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If you find yourself in a hole-call it a swimming pool


My dad dug a big whole whilst levelling the back garden and decided he would call it a swimming pool.

The new build house had a steeply slopping back garden. Never one to pay someone for doing something he could do himself my dad went about moving earth , lots of it, to level it up. He took earth from the bottom of the garden and moved to the top. He started in one corner and soon found he had the beginnings of a large hole. Rather than have the back garden terraced on three levels he went for all on the same level with a big hole in one corner. When asked about the resulting big hole he said it was going to be a swimming pool. 

In organisations it’s all to common for senior managers to dig them selves holes whilst trying to achieve a bigger goal. They should stop digging but often they claim the hole was intensional, part of their plans. My dad’s hole never turned into the promised swimming pool and after 3 years we moved house. The first thing the new owners did was to fill in the big hole in the garden. 

Much the same happens when a senior manager leaves an organisation, the new post holder comes in and immediately fills in the holes their predecessor left. 

You may have come across one of these unintended byproducts, which were claimed as always part of the plan, in the latest restructuring, the move to outsource services or the proposed merger.

Blair Mcpherson former Director , author and blogger www.blairmcpherson.co.uk 




 

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