A CEO I worked for many years ago told me a story about some advice he got from his predecessor. He was given three envelopes.  His predecesor suggested each time things got tough that he open one of the envelopes.

Things went well for the first couple of years and then hard times hit the company.  Pop went the first envelope – “Restructure” it said.  “Bury the losses in the financial adjustments, confusion will rein and you will coast out of difficulty.”

He followed the advice and it worked like a charm but about four years later the bad stuff cycled back.  The second envelope said, “Reorganize, everyone will be focused on the impacts to them, even the shareholders, they will overlook your current problems.  They”ll be resolved by the time the dust settles”

Again it worked for about three years this time.  And so, the third and final envelope was opened.  It said, “Write three letters for your successor”

Reorganize/Restructure

Yesterdays post drew some comments suggesting some organizations centralize and decentralize their operational structures  in cycles.  It immediately reminded me of the story I relate above.

Unfortunately some times these operational or organizational changes are in fact just smoke and mirrors on the part of a organizations leadership.

Diversion of attention is a well known tactic for retaining power.  To a large extent this is really true for a lot of Donald Trumps actions ( a lot of noise, little result) He is really good at leveraging this technique.