order to get work out, jobs such as "troubleshooter," "quality controller," or "expeditor" establish.

Pools of workers established (engineering pool, secretarial pool).

Everyone using lots of time responding to crisis.

Jobs done as a matter of routine rather than of individual initiative.

Important, discretionary tasks left undone.

Work needing to be re-done.

Employee grievances on the rise.

Smaller competitors achieving better success.

Employees often waiting for managers to make a decision.

Work being done by subcontractors because they can do it cheaper.

Number of manager jobs growing without a cooresponding increase in the number of non-management jobs.

High rates of turnover of absenteeism.

If your organization is troubled by these or similar problems, you will profit by arranging for the consulting services, training, or workshops described on this website. To learn more about how these services can breathe life into your organization, contact us today.