Wednesday, June 13, 2007

High Stakes Drama

We’ve got a process that everyone hates.  The customer hates it.  The people who administer the process hate it.  It’s cumbersome, it’s time consuming, it stinks.  In fact only one person really ever liked the process and that is the person who created it.  I figure she liked it for two reasons.  One, it has a pretty form and two, it allowed her to feel control over something that she never should or would have had control over.
That person is now on maternity leave. 
It’s the perfect time to update the process, make it easier and make people happier. 
So, we started having conversations yesterday.  We tried to find out some of the things about the process that needed to be changed and socialize the idea a bit. 
We ran into a little snag.  One of the managers has a project “in the works” that he feels would be undermined by our suggested changes.  We took this into consideration and decided to move forward with a proposal, a suggestion if you will.
The manager blew up.  He took our suggestion and ran with it, thinking we were somehow attempting to undermine his authority with our idea.  He attacked those of us who had the initial conversation, telling us that we weren’t team players.  He then went one step further and brought the situation to the attention of our management team. 
WE hadn’t even broached the subject with our management team yet.  We were still formulating our ideas, analyzing the process to be sure what we thought should be changed was the right thing.  We were still just talking. 
He then took it one step further and took it to his manager.
It’s been two days of utter swirl because of an idea, a conversation and a modest proposal to change a process to increase efficiency. 
And the management team wonders why no suggests anything…

In other news I’ve got another inview today.  Maybe soon I will be out of this drama and onto a new one!