Knee Jerk Reaction

Have you ever experienced those violent corporate reactions that send a ripple of fire drills through the company. First, let's define the fire drill. This is any task that comes down with a completion date of now, requiring you to stop, drop and roll. This often comes from an executive meeting where a desire for control coupled with a lack of understanding prevails. For example, "How can an employee be a temp and be regular for schedules? Get the facilities to clean this up!". The directive comes down that no one can be both at the same time, so fix it! The locations say, "Well, we have to start everyone temp, but our security team works three 12s on and three 12s off rotations, so they have to be regular to satisfy the attendance system." Some struggle to get this fixed, some silently find a work around, and the culture at that level fractures. Managers have greater fear of the complaint process than facility staff, having seen the inner workings of company politics. They won't all speak up, especially if they have been sapped by a boss or two in the past. HR executives want that seat at the table and want to be seen a strategic to other executives. They do things to make the processes make sense to them and show value. Unfotunately, they don't always stand for the idea that we must let cooler heads prevail. Instead of Knee jerk reactions, there are Grand Maul Seizures sending Tsunami warnings through the business and drowning the weak and talented alike. This is exhausting for management teams, so they find a way to make it go away or they eventually go away. I have worked with my share of managers that become adamant about things that offend their business sensibilities. As their HR partner, I have spent the time learning how to get the line managers attention, give them the whole story and then proceed. Each of these managers were good or even great at what they do and each required a unique approach to prevent the issue from becoming a knee jerk, or even a seizure. This is a call to the bosses of the world, please get a little info from the field to help determine an action that isn't stop, drop and roll disruptive to your business.
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