Mediocrity is a cancer

Mediocrity is a cancer in cultures. It takes root insidiously and spreads everywhere. Mediocre cultures discourage dissent and clear decision making, encourage consensus and squash change makers.

It is possible to coast in mediocre cultures since people aren’t challenged or held accountable for impact.

This initially manifests as sluggishness and unresponsiveness at the controls. Not only is it hard to turn these cultures on a dime but trying to accelerate without making structural adjustments will cause things to stall.

The best analogy for this is from aviation which deals with airplane stalls. Experienced pilots will tell you that insufficient airspeed will eventually cause an airplane to stall.

The slower an airplane goes, the more its angle of attack needs to increase to maintain constant lift. The angle of attack cannot be increased without also simultaneously increasing airspeed and this is what commonly causes stalls, causing the aircraft to descend nose first.

The best maneuver to recover from this scenario is to then to lower the nose of the aircraft, accelerate to increase airspeed until normal flight can be resumed. The same applies to transforming mediocre cultures. Make structural adjustments before they are forced on you.

How do you know you’re in a mediocre culture?

Mediocre cultures value likability and politicking over boldness. Transformative cultures index on impact and execution over building fiefdoms.

Mediocre cultures value to-do lists and shallow activity. Transformative cultures value focus.

Leaders in mediocre cultures focus on being minesweepers and doing damage control vs. effecting structural change. Transformational cultures recognize the impact of creative tension, clarity, high performance, accountability and structure to effect change.

Mediocre cultures reward yes-men and women and quick, flashy launches. Transformative cultures reward impact, grit and long term iteration and learning.

Trust is low in mediocre cultures since passive aggressiveness, and artificial harmony is valued. Transformative cultures focus on the pursuit of truth, constructive conflict and extreme accountability

Artificial harmony manifests as relationship building and cronyism to the exclusion of impact. Transformative cultures recognize that smart and healthy teams need large doses of trust, commitment, constructive conflict and clarity to align teams to do great work.

Mediocre cultures focus on reactionary work and on keeping the lights on. Transformative cultures focus on a rallying cry to align teams and work on proactively harden teams and systems to be resilient and scale.

Smart leaders understand that transformation takes extreme commitment. They invest in building smart and healthy teams, invest in structure and stability to help them succeed, and relentlessly push for accountability and results.

Root out mediocrity. Don’t let it flourish.

originally published as a tweetstorm