AVOID #4 - It's not being unwilling but being uninformed

The remarkable point is that the red teams’ ambition – what to achieve in the next six months – is enormous. Twice the ambition of the amber teams and four times higher than the green teams.’ she said.

          ‘Shouldn’t we just applaud their energy?’ the young manager said.

‘Sure, we should applaud their energy. But the content of the ambition is not realistic to achieve in six months. Not even a part of it. If it took several months (sometimes years) to achieve a certain level of performance: how do you think you can dramatically improve that in a mere six months?

That led to the conclusion that these underperforming teams aren’t unwilling, just uninformed. Maybe even naïve. Taking out the big guns would be counter-productive and too resource-intensive.’

          ‘What do you mean by resource-intensive?’

‘There is usually no need to fire people; it’s just that a specific handholding is required. That keeps morale up and focuses the energy you saw already present in the red teams’ ambition on the transformation items that really matter.’