Brave New Work: Are You Ready to Reinvent Your Organization?

by Aaron Dignan

When you join a Legacy Organization, the default assumption is that you don’t have the right to do anything unless you are given permission. This stems from a theory of control that believes the best way to eliminate risk is through compliance. It all starts innocently enough. In the early days, everyone scrambles to get the business off the ground. If they succeed, the established enterprise attempts to protect itself by standardizing approaches, policies, and structures—it discovers and mandates the one best way. Over time, red tape builds up until hardly anything interesting can be done without three different approvals. Only very senior managers and people willing to lose their jobs are able to act freely. The rest of the workforce, unauthorized to solve their own problems, develops a sense of apathy and learned helplessness. Engagement dips. Mistakes are made. And more red tape is wrapped around the handle. Stories of mistakes and failures create a culture of fear. The sense at the bottom is that leadership doesn’t trust anyone. The sense at the top is that even more compliance is needed—that everything must be specified.