# Floundering at the Top Means Chaos at the Bottom By:: [[Ross Jackson]] 2025-02-11 There are a variety of forms of floundering, ranging from indecision to a multitude of contradictory decisions. Across this spectrum, floundering at the top produces chaos at the bottom of organizations. When executives flounder, those doing work are uncertain about what to do. Further, observing executive floundering reduces confidence in the executive’s ability to manage and deal with organizational complexities. One common form of executive floundering is reversing a decision before obtaining relevant facts. Under this floundering form, an executive will direct a subordinate to do something. The subordinate responds with more context regarding what implementing the direction will mean. The executive then quickly abandons the direction. The issue here isn’t that the executive changed one’s mind. People are free to change their minds. Changing one’s mind when better information becomes available is the hallmark of a rational person. The issue is that the executive could have easily obtained the information from the subordinate before making any decision. In short, the situation reveals that the executive is a hasty decision-maker. As the saying goes, haste makes waste. Organizations run on trust. Executives must trust that employees work as directed for the organization's benefit. Workers need to trust that executives know what they are doing. Floundering erodes trust. When this occurs, people tend to hedge. In extreme cases, one will stop doing anything productive. People will be less committed to the organization and its tasks in less severe cases. Within these multitude of gaps in commitment, chaos reigns. If organizations want to perform better, the place to start is at the top. #### Related Items [[Organization]] [[Executives]] [[Chaos]] [[Trust]] [[Work]] [[Decision-making]]