The Workplace Is Full of (Accidental) Hollywood Actors
Actors don’t produce action. Here’s what does.
The business wanted us to reinvent ourselves (again).
“Change how we bill clients.”
All the leaders were in the meeting room listening to the message as if it was the gospel. They were starry-eyed. In love, even. I got out of the meeting and said “this isn’t going to be easy” to one of the operations managers. “Do you think it’s possible?”
“Haha … of course not.”
Me: “Then why the heck were you nodding and promising the world to our country manager?”
“We have to act like we believe even if we don’t agree. Otherwise, I’m forced to look for a new job.”
Over the next few months a series of meetings were held to change how we bill. We never did make the change even though we presented tonnes of Powerpoint decks on how we were “strategizing” to do it. There were even false measures of progress towards the goal.
This outcome is the result of professional actors in the workplace. We’ve all met actors at work. They say one thing and do another. Recent research shows that business leaders ‘act’ like they want to listen, but in reality they don’t.
