It's discouraging to see structures in place year after year that no one ever reflects upon, analyzes, or refines. These structures stay mired in cultures great and small like an untreated sore. Rather than serve an organization, family, or industry, these persistent and ineffective structures just get worse sucking money, time, and good talent from an organization's potential and promise.
Why does this happen?
It's difficult to understand why these unworthy and draining structures are allowed to continue in institutions without needed improvement or change. First of all, these negative structures, though underperforming, are likely not dangerous or outwardly problematic. It's possible that they serve a "check-off-the-box" purpose and can be left unchecked without any real challenge. It's also possible that to assess and refine these structures means that you have to face some deeper more problematic issues. To biopsy the sore, you're likely to find greater underlying issues--issues that are messy to solve which make people want to leave it as it is. And then there's the limits on time and energy--who has time for this unpleasant work?
We all have to assess our own work and effort to unearth the sores that keep us back and challenge the good work possible. At our best, we don't want to replicate organizational behavior that ignores issues that prevent the good work and potential possible. We want to reach for better in all that we do and that requires regular reflection and betterment--that's what brings our work meaning and makes our work meaningful and beneficial to others.
To be successful, families, organizations, and institutions need to forward honest, positive assessment, analysis, and reflection. Tackling the critical issues and analyzing the structures that exist, helps organizations to improve in valuable ways. To ignore this process repeatedly is to embrace mediocrity at best. We all know that betterment exists in all corners of every individual's life and organization's existence, and to embrace that betterment path is to create strong, more meaningful and valuable places to live, work, and serve.