Getting Unstuck | v1.027

Anything that affects performance deserves attention

I recently found the bluetooth keyboard that belongs to my Mac. I had never used it, but I am now feeling grateful for it since months ago the “A” key on my computer started sticking. Do you know how hard it is to type seamlessly if just one letter fails? This has me thinking about what efficient operating systems, and productive organizations, look like.

If one element of a team becomes a bottleneck, or is unreliable, or is distracted and feeling drained of energy, it drags down the whole process. I have written about root cause analysis before. This analogy is a helpful reminder of what impact failure in one area can have on an entire system. Allow me to illustrate a bit further.

As the owner of my laptop, I tried to work out the detritus likely stuck under the key. I bought a blow can. Turned my laptop upside down. Shook it a few times. Tapped it even more times. It worked for a while, until it stopped again. It works sometimes, but I have yet to take my computer to a repair store to get the diagnosis it deserves. Why? I figured out new ways of working around the stuck key.

Imagine the shortcuts I have created. Once I thought, I can just copy and paste the letter when I need it. Except, I realized that was not a foolproof fix. There were multiple problems with this workaround. The letter would apply the font format, so I would need to use the copy and paste functions, without formatting. Okay, once I figured that out, then I started getting stuck with capitalizing the letter.

Honestly, here I thought, autocorrect will save me. Software programs with sophisticated algorithms will begin to figure out my writing style. When I started a new sentence, I would paste the letter and wait. Nothing happened. Ugh. Then I had to figure out a solution for those times when the letter needed to be capitalized. That seemed simple enough to manage through, except copying and pasting the letter in lowercase and uppercase were not the only two use cases I would encounter.

Often when I am writing, I am referencing other sources. This means I am regularly copying and pasting URLs from the internet to include in my posts. Now this meant that there was an order to which I would think about how to write. What I mean is, rather than add hyperlinks along the way, I would decide to postpone the process to the proofreading stage. This approach would likely lead to errors, making it easier for me to forget about citing a source before a post gets published. Problems abound.

Writing quickly became a greater effort with this stuck key. And I was getting tired of the workarounds. Now that I am writing with this new keyboard, I realize how much value I was losing.

There’s a lesson in this simple analogy that I wish to impart here, in order to get us talking about a growing concern in the business community.

CEO leaders, many of them founders of, so-called, mission-driven companies, are deciding whether (or not) their companies engage in political discussions. Most often the push comes from the inside. Employees are looking for their leaders to speak up against injustice. Yet, many CEOs are now deciding against it, wary of the no-win position and cancel culture. Of note this week are the co-founders of Basecamp. Not only are they refraining from political discussions, they have sidelined their employees from having these conversations internally, full stop.

Upon reflection, I think business leaders risk gumming up their own internal systems, if they do not engage their employees in sincere, authentic dialogue. Engaging in productive discussions with employees about social issues would seem to help CEOs decide what issues to engage with, while gaining new insights and perspectives. Instead, here’s the message being received: “Shut up, and get back to work.”

How does one function when one feels stuck? The problem with this directive, as I see it, is that if just one employee feels unsupported, the organization will likely feel the impact. Just like my keyboard, it seems that this is a moment for CEOs to retool their organization where employees are getting stuck, no matter how many, or how few, feel that way.

In my case, using my bluetooth keyboard means I have, at least temporarily, outsourced the problem, in a way. While this is true, rather than demand more from my impaired key, I am giving it time to rest. Rather than endure more pressure from my heavy tapping, I am taking a step back and deciding when (not whether) to address the problem. Fixing it requires that I identify and assess the root cause. And, meanwhile, there are unintended benefits.

Since using my bluetooth keyboard, my posture has improved. I am writing more easily, with a more ergonomic stance. More importantly, I no longer get stuck in the process. Getting unstuck required fresh, new thinking, and better tools. It required I find the right tool to keep going. That key is still stuck, but I am not. In time, I think I can get that key back into full, working condition, once I understand how I can make it better. At some point, I will need to figure out why it’s not as productive as it used to be. Or maybe I just procure a new computer.

That’s what I see happening here. CEOs who are not equipped with the right tools, get fatigued. Rather than acknowledge that their employees are stuck in an extraordinary moment, they seek workarounds. And while they might feel better, the organization and the system they are operating continues to suffer.

The choice to step out of the conversation on social justice issues is a convenient one. And yet this is not a choice that many of us have the privilege to make. Putting pressure on employees to perform, and not holding space for their concerns, might require a reboot, or whole systems change, somewhere down the line. I really do think it’s a matter of when (not whether) it happens. Ignoring it simply postpones the inevitable.

Onward, my People.