Beware 'credenzaware': too many misguided, ignored, and abandoned initiatives diminish a leader's credibility.

• Author: Dailey, Patrick R.
• Position: COMPETITIVE EDGE

CREDENZAWARE is the term we somewhat humorously use to describe the unrealized output of well-intended organizational studies and project initiatives that all too often find their way to the shelves, disk drives, and credenzas of senior executives. (This term originally came to our attention when it was used by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan in their book Execution, in which they discuss the need for candid, robust dialogue in the planning processes.)

Credenzaware often has auspicious beginnings; emerging from competitive pressure and best in class intentions, hammered out from long and diligent hours of staff effort, offering provocative recommendations whose subsequent implementation is derailed, discounted, and dumped by the absence of accountability and unclear cause-effect linkage with business outcomes. Credenzaware is nice work that goes nowhere.

Where does credenzaware breed?

* Problem Statement Drift: Credenzaware breeds when a problem is not framed tightly and clearly; when the initial problem statement begins to bob and weave. Project work may be commissioned but progress too often feels more like solutions in search of problems. The resulting outcome often fails to address a matter that the collective leadership team deemed vital in the first place. Results may indeed be interesting but will fail to stimulate a collective commitment to action.

* Conspiracy of Politeness: This cancerous form of politeness exists where senior meetings occur without tough questions asked; challenges are rare; discussions feel choreographed; and the "Q&A" phase appears managed. Trust, candor and full disclosure are not operating. Discussions just never penetrate the facade. There may be an unwritten rule that has emerged of "let's all be polite and civil here."

* Loose Accountability: While project design and implementation responsibilities are often delegated to staff groups, accountability for outcomes and strategic change management rests with senior leadership. When decision-making meetings conclude without assignment of senior management accountability for action and outcomes, the initiative is on the road to credenzaware-land. Accountable leader(s) should not necessarily feel threatened, yet should feel on the "hot seat" for managed action.

* Shaky Project Leadership: Properly commissioned projects and initiatives can inadvertently find themselves on the road to credenzaware-land when the selection of project leadership is driven by "who is...