Originally Posted By: sini

What you went through is not that uncommon, I see it in young and inexperienced managers all the time. They get excited about possibilities and get big ideas they are eager to try, but then they forget that organization they are part of has its own organizational culture with a lot of inertia. Still, they push and push and end up breaking rudder.


Your example isn't limited to "young and inexperienced" leaders; this scenario is also often spawned by those who take the helm because they have the foresight to identify something in need of change, they think outside the box, or because they envision a more efficient/better methodology than staying the historic course; this is very relevant to new ventures.

Your illustration can traverse multiple paths. I've spent most of my working life in Enterprise environments, and have observed several outcomes to this scenario:

A) The outcome which you portrayed, in which the currents of the organization keep to the destined path and business continues as usual; anything fighting the currents eventually tires fighting it and either steps in line, or leaves.

B) Eager manager steps in and tries to make changes, but ends up either burning out, or leaving, and the Division eventually dies out: those proposed changes were exactly what it needed to retain interest/relevance.

C) Eager manager steps in and makes changes, which are accepted, and end up being exactly what the Division needed to persist/grow.

Etc.

- Wildcard / Tiernan