If there is a wide gap between your Portfolio and People Pillars, you will be experiencing either 1) The Burnout Threshold where leadership’s ambition has outpaced the biological limits of the workforce by committing to 10 goals when the team can only handle 3 or 2) The Boredom Sinkhole has opened up and your high-capacity team has no clear direction and they are idling at about 20% capacity.
Either scenario can create extreme amounts of waste in an organization, from having meetings about meetings and sending emails about other emails, where everyone looks busy but there’s no real progress being made. People are either chasing geese or watching paint dry. Neither of these is going to help you create the world-class organization you likely want to build.
The Burnout Threshold
If you find yourself nearing the Burnout Threshold, it indicates that you are expecting your team to maintain a ‘sprint’ pace indefinitely. This approach poses a significant risk to your team’s culture. By prioritizing short-term project milestones, you may be sacrificing your team’s long-term mental health. The biggest concern is that you could be facing a Mass Exodus; when employees perceive that their quality of work is declining and that “busy-ness” is taking precedence over meaningful impact, it can lead to a complete breakdown in culture. Generally, people want to do a great job and achieve their goals. When you set them up for failure, they are likely to leave rather than endure the situation.
The Boredom Sinkhole
If you find yourself at the bottom of this sinkhole, it means you are not fully utilizing your greatest asset: your team. Your team has the potential to aim higher, but your current strategy is too cautious. This can lead to what is known as ‘intellectual rot,’ where your best employees leave simply because they are bored. The risk here is disengagement. Top talent thrives on ambitious goals; if you don’t provide them with a mission, they will seek one elsewhere.
People don’t want to be pushed to the point of burnout, but they also don’t want to lack a challenging objective to tackle. Life is most fulfilling when you have a significant goal in front of you—one that feels achievable yet slightly out of reach.
The Path Forward
If you find yourself nodding your head to either of these scenarios or any of the other scenarios from the other Friction Points, I would highly recommend that you take the 4 Pillar Pulse Check. This free assessment will help you identify which Pillar in your organization is lagging behind the others. Although this isn’t the full 37 Point Kaizen Mastery System Diagnostic Assessment, it will give you some insights. If you would like to discuss having a full Diagnostic Assessment and have me come work with you and your team in a Fractional Strategy & Optimization Advisory role, please reach out to me directly steve@stevebeauchamp.com.
Steve Beauchamp 