Measles is making headlines again.
Yes, measles. You know… that disease we thought we’d pretty much eliminated a couple of decades ago? Well, if you happen to live in South Carolina or Utah right now, “eliminated” probably isn’t the first word that comes to mind.
Organizations have their own diseases. One of my favorites (if you can have a favorite disease) is Short-Sighted Myopic Ignorance (SSMI)—the organizational habit of forgetting yesterday’s lessons just in time to repeat yesterday’s mistakes I’ve seen leaders convince themselves they’ve cured it with a stronger culture, better governance, or a thoughtful organizational design. Then a few years later, a new leader arrives, old assumptions quietly creep back in, and suddenly the symptoms return.
The lesson? Organizations don’t become permanently immune to dysfunction. Healthy organizations don’t just solve yesterday’s problems—they keep watching to make sure they don’t come back.
0 Comments