Detox Your Organisation

Long-term employees, who are part of teams in a larger framework, often face a subtle yet serious issue. While few recognise this challenge, even fewer have the guts to confront it openly. However, pinpointing and addressing this “ballast” in your environment can yield remarkable enhancements.

Ballast refers to outdated beliefs, ingrained attitudes, and unproductive assumptions that collectively affect the energy and joy within an organisation. It creates a work atmosphere that feels arduous, monotonous, and frustrating, leading to disengagement, demotivation, and ultimately, a high turnover rate. Frequently overlooked, ballast is often the reason behind energy drain and decreasing productivity.

The roots of ballast

While methodologies like Six Sigma and LEAN aim to eliminate challenges from processes, my focus lies in uncovering and confronting ballast within an organisation. This ballast can be hard to find, especially for those entrenched in the company for a long time. Yet, its impact can be profoundly detrimental to employees, teams, and the entire organisation.

How ballast emerges

Ballast is often a by-product of prolonged collaboration. Over time, negative viewpoints about colleagues can surface, disputes may fester, suspicion can intensify, established practices may slacken, and valuable lessons can be lost or misinterpreted.

The longer ballast is allowed to linger, the more it hinders the effective functioning of individuals, teams, and the organisation at large, resulting in diminished enjoyment, productivity, and overall flow. This can slowly morph a once-unified organisation into a disjointed entity, where fear, compartmentalisation, and distrust reign supreme.

In a time when organisations and individuals face mounting pressure to achieve more with less, ballast poses an even greater risk. Anxiety about the future, lacklustre outcomes, and intense work pressure can easily lead to the accumulation of even more ballast.

The consultant’s contribution

Identifying, addressing, and ultimately shedding ballast can be a tough and sometimes uncomfortable journey, but it can bring immense rewards for those willing to dive in.

There are compelling reasons to enlist the expertise of a seasoned external consultant when dealing with ballast. First and foremost, recognising ballast is tricky—both in ourselves and within the workplace. It’s a delicate subject that can be hard to broach among colleagues without guidance, as discussions can quickly devolve into a defensive game, potentially escalating into conflict. Aiming to steer the organisation positively might inadvertently add to the ballast if not managed correctly.

Releasing the ballast

If you, your team, or your organisation have been lugging ballast around for years, you may have become so accustomed to it that it feels like part of your reality. The first step is to identify your own ballast and acknowledge its negative impact. Only when you recognise your role in the situation can you take responsibility and make different choices.

There are tailored coaching programs available for leaders focused on identifying ballast. A comprehensive 360-degree assessment aimed at uncovering ballast can be especially beneficial in this process.

For teams, recognising ballast involves team diagnostics and workshops. Observing a team in action can also be highly effective, as it allows for the identification and discussion of ballast within the context of everyday work routines.

A strong catalyst for change

Organisations can learn to identify and release their ballast through shared experiences. To facilitate this, we have crafted specialised business simulations tailored to each unique situation. These simulations are designed to expose ballast and facilitate open discussion, allowing large groups to practise new behaviours that deviate from their usual workplace habits. Experiencing work with minimal or no ballast can serve as a powerful motivator for change across the organisation.

When an individual, team, or organisation successfully releases a substantial amount of ballast, they don’t just experience temporary relief from obstacles to success, growth, and job satisfaction, but also enjoy long-lasting benefits. We witness this in the speed of problem resolution, the ease of information sharing, the return of flow to processes, and ultimately, in the organisation’s bottom-line results.