When many of the decisions made throughout an organization are considered optional or negotiable, leaders and team members take notice. When senior leaders are unwilling or too busy to enforce the decisions, directives, policies, and mandates they hand down, then the culture takes on an unusual quality. Everything is in play. Even critical commitments. When this happens, “yes” doesn’t mean “yes,” and “no” doesn’t mean “no.”
Soft Yes and No cultures are more prevalent than most leaders realize. They appear and sound like other workplaces, until you look under the covers. There we find an organization where leaders and team members decide for themselves what directives and decisions to follow.
When the decision is to execute a strategy or plan, team members hear the decree as an option, not a resolution. Similarly, decisions about what shouldn’t happen are heard as suggestions rather than as directions.
While leaders and team members feel empowered and trusted to operate autonomously, there are consequences of this freedom, such as undermining team alignment, teams that reinvent and revisit the same problems that never get resolved, even a fundamental inability to execute on plans and goals.
Cultures where the Yes and Nos of decisions are soft and fluid are highly ineffective but often have strengths that allow them to march along despite themselves. Senior leaders complain about how difficult it is to get everyone rowing in the same direction, not realizing that they have created the monster of an organizational let’s make a deal through their inaction. Their reluctance to set decision standards and confront those who do their own thing undermines execution and long-term performance.
If you have ever worked in such a culture, you know too well the ill effects of the many decisions and policies that never get fully implemented. For the rest of us, it is critical to stand on guard to recognize that decisions, policies, and rules can never be ignored or viewed as optional. Immediately confronting those leaders and team members who are unwilling to commit to what the organization has decided is both critical and necessary.
Decisions aren’t truly decisions if they are open to negotiation after the fact.
A Daily Dispatch from the Front Lines of Leadership.
