[pasbesoin]

I am going to approach this a bit from the other side. And I'll make it personal, rather than asking a series of indirect questions.

More than once, I've ended up in a position where I've put considerable effort into fixing what are often frankly the shortcomings of other co-workers. Co-workers who sometimes may be observed to be very busy discussing their weekends, or the latest movie, etc.

I've fixed conditions that come about as the employees responsible continue to be rewarded, promoted, etc. -- in short, considered "acceptable".

I tried to do what I felt and what I had been taught was "the right thing".

IN HINDSIGHT: When you find yourself persistently in such conditions, when the problem is not a one-off, GET THE FUCK OUT. Unless you can very demonstratively take control of the situation -- of the conditions -- and steer it in a better direction, you are caught in a system that will chew you up at the least and most likely, sooner or later, spit you out.

As a relatively unempowered employee, the single solution to bad management and counter-productive compensation, is to GET THE FUCK OUT.

Anything that prevents your mobility, e.g. employer-provided health insurance, a non-liquid mortgage -- I won't, I refuse to, add "a family" to this list. But otherwise, any such thing becomes an anti-pattern.

One perspective on what is wrong with U.S. society these days: So many people locked into anti-patterns.

[calinet6]

The answer to your pains, and how it relates to the article and its insights, is that culture is a system.

In fact, I'd go so far as to say culture is the root of the organizational tree. It's underground and most organizations sort of ignore it, or worse, treat it like it was a hypothetical illusory nuisance they have to lie about to attract rockstars. Ugh.

So culture is the root of the system. It defines how people work together, and how people and work are treated. Culture defines the unseen and unmeasurable motivations people rely upon, without which you get exactly the problems you describe: lack of common purpose, lack of knowledge of process, lack of improvement, infighting, game playing, reward seeking. These are all cultural problems.

I wholeheartedly agree that this is a sign of major problems in perspective in the US. The anti-pattern here is individualistic-dominated thinking, which doesn't accurately describe or solve the problems of an organization of more than one person. It's actually painful to watch corporate culture in this country if you have an understanding of systems design and process control, and especially if you apply it to the human systems of which we are all a part. Science has the answers, but no one cares. Painful.

Read up and spread the systems knowledge: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming

[incision]

I think you're actually talking about a very different situation than the source.

The source is dealing with subordinates in each case while you're dealing with peers.

I've been in both positions.

In the case of co-workers whom you have little or no influence over, yeah "get the fuck out" is likely great advice.

In the case of subordinates, or any situation where you have the power/latitude to address things from the top down it makes sense to address the processes in place.

That said, sometimes the process that needs addressing is the identification, swift firing and future avoidance of individual bullshitters and assholes.

[pasbesoin]

That's a fair point. But I did say I was approaching this problem "from the other side". Admittedly, rather quickly and off-the-cuff, and personally.

I think more readers of this thread may be in the relatively "powerless" position, rather than the empowered position.

And, again from my perspective, I wish someone had made clear to me sooner how the world really works, today (and likely always). "Paying your dues". Earning respect. There are environments in which this works. But there are many in which it does not.

From the perspective of the OP, they've already made the point. But I might add a note of succinctness. GIGO -- garbage in, garbage out. The leadership I see more clearly upon rereading and assume they are addressing: They're stuck at GI.

[incision]

>"And, again from my perspective, I wish someone had made clear to me sooner how the world really works, today (and likely always). "Paying your dues". Earning respect. There are environments in which this works. But there are many in which it does not."

Very true. This is why I think "get the fuck out" is often great advice. Keep moving, onward and upward. Sit still too long and you run the risk of getting run down and becoming what you hate without even realizing it.

It seems to me there are plenty of books which claim to teach you how to be a great leader, but not so many about how to manage up, lead from the rear and survive among hostile peers.

Personally, one of the better resources I've read for this was The 48 Laws of Power [1]. The book sometimes gets a bad rap from people who look at it as a manual for your own action. While it could certainly be applied that way, it's at least as useful for understanding the mechanism of others actions and how to protect yourself against or benefit from them.

1: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0140280197/