Still friends with former colleagues

I worked with these guys for thirteen years, we had some great relationships, we work together and there is a fair degree of mutual respect. That is for a handful of these guys, the rest I couldn't care less about.

I worked in a team of just over fourty guys and I’m staying in contact with just four of them. So that's what thirteen years of work comes down to just four people. That being said, whilst I have a general lack of respect for a vast majority of former colleagues; the ones I respect are held in high esteem.

So I ask myself, why the large discrepancy? I worked with some very high performers, the vast majority don t perform at all. The question now becomes, how is this allowed to happen? Leadership is based on values and culture, whilst management is based on measurement.

What we were seeing is a general lack of accountability brought about by a culture of value erosion with no performance measurement. In many respects this was interesting to view from an organisational design viewpoint. I have taken many lessons from these experiences so I never have to witness again.