# Organizational Pain and Promotion By:: [[Brian Heath]] 2023-07-06 No matter how great a plan, its criticality, and the energy to execute it, an initiative is doomed to go slow or fail if management is unwilling or unable to deal with the uncomfortable politics of the situation. Someone will always resist, a group's purpose may cease to exist, and change creates power grabs and voids. A thoughtful manager understands these dynamics, foresees where problems may emerge, and begins to broker solutions well before the initiative. However, most managers are not incentivized to be thoughtful. They are paid to be an agent of the organization and act accordingly. This means waiting until the organization has decided, accepting it as the best thing to do as communicated to them, and trying to force the square peg into the round hole. Some may even consider it job security not to think ahead and preemptively resolve issues. Rarely are people in modern organizations promoted and rewarded with status and money when things go smoothly. There is no organization pain when things go smoothly, and people assume it must have been an easy task. Only when disaster strikes and pain is felt does the organization recognize it. Now the manager "in charge" can push the task over the finish line and get all the glory. Put another way, we only think about our kidneys once they start to fail. One should not think that this is a foolproof plan. It's elementary to go from savior to the one who failed to do their job. It's a delicate balance that those in executive positions have often mastered. Is any of this efficient? No. Is any of this necessary? Also, no. But, this artifact defines much of the modern organization paradox. On one side, modern organizations speak of efficiency, but their actions reflect anything but that. It's worked to a point but creates an unsustainable power asymmetry with as many crashes as successes. #### Related Items [[Organization]] [[Business]] [[Work]] [[Paradox]] [[Management]] [[Power]] [[Project Management]] [[Thinking]]