“Can you explain this to me?”
In this case, the context is one of a young, fast-growing company which, a few years ago, hired our friend Lucien as an IT Director. Lucien, whose professional background includes very large industrial groups, knows the business like the back of his hand. Very quickly, he put in place teams and solid processes capable of supporting this significant growth. We need to bear in mind that the task remains considerable, given the constant changes associated with this type of environment. Our friend Lucien is not counting his hours and is expecting a lot from his teams, who are well aware of the challenge. The staff was selected accordingly and they worked confidently alongside their manager.
After several years of hard work and organisation, Lucien got a new manager. The position was vacant and unfortunately Lucien didn’t manage to take part in the recruitment process. This time the ‘BLOCKER’ came from outside…
Lucien, who is used to managing changes, saw the arrival of this new member of staff as an opportunity to lighten his workload, but he could never have imagined for a second that the ‘BLOCKER’ was actually at work.
After several years of hard work and careful planning, Lucien has a new manager. The post was vacant and unfortunately Lucien didn’t have the chance to be part of the recruitment process. This time the ‘BLOCKER’ came from outside…
Lucien, who is used to managing changes, welcomed the arrival of this new member of staff as an opportunity to lighten his workload, but he couldn’t have imagined for a second that the ‘BLOCKER’ was actually planning on the job.
The BLOCKER’s practice is always the same: produce a false report, refer the matter to management, and then always refer the matter to the N+1 in order to undermine the work done by the team in place. Don’t get me wrong, we’re not in a situation where the team in place is failing, but rather they are in a scorched earth strategy.
Destroy to rule is undoubtedly the favourite strategy of this ‘BLOCKER’, who to this day hasn’t really achieved anything. Their motive is always the same: to question their colleague’s choices and decisions, to use simple rhetoric to undermine them, and to make people believe that Lucien can be fallible.
Offended and devastated by such aberration and malice, Lucien eventually fell seriously ill, which made him reconsider his future within the company. Today, Lucien has resigned with a great deal of regrets about this event, and his deep motivation for the current model. On the other hand, he is still bitter about the young company’s decision to follow a pipe dream. Nothing has really changed so far, except perhaps he wished the company had been less gullible.
In this situation, the “BLOCKER” from outside used every means at his disposal to try to destroy you and disrupt the business so that he can exert his own influence.
However committed you were to the company, he had been hired on the basis of seductive and unrealistic promises that he couldn’t keep, and constantly claimed that he was short of reliable human resources… “it’s not my fault, it’s everyone else’s”.
So, what do you think about it?
