I’ve written before about the issues that happen when the view from the top of an organisation doesn’t match the view from the bottom. It’s one of the simple tests that I do to get an indication of that organisation’s health: do the people leading it have the same understanding of the company’s roles, ambitions and operating rules as the people who are doing the work?
If you find yourself in one of these organisations, you have three choices: you can try to change yourself, you can try to change the organisation, or you can leave. I tend to start with introspection: is it me? Are my expectations too high? Am I applying the wrong cultural norms? Can I change? Then negotiation: what is it that this organisation is expecting of me? Is it respectful (and conversely, am I – always good to have a sanity check there), is it reasonable, is it honest? And finally: are my beliefs and the organisation’s belief set so different that there really is no acceptable solution for us both? And sometimes, no matter how much you believe in something, you just have to walk away.