What If You Can't Change What Is?

 

This blog is for those of us who seek to change injustice. What if we just found a workaround?

Outrageous? Perhaps not.

Some things that we perceive as wrong speak to the fabric of our soul, most of these fall into the category of social injustice. But, I am not talking about those issues.

What I am talking about here is business injustice. Those little, sometimes even big, things that happen in business that just aren’t right. At least, they aren’t right from our perspective. These situations happen most often when decisions are made by someone else that impact us or our team.

I heard the following story recently from one of the leaders I work with and was struck by the wisdom here.

The leader who shared the story told me that the compensation plan for his team was set at the corporate level and is based on several “factors”. These factors were to be evaluated and then bonuses paid based on performance against these factors. This leader was concerned because one of the factors required the team to act in a manner he felt was inconsistent with servicing the customers.

He has tried several times to lobby to change the plan without success. A few days ago in frustration, he shared his concerns once again with one of his colleagues who he hoped would work with him to get the plan changed. Instead the colleague said, “This is out of both of our control. While the plan includes these factors, it also allows discretion, my suggestion is you use your discretion to do what you feel is right”.

The questions that come to mind for me are:

• How do we reconcile these things that are wrong?
• How do we know which ones to accept and which ones to work to change?
• And, if we are the one making these decisions that impact others, do we recognize the unintended consequences and are we open to change? Or at least open to a workaround?

Finally the key question, just because it is wrong or broken, does it have to be fixed? Or can we simply accept what is and find a way to make it work for us and our team?….