Failure In Your Bones

What is your DNA Failure Platitude?

I beg your pardon? - Are you asking me something about my heritage or my parentage?

No, I'm not - but I am inquiring about something fundamental to your business lineage and to your success prospects.

Let me explain. I've written before about Failure Platitudes, the tendency for fundamental flaws to get swept up in generalising excuses which hinder any precise analysis and remedial action.

They tend to operate across the areas of Leadership, Management, Strategy, Communications, Process & People. The kind of typical Failure Platitude tends to be along the lines of, "Everything round here is great except the people - you just can't get them to do anything." Obviously this is a nonsense; there are numerous organisations where people consistently achieve wonderful things together. Hence the problem lies elsewhere.

This kind of blanket, internal whitewashing greatly hinders the frank, co-operative and detailed conversations and initiatives that can lead to sustainable and superior corporate culture.

But this week, when I was talking to a group of four business I had not previously met, it struck me forcibly that there is often an individual, hallmark Failure Platitude as well. Let's call it the "DNA Failure Platitude".

Each of the four carried to the meeting a DNA Failure Platitude related to the very issues they wished to discuss. They were:

If you project yourself too much as intolerant of poor performance as a coach, you run the risk of alienating clients.

Big accountancy practices are particularly hard places to effect superior corporate culture, particularly with the difficulty of practice mergers and acquisitions.

Chambers of Commerce have a hard time keeping abreast of the multitude of client interests and concerns.

The building industry is a tough place and not an easy one in which to put corporate culture recommendations into practice.

- I won't unpack each of these; suffice to say that I disagree with them.

My point for now is what DNA Failure Platitude are you carrying around with you? You may struggle to notice it because, as the name suggests, it is deep within your bones by now.

Trust me on this - you have one. Identify it. Deal with it and move on.

- Malcolm Evans is a founding partner of The Cultureship Practice, business ethics and corporate culture research and implementation specialists.