Do you know an ogre? Are you an ogre?
Ogres can exist at any level in an organization.
Ogres come from many backgrounds and can be any color, gender, belief system, or orientation. But ogres are easy to spot. What gives them away? Perhaps, it is the Ogres' lack of etiquette in the office place. Or is it the ogres' dysfunctional (or broken) ethical compass. Whether you are an Ogre or the victim of an Ogre, there are five Ogre specific disruptors of performance you should look out for that will negatively affect you and your stakeholders...
1. Disruptor -- OGRES dominate the clock and calendar. Not to be confused with agents of change, ogres do not trust in the maturity of reasonable adults to prioritize and/or schedule their activities. At the same time, ogres ferociously protect their own schedule. Ogres are monstrous to the priorities and deadlines of everyone around them -- often "appropriating" crisis, abusing meetings, and interrupting projects.
Ogre defenders (trolls) may advance arguments of "dynamic tension" or that it is the ogres' privilege. The abuse is both unprofessional and must not be tollerated. The people and processes ogres disrupt must compensate (or compromise) their schedules to offset temporal disruptions. Lacking an appropriate (and equally powerful) compensator, you and your organization will be forced to scurry about "reactively" like crazed ants in a freshly stirred up ant bed.
2. Disruptor -- OGRES demand superfluous reporting. Not to be confused with agents of change, ogres fear what they can not observe and bash what they do not understand. Ogres lurch about and are incrediblly ignorant. Ogres don't know what they don't know yet. However, instead of seeking actionable and meaningful data, ogres believe data is an end in itself -- the more the better. So they require volumes of "activity" reports -- instead of focusing on reporting real "results."
Ogre defenders (trolls) will venture the slippery-slope that something is better than nothing. Such an argument is fallacious. People and processes must compensate for what becomes an obvious emerging dual standards of performance (real vs. perceived). Ogres get lost in their own activity until it becomes more about form over function... presentation over substance. This creates moral/ethical tornadoes about the ogre. These moral/ethical tornadoes reek havoc on the staff commitment, morale, and loyalty. This has a vampiric effect on the organizational energy level. As the energy level drops so does effeciency, effectiveness, and productivity.
3. Disruptor -- OGRES tell you HOW to work. Ogres require you to do the work the way work “has always been done” in the ogre swamp. No ideas, no experience, and no knowledge will contribute to greater productivity. Ogres know best -- everything. Ogres dismiss ideas to be sure things are done the "right way.”
The people and processes must compensate to accommodate dynamic business conditions, staff retention becomes challenging, core competency declines, and innovation suffers.
4. Disruptor -- OGRES share responsibility, never authority. Ogres champion unnecessary approvals and layers of bureaucracy. They are the gatekeepers in any workflow; however, rarely are they the responsible party for process delays.
The people and processes must compensate in order to evolve and maintain the management of change and the service management lifecycle.
5. Disruptor -- OGRES wield raw power. Ogres fling power about casually -- "just because it suits them to do so." Beyond simply micro-managing how work gets accomplished, ogres have a visceral need to control people, places, and things. In an attempt at false-humility, ogres often struggle to subordinate themselves or their importance (very often in the presence of their superiors). At the same time, the power often consumes them; the power makes them very self-interested, uncompromising, and myopic. They then often bloviate on issues that shifts the focus of attention on their self-importance.
This is at the heart of the ogre frame of mind. Ogres believe they have a sense of entitlement -- instead of having a sense of duty and teamwork. Ogres don't understand that they are there to serve the interests of the organization. In total, ogres believe the organization (the people, processes, and/or technology) is there to serve their career and/or personal needs... and ogres will make every excuse to justify and defend selfish reasoning.
People and processes are forced to compensate for an ogre and expend organizational energy to transform "raw" power into something focused and meaningful.
With an ogre positioned comfortably behind a gate (any gate), the question you must ask yourself... when torch-bearing customers march, who is really guarding that gate?
Are you the Ogre? Ogress? Does your (inner) ogre serve and uplift the organization? Or is it the other way around?
