From Lateral Moves to Lateral Thinking (2/4)

Over thirty years ago, Peter Drucker wrote:

In short, the effective executive "makes strength productive;" which means that challenging opportunities need to be aligned to personal motivations and individual talents, if people are to excel. It is worth reflecting that diversification into areas which are unaligned to 'core strengths' would be dismissed out of hand, if it were to be advocated as a business development strategy - yet we promote it for individuals. Also, championship winning football teams don't move their goalkeepers to centre forward on the basis that they haven't scored many goals, or to re-energise them if they become stale!

A central purpose of organisation is to make individual weaknesses irrelevant by providing complementary strengths elsewhere. Whilst it is true that current limitations can become important if people are called upon to work at a higher level, this can also be over-played. In reality, the key players in most successful companies are not where they are because of some all-round brilliance but because they excel in one or two crucial, task-related areas. Even if this 'next level' argument were true, it would have little relevance to most staff, as traditional style promotions are becoming increasingly rare.

Because lateral moves often shift people out of positions in which they are achieving important results into unfamiliar and sometimes ill-fitting roles, the net effect on an organisation can be negative. In the extreme, it could result in a company of all-rounders who were perpetually at risk of playing out of position. It could also have a detrimental effect on co-operation and teamwork; especially if other people's performances were adversely affected: perhaps by ending effective working relationships and undermining that precious commodity - trust.