When Systems Fail Themselves

When organizations lose focus on their mission they are in serious trouble. All systems have a purpose and when the individual components lose their way the entire system veers off course. A few degrees and 5 years down the road the organization is in big trouble. Ensuring everyone is focused on the mission is important for sustainable success.

Sometimes people work in a silo and fail to understand the bigger picture of the organization's purpose. Each person focuses on their individual job and conducts their work in a routine and don't think much about it. That is they don't think about it until something happens that forces them to get a bigger picture.

It is important for companies to ensure employees not only understand the mission but also their job and how that job fits with the other jobs around it. Each job works in conjunction with others and understanding the wider network also helps in putting each action in greater context. Each task takes on more meaning when it has a bigger purpose.

All decisions should be made with the greater purpose in mind. If this does not happen smaller objectives begin to take precedence and it could threaten the entire organization. How does a splintered organization survive when it becomes a bundle of self-serving mini objectives? The answer is it doesn't. Its synergy and bounded rationality dissipates and it becomes its own biggest market threat.