Ridiculousness

It started with a tweet, as it so often does.

The subject was personal effectiveness and the prevalence of Zoom meetings. The two do not exactly go hand-in-hand, do they?

I was chatting with two of my favourite people on Twitter, both of whom I met via the medium, Siobhan Sheridan and Ed Griffin. The very interesting Brigid Russell, whom I don’t know, was on the thread.

As we chatted the subject meandered off towards the ridiculousness of organisations.

Now, this has long been a topic which has interested me and it’s one which I refer to often when coaching people, particularly when they are at risk of derailing. When they’re struggling with what they’re suddenly dealing with as they approach the upper echelons of a business; one within which they were previously more than content.

Ed reacted to a situation I’d mentioned (‘meetingitis’ and its consequences) as “really messed up” to which I shared the thought:

As ever with such wise people, insights followed from which many people can learn. Well I think so anyway:

This leads me on to the point of this short blog…someone said to me over 25 years ago that “a core competency for success, or even survival, in many organisations is an ability to recognise that they are, by design, imperfect and at times ridiculous things.”

And why wouldn’t they be? They are made up of wonderful, imperfect, fallible human beings.

Do remember this next time your workplace is driving you mad. Because why wouldn’t it, at least sometimes? How are you going to react, adjust or change as a result?

My best wishes

Tony

Oh…by the way, I closed the thread with a rather wistful:

Who’s coming?