Stuff Happens... Breakdowns Happen

We have an in-built resistance to acknowledging that something is not going, or will not go, as planned – a fear of failure, of looking bad, of being seen as less than able or competent, of loosing the respect of our peers and the confidence of our bosses, ...

We frequently wait well beyond the time we “know” things are off track – from the facts, or our intuition, or our inner concerns – before we flag our concerns to those who have a stake in our performance or before we actually do anything.

Mostly, when we do acknowledge that things aren’t going as we want, we explain, rationalize, make excuses, justify, all in an attempt to make what is happening acceptable “given the circumstances”.  It is as if we have an inner algorithm that goes like this: no result + a good reason, explanation and justification = the desired result. And the formula includes that the scale and elaborateness of the explanation and justification is directly correlated to the scale of the gap between intended and actual outcomes.

The unintended consequence of this in-built resistance to acknowledging failure, or impending failure, is that we lose the opportunity to take actions that will produce the results we were committed to.  This is a normal and reactive experience, and one that we need to learn to interrupt, and act independently of, as early on as possible if we are committed to producing breakthroughs.  

Powerful leaders are able to re-generate their capacity to deliver breakthrough performance rapidly when they go off-course.

The first and most critical step is to “declare”, paraphrasing the Apollo 13 crew, "Houston we have a breakdown". 

We are declaring that we know that we are not on track for the committed results. We may declare a breakdown because, for example:

• We have missed a milestone
• We know from our current results we are going to miss a milestone
• We think a specific action or our overall plan will not produce the desired result  
• Unplanned and unanticipated events have occurred
• A previously reliable person, process or product has failed
• ...

A declaration has a “We say ” component about it, as in: we have these facts, this evidence, these opinions and assessments about the facts, and “we say…”.  In other words, a declaration is  making a call in the face of a mass of opinions and facts.  It is a “generative” act that puts leaders back in the driver’s seat responding to circumstances not being at the effect of circumstances.

Declaring a breakdown is an expression of Being accountable. Not declaring a breakdown in the face of evidence that results are at risk is an expression of Being a victim.

The declaration of a breakdown requires being straight about those things that are occurring that are inconsistent with our intentions and values.  In declaring a breakdown:

• We regain our power to keep promises and take action
• We start operating again from “being responsible” and “causing”, rather than being a “victim” at the effect of circumstances
• We can initiate a process to transform the breakdown into a breakthrough

BREAKDOWNS ARE THE SOURCE OF BREAKTHROUGHS.  POWERFUL LEADERS KNOW THIS AND  CREATE (DECLARE) BREAKDOWNS “AT CAUSE” SO AS TO PRODUCE BREAKTHROUGHS.

In my next post I will propose a methodology to transform breakdowns to breakthroughs.