"cross-department misunderstandings which never seem to be resolved"

"the best intended actions by individuals can inflict damage on their environment"

" the temptation is to think of an easy fix (sometimes called a 'Quick Win') such as changing a routine"

If these tensions and fault lines have a starting point they can often be traced back to a merger, acquisition or reorganisation, where differences in operational approach are never reconciled. Often, though, there is no obvious catalyst.

It is usually possible to change the culture and behaviours of an organisation. But change programmes sometimes fail and are always expensive. Many organisations are filled with clever people but some difficulties remain intractable. The existing way of working seems to be ingrained within the institution. A client said, "I have never been unable to implement improvements before but I am flummoxed and frustrated this time." Everyone had a good reason for their actions but with unhappy results.

The idea that the best intended actions by individuals can inflict damage on their environment was dubbed, 'The Tragedy of the Commons', by Ecologist Garrett Hardin. His example was where everyone has the right to graze their sheep on the commons then eventually all the good grazing disappears.

But work has to carry on and the outcome of these intractable problems is workarounds. Anyone who has worked in an organisation has come across these kinds of workarounds. Although they consume resources, they do not look like workarounds where they are being done. At this level, they look like work tasks.

The key to fixing the underlying fault lines and reapplying the resources consumed by workarounds is in understanding the nature of the misunderstanding and the nature of the pressures acting on the fault line.
Mending these fault lines is not easy but it can be done. It takes determination and often some detective work. When a fault is found, the temptation is to think of an easy fix (sometimes called a 'Quick Win') such as changing a routine in a system. The risk, of course, is that the change is another workaround. Unless you ensure you have tackled the root cause of any difficulties - understanding the systemic implications of recommended changes - then issues or costs often reappear.

Peter Charles