Turning Stuff Around

A blog about the grit, grind, and occasional glory of turnarounds.

Tag: organizational culture

  • Tenure: A Double-edged Sword

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    Tenure: A Double-edged Sword

    Every organization has its ‘village elders’—those long-tenured employees who have been with the company for 10, 15, 20 years (or more!) Their tenure brings a wealth of knowledge, deep trust, and a sense of solidity that can anchor an organization. But what happens when that anchor becomes a weight that holds it back?

    Edge 1: The “Bad“

    Tenure has a tendency to breed stagnation. Over time, tenured employees can develop a resistance to change as they try and keep things “as they’ve always been”. This mindset defaults to the known and familiar, while pushing back on the new and riskier. Fresh ideas may be dismissed too quickly, stifling innovation and fostering a culture of complacency.

    It’s easy to picture this: an aspiring young developer consults a tenured principal. She demos something new, something innovative, only to be advised to use the existing tech. “We’ve always done things this way” she hears. The fire dies out. The idea is lost.

    Edge 2: The “Good”

    But tenure isn’t all bad. Just as it can stifle progress, it can also be one of your greatest assets.

    Beyond being beacons of trust and continuity, tenured employees are also incredible sources of historical knowledge. These individuals often hold key insights that can help you avoid repeating past mistakes. They’ve been-there-done-that, and can provide a historical lens into what’s worked and what hasn’t for the company. Their institutional memory can serve as a safeguard, offering advice that could prevent you from unknowingly stepping onto the same landmines of the past.

    The Turnaround Context

    In a turnaround, both “edges” can make or break your efforts. On the one hand, a turnaround demands agility, fresh thinking, and a willingness to challenge the status quo. On the other, not learning from past mistakes and avoiding known pitfalls can be very costly—almost detrimental—to creating the trust and momentum needed.

    So, should tenure be curbed or promoted? The answer is both! And the key is balance.

    Maintaining the Balance

    Maintaining the balance is not as complex as you may think. First, you will need a good measure of the tenure ratio which, as its name suggests, measures the proportion of tenured people within a given group (a team, a division, or the entire company.) Start by defining the number of years that constitute tenure for your company (this varies by company size, industry, and the organization’s current growth stage). Once defined, measuring the ratio is straight forward:
    For the purpose of the exercise, let’s assume that tenure is reached after 4 years. Now consider a team of 12 developers, of which 7 have been with the company for over 4 years. Your tenure ratio for this team is therefore 60%, indicating a strong concentration of long-tenured employees.

    Applying this calculation to the rest of your teams, gives you a clear picture of tenure concentrations throughout your organization. And from there you can plan your balancing initiatives. Here are a few of those initiatives that have helped me in these situations:

    • Reassign individuals: balance tenure across teams
      The benefits of this are obvious: under-tenured teams enjoy an injection of expertise, and tenured teams are exposed to fresh ways of thinking and new perspectives. The challenge with this initiative is, well, that tenured people resist change (and moving desks), so this needs to be managed carefully.
    • Realign work: mirror tenure with subject matter
      Alternatively to reassigning tenured members, encourage them to become subject-matter experts of critical systems and shift their focus to maintaining them. While maintaining systems may seem mundane, it often involves complex technical challenges that benefit from the expertise of tenured employees. Furthermore, it indirectly supports innovation by giving the rest of the team the room to move faster on other newer initiatives.
    • Reprocess for ideas: purposefully enable fresh perspectives
      Beyond reassigning individuals, and realigning work, be sure to implement processes that encourage questioning of the status quo, exploring new ideas, and overseeing their implementation. Though the initial reaction to the words “process” and “innovation” appearing in the same sentence is often an eye-roll, when they enable individuals to speak up about new ideas and ways of doing things—and be heard—they are good! Especially in more tenured organizations that may require that foundation to break the default thought cycles.

    Tenured employees can be your greatest allies or your biggest roadblocks, depending on how you engage them. Consulting them early and often helps you leverage their wisdom while avoiding past pitfalls. With that in mind, leadership plays a crucial role in balancing tenure. By fostering a culture of collaboration and openness, leaders can ensure that tenured employees feel valued while encouraging innovation and adaptability. The goal isn’t to sideline or discredit their experience but to channel it in ways that drive progress and enable your goals.

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  • The “Work-From-Where?” Conundrum

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    The “Work-From-Where?” Conundrum

    The ongoing debate over remote work versus in-office has grown louder recently, with major corporations mandating a full-time return to office. Amazon, for example, is mandating a full-time return to the office starting in January, citing the benefits of in-person collaboration. Conversely, many employees and organizations advocate for the benefits of remote work, which offers access to a broader talent pool for employers, and flexibility, autonomy, and improved work-life balance for team members.

    Both models have pros and cons. So, what is the “right” approach? And given a turnaround situation, should a full-time work-from-office be mandated? The answer is: it depends.

    The success of any work model—remote, hybrid, or in-office—largely depends on one critical, defining factor: your organization’s culture. An organization’s culture is its DNA. It shapes how teams work, communicate, and innovate. Some cultures thrive on the energy of in-person brainstorming sessions, and the spontaneous “water cooler” chats. Others excel in an environment where flexibility reigns, and employees are trusted to deliver from wherever they’re most productive. In geographically dispersed organizations, you’ll often find micro-cultures that have their own idiosyncrasies: the team in Europe is different than the team in Latin America, and both are different than the team in Asia. Some teams prefer working from the office, while others enjoy a hybrid model.

    In a turnaround, culture becomes even more critical (though, I’d argue that culture is always critical, not just during a turnaround.) You’re not only trying to implement a work model; you’re trying to rebuild trust, create alignment, and drive collaboration and momentum. And remember, the organization you’re working to fix already has an established culture—the slate isn’t blank. In weighing the pros and cons of each model, you should consider how each approach will affect the culture (and in-turn — the bigger goals you’ve set.)

    At my company we opted for a hybrid model: three days in the office, two at home (we didn’t allow a work-from-anywhere model). And we were open to exceptions in different geographies. This worked well for both the business and the teams as we were able to align needs and requirements across our global operation. This included calling a full-time work-from-office when needed. (By the way, some teams chose themselves to work full-time in the office!)

    So what’s right for your organization? The question isn’t only about productivity—it’s about how the work model will influence, shape and evolve the organization’s culture. And, most importantly, whether that changed culture enables your goals and long-term plans. Ultimately, a successful turnaround depends on finding a model that creates a culture to help you deliver on your mission.

    Engage your team, listen to their needs, and tailor your approach accordingly. The right work model isn’t about following trends or making sweeping mandates—it’s about aligning your strategy with your people and enabling their success (which is ultimately yours).

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