One of my favourite-ever clients had a phrase I’ve used countless times: “Experience is what you get, just after you need it.”
When I was training for my first London Marathon, I was told “If you wait until you’re thirsty before you drink, it’s too late.”
Two comments from two completely unrelated times and occasions, but to me they contain two important lessons that apply in business.
First, never get complacent. Just because things have always gone well is no guarantee they’re going to continue to do so.
Second, organisations don’t fail overnight. Decline is usually progressive: they either lose focus, or alignment, or energy; or they allow complexity to creep in, and the business just seems harder to run or to perform in. The frog in boiling water might not be a true experiment, but it’s a good metaphor.
You often hear “culture” blamed when businesses start to go wrong. I’m no longer convinced that’s always right.
Culture is a symptom of deeper and more serious issues, not usually a cause in itself. It’s a sign of an organisation that has lost its focus and lost its way, where “what matters most” has been forgotten or reinvented to suit personal agendas. It’s evidence of a business that is now getting in its own way, where meetings multiply and decisions find places to hide. It shows up in weakening client or customer relationships, and new pressures on fees or prices.
By the time performance deteriorates, the causes have usually been present for some time. The numbers simply make them visible and unavoidable. Which is another reason why I’m increasingly sceptical of treating performance, culture and reputation as separate issues. They’re connected, and need to be coherent.
Long before the numbers tell the story, the organisation already has.