Beat slow decision making in large organizations
Slow or no decision making at work kills motivation. How to take control instead of giving up.
Are you suffering from slow decision making in your organization? Processes are painfully slow?
Getting a new piece of software, establishing a new role that would boost progress & innovation, trying out a new promising method?
You cannot get started because you rely on others to make a decision?
But it would make your own work more fun, more satisfying and easier?
💫 The most promising way to achieve results
Just start doing it in a small and responsible way. You do not have to announce it in a big forum. In fact, you do not have to announce anything at all.
Generate the benefit & document it (before - after).
Talk to like-minded colleagues who also suffer or have the same vision. Discuss with them and make it better.
Ask: "How might we benefit from ... despite the existing boundary conditions."
Once someone with more power in the organization notices, show results.
If results are convincing, you will have supporters to make it official. Managers are happy to promote improvements with documented benefits - after telling you that you should have followed the process. It is their job.
Ask for forgiveness rather than permission.
If you need a new piece of software, run it as portable version or in a test environment.
If you need an internal facilitator/project manager/innovation focal... teach yourself, become one & document. Support colleagues with your new skill and make them shine.
Yes, it is limited at first but it can grow if you persevere.
MANY great innovations in large businesses start this way.
Start small instead of waiting for the big management decision.
I loved it. Once I found one or two like minded people, it felt like a conspiracy and made the workday more fun.
One time, a software developer and I created post processing scripts for computer simulation models. The official approved post processing was manual, cumbersome and prone to error but the experienced colleagues knew how to do it quickly. I was reluctant to get good at cut-and-pasting datasets. We tested, tweaked, automated testing to run more tests, ran the official process in parallel…
Once it worked and was convenient to use, the rest of the global team got curious and wanted to learn how to use it.
Have you done it? If not, try it!
It takes resilience and a lot of energy sometimes to overcome these situations but man! How good does it feel once you get passed it and you have support !
100% with you. We all have a role a part to play in these situations. We all have to be the actor of the change. You can’t just wait and complain about others doing nothing. Life/work is demanding and you need to get over it and just do it. Be/become the leader you wish you had if necessary.
Experimenting is the key! Great post!