Often, during coaching engagements, I encounter heavy resistance to applying fundamentals. So many organizations and individuals seek an easy button rather than understanding the simple but powerful concept of applying fundamentals to complicated problems.
One of the basic fundamentals is the effect of clear consequences combined with immovable deadlines.
Nothing concentrates the mind like a hanging at dawn is as true today as when first uttered.
The clear consequences (the hanging) and the immovable deadline (at dawn) would compel most to urgently seek an alternative.
In practice, individuals do not hold themselves accountable to either the deadline or the consequence and organizations are notorious for slipping deadlines while rarely even articulating behavior-changing consequences.
Is it any wonder that milestones are missed with regularity, clear responsibilities for deliverables are missing, and imaginative fabrications obscure the reality of these systemic failures?
If you’re caught in this cycle of failure, it might be time to face reality that you need outside help to move forward.
The alternative might just be that hanging at dawn that surprisingly overtakes you when organizational tolerance for your failures expires.