5 Risky Imbalances That Keep Businesses From The Results They Expect
Often the simplest principles create conditions for success. Balance is one those principles. One of my earliest teenage jobs was as a server. Servers learn right away that you cannot carry a tray of drinks if all the drinks are on one side of the tray. Unbalanced, they will fall every time. Basic and perhaps obvious, right?
This basic principle of balance is also applied in big business every day. A cargo ship can’t have all of its cargo on one side, or it will sink. An aircraft cannot have all the passengers and luggage on one side, or it will be unsafe to fly. Professional sports teams cannot have only offense or only defense, or they won’t be able to advance the ball and score. Yet so many organizations lack balance.
• They lack balance in having enough of the right people in the right seats to execute on their business goals.
• They lack balance in diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. Beyond that though, they lack diversity of thought. In many organizations, group think ruins the culture and prevents growth.
• They lack balance in where they work. Hybrid work is the norm. But that environment is so much more challenging to manage and lead than a completely virtual or a completely on-premises entity.
