Charlotte decides to do good. Charlotte is a highly motivated worker. Something has been bothering her lately, something about the structure of the work flow that's causing redundancy, misallocation of resources, costly errors, and diminished productivity. On her own she does a careful study of the situation and convinced that she is on to something, she spends her evenings writing a detailed report that includes her observations, the apparent costs to the system, evidence of mismanagement (she is a bit caustic here), her vision of how the work flow should be structured, along with the steps she feels would turn things around and assure success. In the end, this is a detailed report, meticulously done, twenty-five single-spaced pages, with charts and graphs. Charlotte is proud of her work, the fact that she did this at her own initiative and on her own time, and she is truly excited about making a positive contribution to the organization. Charlotte finishes her report and sends it to the company president. And then she waits. And she waits. Certainly there will be a phone call, a meeting, some acknowledgment of her contribution, a bonus maybe, even a promotion wouldn't be out of the question. Something. But nothing comes. A week goes by. Two weeks. Still nothing. Hope wanes, and a bitterness begins to settle in. Those executives, she thinks, they go off to these programs on partnership or leadership or empowerment; they learn all the right words, but in the end it doesn't mean anything. It's more of the same old arrogance of top management. They really don't care. And this marks the end of Charlotte as a highly motivated worker. She is angry; she has her evaluations (all negative) of the president; she is feeling very righteous -- I did the right thing and what did it get me? -- and she has lost interest in pursuing her productivity project. What's the point? she asks. That's the last time I'll go out of my way for this company,

Falling Into The Side Show

What's happening here? Is this just a case of a good-hearted worker being done in once again by callous, insensitive management? Maybe. And maybe there is something else going on, a Side Show stemming from systemic blindness. And here is how the Side Show happens.

"Stuff Happens" In organization life we are constantly getting "stuff" from other people. "Stuff" comes in many forms, but generally "stuff" is something other than what we expected. "Stuff" might be an angry response that comes at us from out of the blue, or it might be a wishy-washy response when we were expecting something firm and straightforward, or it might be resistance when we were expecting agreement or, as in Charlotte's case, "stuff" might be nothing, no response when we needed or expected something. (Physicists might refer to this as minus "stuff".) Some "stuff" is positive -- the proposal was accepted, the budget was approved; but much of the "stuff" that comes our way is noxious (we just don't like it ) or it's a mystery (Why are they doing what they're doing?) and some "stuff" is both noxious and a mystery. And there is an all too human response we make to "stuff" that is noxious and/or a mystery. Not all of us, not every time, but with great regularity.

* We make up a story that explains the "stuff." Our big brain doesn't tolerate mystery, so we create stories that explain the mystery. And generally we don't see these as stories, we see them as the truth.

* In the stories we create, we evaluate the others; we see them as malicious, insensitive, or incompetent.

* And in these stories we see ourselves as the righteous heroes, martyrs or victims. (Who would want to give up such stories?)

* We react to the others; we get mad, we get even, or we withdraw.

* We lose focus on what our good intentions were (That's the last time I'll go out of my way for this company, says Charlotte.)

* And all of this seems very personal, i.e., these are actions, or inactions, aimed at me.

This is a Side Show of organization life -- emotional, dramatic, good guys and bad guys, tragic endings. The Side Show, with all of its drama, takes us away from the Center Ring where the important organization action needs to be. When we are in the Side

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