I used to think I was above the corporate jargon parade. You know, the lofty phrases like 'one team', 'agile mindset', 'leading performance', and so on. It was all a bit of a joke until a restructure rolled around. Suddenly, a new GM and her team took these buzzwords to heart, insisting they be part of our PMP. Now, even those of us in support roles are expected to chase multi-million dollar targets, and we're told to recycle past or ongoing projects on some 'Competitive Performance tool' to pad our stats. It seems like it's all to make our department—and more importantly, the new GM—look good. Makes me wonder if we're heading down the same path as Enron with this kind of creative accounting.
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What about supply chain negotiating a discount from a company before negotiating the price of the work. Sure they have the $/hr rate but they don’t have the hr #. Suppliers increase hr billed to compensate for discount rate and then supply chain counts every hr as a discount. Everyone wins except for the company. Don’t forget be nice to your suppliers as they have ties back into this company and can ki-l your career.
CP is the new Lean Sigma. Teams make up whatever numbers the GMs desire to meet goals for savings or value creation or whatever. We used to make up hilarious million dollar lean sigma savings. Nobody ever questioned them.
Tossing numbers around is just how we do things here. We have got this product owner who had the guts to send out a message bragging about saving millions by fixing app bugs. The kicker? Those bugs wouldn't have been there if she had been on the ball and looped everyone in when rolling out features. Now I am almost tempted to say I've saved billions by not messing up big time and blowing up the refinery or other assets.
Make sure you submit all your ideas in the CP Tool!
OP, which department is this new GM leading?
Right now our group has no less than three consultant companies we’re using for this competitive performance BS. It’s all so nauseating
I agree! Our team does our best. It’s not fair that we have to have competitive targets and measure performence vs others. How can I do more than I do already? I work diligantly on anything that floats my direction. That should suffice especially with high prices for oil.
It’s all performative nonsense. The game is to just wait until the next trendy thing comes along. You do just enough to create a veneer of progress and successful implementation, which no one actually verifies or evaluates. It’s just corporate jazz hands.
In every job description, even if it is not clearly outlined, we are meant to support these corporate theatrics..oooops, I mean initiatives, hahaha. But these kind of things become an issue when they divert attention from the real work we are hired to do. Most leaders tend not to push their teams too much on these sort of fluffy projects. I wonder if the OP's GM is new to the role? That could explain her enthusiasm for these superficial initiatives.