“No Smoking”??
…I challenge you to examine your organization for a moment as we head into 2025.
Are there policies in your handbook that contradict your espoused culture? Or, are there cultural policies that contradict what is written on the walls?
Challenging What Holds Us Back in 2025
While on a flight back from Tampa, I found myself hanging out by where the snacks and drinks are stored. That also happens to be where the restroom is (if that doesn’t make you hungry). It’s also where the entrance to the plane happens to be.
When you board the plane there’s a dot matrix printed form on the right side, scotch taped to the wall. (It’s comforting to know technology has caught up with the flying machines we board).
“Smoking Rows” is written on the form at the front of a plane in January 2025. The stewardess told me the plane is 8 years old. This plane with no smoking rows never even experienced smoking on a plane!
Thankfully the rules changed in 1988-1990, depending on the length of flight. It’s been 35 years since it was acceptable to fill an ash tray on a plane, and, yet, “No Smoking” rows are still listed to this day.
To be fair … on the same sheet of paper, it says, “no smoking on all flights”.
You’ve most likely asked the question already, but just in case we are asking different questions …
Why am I reading this?
Why isn’t this thing updated?
What kind of red tape is keeping the word doc editor from updating the dot matrix form taped at the entrance of the American Airline flight A321.
Then I ask … if there’s still a smoking row sign on the wall, what else from the past is still hiding in the hallways of American Airlines and their competitors.
Every person has baggage from the past still that is still apparent if we pay close enough attention. That’s why every organization does as well. (Organizations are made of people!)
I will contest that it’s the disconnects in our lives and organizations we’re a part of that often keep us from accomplishing our goals.
For example: I want to be in better shape, but, as I type this on the flight, the stewardess offered organic ginger snap cookies. Obviously, if they are organic, it’s like losing weight with every bite. You get the point.
More specifically, I challenge you to examine your organization for a moment as we head into 2025.
Are there policies in your handbook that contradict your espoused culture? Or, are there cultural policies that contradict what is written on the walls? Here are a few examples:
We want you to advance your career … we don’t have time for you to attend the Insight Executive Leadership Academy (shameless plug, but you we extended registration through Feb 7 for Little Rock!)
We want you to win at home … you need to stay and work late on this RFP for the next 6 months. Your family will still be there, this project is important.
We want you to take all your PTO time … you can’t take off right now we might get behind on the TPS reports.
We want to hire leaders internally … we don’t assess and develop talent, so we keep hiring from the outside.
We are excited you have a little one on the way … we don’t have a maternity or paternity leave policy.
We are a “get the job done” culture … you worked 39 hours last week and 57 the week before. Make sure you don’t fall behind.
In your organization: What policies or cultural norms go against the grain of what you are trying to create?
In your personal life: What normative behaviors and/or mindsets go against the grain of:
Where you are going? _____________
What behavior or mindset is holding you back? _____________
Who you want to be? _____________
What do you want to accomplish? ____________
Sometimes, what holds each of us and each of our organizations back is not what is flashy … it is what is accepted as normative and not understood.
When we conduct organizational culture surveys, we find meaningful trends that typical employee engagement surveys miss. When the meaningful trends are found, bought into and addressed, organizations and leaders start to thrive.
At the end of the day, we are talking about removing the barriers that hold us back.
The problem is sometimes we are like a child who grows up in trauma and dysfunction as our norm. They know what they want, but struggle to see what holds them back.
Many of us are desensitized to what holds us and our organizations back. We are desensitized to the smoking row signs on the walls.
I want to challenge you this month to answer the questions above and make it personal.
Then schedule a 30-minute complementary coaching session to talk through your biggest challenge (organizationally or personally) and let’s see how we can help you move forward.