Why Organisations Confuse Movement With Progress
In Greek mythology Sisyphus is condemned to push a heavy boulder up a mountain for eternity.
Every time he reaches the top, it rolls straight back down again.
And he starts over.
Many people in organisations would recognise the feeling immediately. Not as myth. As work.
There is always another push. Another programme. Another transformation. Another “big moment of change”.
You climb one mountain.
Then someone points to another in the distance.
“Good effort,” they say. “Now we need to go again.”
I have seen this repeatedly in the public sector, across restructures, transformation programmes and “new operating models”.
Teams are assembled. Energy is mobilised. Language is carefully chosen. There is optimism. Sometimes even relief. People believe this time it will be different.
Then the climb begins.
Long hours. Difficult decisions. Reorganisations. New systems. New structures. New priorities. People push hard because they believe effort leads somewhere stable.
And for a while, it does.
Then comes the message.
That was good. But not enough.
We need to go further.
There’s another mountain.
At first, people respond with enthusiasm. Then professionalism. Then fatigue.
Then cynicism.
Then something quieter.
Detachment.
Not resistance. Not rebellion. Just a slow withdrawal of emotional investment.
The work continues. But the belief in improvement weakens.
In HR surveys this is increasingly described as exhaustion.
But exhaustion is only part of it.
It is also the sense that effort no longer adds up to anything lasting.
I have seen highly committed staff go through multiple cycles of change in good faith. Each time they adapt, support others, and try to make it work.
Each time they are told this is the change that will make the difference.
Eventually, many stop believing it.
Not because they oppose change.
But because they have lived through too much change that did not lead to anything better.
Sometimes things are different.
But not necessarily better.
Services are redesigned. Structures reshaped. Resources redistributed.
In public services this often involves hard trade-offs. Support is shifted from one group to another. Voluntary organisations lose funding. Partnerships built over years are dismantled and rebuilt elsewhere.
Something improves.
Something else worsens.
The organisation calls it transformation.
Staff experience it as loss.
The system calls it progress.
People experience it as repetition.
And the cycle continues.
The deeper problem is not change itself.
It is what organisations are rewarded for.
Leaders are rewarded for launching change.
For being seen to act.
For announcing transformation.
Success quickly resets expectations.
You win the league.
Now win the Champions League.
Then dominate Europe.
Then reinvent the game.
Movement itself becomes success.
Even when it is only repetition with new language.
This is where Sisyphus becomes useful.
Not as punishment. But as pattern.
A system where effort is constant and visible, but arrival never arrives.
And stopping feels impossible.
Because stopping would mean admitting that previous effort did not take you somewhere stable.
That is difficult for leadership teams.
And even harder for organisations already invested in the story of progress.
So the climb continues.
New frameworks. New operating models. New strategies. New ways of working.
Often with familiar substance underneath the language.
The psychological cost builds quietly.
Fatigue turns into cynicism. Cynicism turns into withdrawal of effort and belief.
Morale rarely collapses in a single moment. It erodes.
Until talented people leave, not because they reject change, but because they no longer believe it improves anything that matters.
Others stay, but invest less of themselves each time.
From a public sector perspective, the pattern is familiar.
Senior teams often see themselves as driving necessary reform.
Frontline staff often experience repeated disruption without cumulative improvement.
Both perspectives can be true.
That is part of the problem.
Because the system rewards visible action.
Stability is rarely recognised as achievement.
Change is.
So movement becomes success.
Even when it is exhausting.
Even when it is circular.
Even when it undermines the capacity to improve anything at all.
Sisyphus is not really a story about failure.
It is a story about repetition without resolution.
About effort that never becomes arrival.
About hope that resets itself each time it is exhausted.
And organisations are very good at creating that condition.
So the boulder keeps moving.
Not because anyone believes it will reach the top.
But because the system no longer remembers what stopping would look like.
