[PART 4] HOW TO CREATE MOMENTUM FOR GOOD - AVOID CULTURE COLLAPSE
To keep advancing more of what matters in the world as socialpreneurs, it’s essential we avoid The Culture Collapse Doom Cycle. As its name suggests, this downward spiral marks the progressive decay in brand culture. Cultures rarely end in one massive explosion. But, when they degrade, it sure can feel like your head might explode.
Part 1 of this series covered how, although we may want to create momentum for good, our well-intentioned but faulty logic has a tendency to instead prime us for a downward spiral.
Rather than identifying a chain reaction or sequence of activities that link together to continuously create and accelerate momentum in the direction of more togetherness, too many of us start accumulating effort in a consistently doomed direction. These doom cycles push us farther away from our bold vision for good. The good news is there’s an antidote that can get us out and prevent us from ever entering one.
But, it’s critical to know how to recognize if we’re currently stuck in a doom cycle.
So, Part 2 covered The Megaphone Marketing Doom Cycle, which is often the first doom cycle socialpreneurs unknowingly enter by mistaking promotion for momentum. It’s also one of the most common. Part 3 outlined The Firefighting Doom Cycle in which problem-solving is mistaken for momentum and can leave you burnt out.
Part 4 highlights The Culture Collapse Doom Cycle, how it begins, and what the signs are that this doom cycle is underway.
THE CULTURE COLLAPSE CYCLE
In this scenario, reaction is mistaken for momentum.
Whereas firefighting is all about triaging problems, reacting is all about running on instinctual auto-pilot.
At this point, we’re spread so thin and busy doing a LOT. But, there’s little productivity. There’s either no way to track what’s successful - or folks know their efforts aren’t successful but feel they lack the time or empowerment to change it. Worse, an overwhelming number of socialpreneurs measure success based on anecdotal feedback or rankings - mistaking them for results.
And, nobody likes to see disappointing or unclear results so when that’s what we experience, we jump right to action.
Action sounds good, right?
Well, we’re so burned out that we don’t have the time or capacity to understand what actually caused those results or to even attempt to solve the problem in front of us.
So, without understanding the cause of the results, we focus on doing something about them.
We start to focus in one direction, then stop and change directions. After focusing in that new direction for a bit, we stop and change directions yet again.
SIGNS THE CULTURE COLLAPSE DOOM CYCLE IS UNDERWAY
The most common signs you’re in The Culture Collapse Doom Cycle are burnout, fanfare, and negativity.
Socialpreneurs in this cycle are so chronically stressed that we’re beyond overwhelmed...we’re burned out. The feelings of energy depletion, exhaustion, and cynicism become so rampant that we can’t be productive…but we still try.
Plagued by failing results, we intuitively make a big change to finally solve the root problem.
We unveil a new program, event, organizational structure, mission, technology, fad, or even leader - often to much fanfare - without proof it’ll actually be effective or the capacity to ensure it will be.
We invest significant time trying to motivate ourselves or others to align around the change.
Even more burned out with more demands and fewer resources, it’s an overwhelming amount of change to experience, manage, and lead, which breeds more fear, confusion, and negativity.
We lose our filtering process, capacity for reflective or skillful responses, and time to attempt any careful consideration of obstacles or possible outcomes.
Instead, we simply do, say, and act. You’ll see:
exhaustion or health problems
high team turnover
lack of communication and support from managers
lack of role clarity
low or nonexistent morale or team spirit
micromanagement
preoccupation with work...even when you’re not at work
slipping job performance (e.g., failure to meet deadlines)
success measured by anecdotal feedback or rankings
treatment that feels unfair (e.g., favoritism, unequal compensation)
unhealthy competition, gossip, and distrust among staff (e.g., “If anyone’s going to get that promotion, it’s me…,” “That’s not my job…,” What did he say about me?”)
unreasonable workload or time pressures
These kinds of shifts and trends become so constant that the culture collapses.
In the worst cases, the pattern of starting and abandoning initiatives becomes so chaotic and demoralizing that we give up entirely.
WHY CULTURE COLLAPSE BECOMES A DOOM CYCLE
In this cycle, we prevent ourselves from building momentum because of chronic inconsistency. We’re frequently changing and adjusting the direction we’re heading and undoing our own work.
Under stressful conditions, we see disappointing or unclear results so we react without understanding the cause of those results. Instead of building on an existing approach, our reaction is to advance some kind of new approach. This new approach typically takes significant effort and undoes the work and progress of our previous approach. So, we’re even more stressed and exhausted. We see more disappointing or unclear results and have even less ability to understand the cause of the results so we react with a new approach.
Just like that, we advance The Culture Collapse Doom Cycle.
We keep accumulating effort in the direction of more reaction.
By confusing reaction for momentum, we’ve entered a downward spiral away from the sense of belonging we so desperately want to ignite.
Unfortunately, we typically experience culture collapse as a personal crisis. The deterioration increases our cynicism until we find ourselves disconnected, broken and often full of regret.
Worse, some of us find ourselves in all three doom cycles at once: The Megaphone Marketing Doom Cycle, The Firefighting Doom Cycle, and The Culture Collapse Doom Cycle.
The good news is that there is a path to cultural renewal. In fact, all three of these doom cycles share the same root cause and the same way out: a propellor organizational strategy.
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