“Do more with less.”

“Thrive or privatize.”

“Continuing Resolutions.”

In a world where major change is mandated to take place on a regular basis and the complexity of the work environment rivals any found in the private sector, who better to ask about dealing with Organizational Upsets than the leaders within federal, state and local government agencies?

We interviewed a panel of senior executives from a variety of government agencies to find out:

• What key events or upsets have impacted their organization's ability to reach its strategic goals?
• How have their agencies responded to these upsets?
• What makes some organizations better prepared to deal with the unexpected than others?
• Are there cultural, structural or demographic characteristics which make an enterprise more or less able to deal with organizational upset?
• What are some of the things that keep these leaders up at night when they start thinking about the future of their organizations?
• What is one thing they would change in order to improve their ability to deal with future organizational upsets?

*For the purpose of this survey we define “upsets” as anything that impacts an organization's ability to reach its strategic goals and plans.

By providing this snapshot of government organizational upsets and the responses to them, we hope to inform and stimulate leadership discussions concerning how to more effectively anticipate, describe and influence potential and inevitable future upsets.

Key Findings

To follow are some of the key findings revealed by the government representatives interviewed for this survey.

• Changing mandates/regulations caused the biggest external upset for participating government agencies. Funding was another major challenge, followed by a variety of domestic issues.
• The number one response to both external and internal upsets was to work harder. There was tremendous recognition of the dedication and talent of the rank and file by the majority of respondents.
• Organizations that successfully navigated upsets reported having a combination of agile leadership and smart, committed people. In some cases the bench strength of the organization made up for any deficit in leadership.
• The top inhibitors of an organization's ability to respond to upsets were lack of planning/vision/leadership. While there was room for improvement in these areas, we also heard some fascinating leadership success stories.
• The two biggest advantages that organizations pointed to in dealing with upset were strong leadership and good people. The stronger these two factors were, the more success agencies had in dealing with upsets.

The results of our research conducted in government and commercial enterprises support the conclusion that upsets naturally happen in all organizations, regardless of the specific service or product it supplies.

Organizational upsets are an unavoidable aspect of the evolution of any enterprise. As organizations grow and change, they encounter circumstances that challenge their ability to meet their mission and be successful.

Although most upsets are marked or identified by an event: a severe budget cut; the departure of a key person; the loss of a major supporter; the closing of a facility, we know that upsets are systemic in nature. That is, they are essentially caused by the dynamic, purposeful, interactive nature of the organization - a system.

In fact, one could make the case that if upsets are not happening then the enterprise is either defunct or in a death spiral. So, why are we always so often surprised when they happen?