How to Rethink “Groundhog” Issues, and Solve Them Once and for All
Have you ever been in a meeting and could swear you had the exact conversation the week before?
Have you ever heard the same topic discussed in about ten different ways by ten different people across your company?
Have you felt an eerie sense of déjà vu at work?
If you recognize any of these symptoms at work, you are probably experiencing Groundhog Day issues (after the popular 1993 Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day where he plays TV weatherman Phil Connors who must relive the same day over and over again).
Groundhog Day Issues infest our organizations. They are one of the worst sources of wasted time and energy—even worse than today’s distraction of social media. If your team talks about the same topic over and over and over again, it will leave them unproductive, demoralized, lethargic, unmotivated, lazy, and useless.
Groundhogs are everywhere in our corporate culture no matter the size of your company and no matter your industry. They are everywhere in the public sector and academia, in large organizations and small private companies. Groundhogs invade our homes and our personal lives. I have seen Groundhogs running amuck in pretty much all organizations I have worked with, and I will admit to having a few in my house too.
I have heard the same discussion from the same external audit firm discussed (no joking) about 50 different times.
I have been to meetings about projects no one had the intention of kicking off at least for a few years.
I have been to countless team meetings where half the meeting was just talking about Groundhog Issues that were discussed the week before and the week before that and the week before that and so on.
The good news is that, unlike Bill Murray, you can break free of Groundhog Day Issues by using the right documentation tools.
I know from experience that Groundhogs exist in one of two common breeds. Let’s explore.
Ideas and Projects Talked About, Never Started.
The first breed consists of projects, initiatives, to-do items or ideas that are talked about, but no one does anything about them. Even brilliant ideas can turn into Groundhogs if you let your team talk about them too much. By letting these issues turn into Groundhogs, they become negative impact to your self-esteem and that of your team. They waste mental space, meeting time, and resources that should be focused on moving areas forward. Worst of all, Groundhogs become a terrible cultural norm.
How can you stop ideas from turning into Groundhogs?
Put your idea in writing. Just write it down. NOW. Seriously, this clears the air and makes the problem easier to tackle.
Build a repository for ideas and action items. One of my clients used a tool to let people submit their innovation ideas through a Shark Tank style concept. This was a great way for tracking ideas.
Build a queue of projects or areas of focus. Most of us can’t train for the Ironman, start a new business, and raise 4 small kids - well, at least at the same time. It’s ok not to attack everything at once.
Stop talking about it. For the love of God, stop talking about the issue! You will cause further groundhog breeding if you don’t stop.
Decisions and Stances that Need to be Reexplained.
A second breed is made up of positions, stances, or decisions that an organization has made that frequently need explaining, re-explaining, or justifying. You may find this breed rooting in areas where no one knows why things were done a certain way.
This may include a decision on why the company waived or enforced a requirement, an accounting position for the company, reason the company went forward or not with certain projects or systems, or a position as to why a company has adopted certain internal processes.
How do you prevent decisions from turning into Groundhogs?
Hire a business analyst or someone with like skills (if you aren’t one already): Good Business Analysts have the skills to interview and capture information into something tangible.
Go back to the basics of interviewing and note taking: Use excellent note taking skills to capture the history of the decision or relationships in many contexts.
Report, structure, communicate and build a report people can use. This breed spreads in environments where there is lack of clarity. No one wants to read your 60 smaller documents that explain the issue. Often the best approach for handling this type of groundhog is to pull the information together into a larger, omnibus document.
Circulate your document to contain the Groundhog. Instead of letting your team book yet another meeting to talk about the accounting issue, system decision, etc., let your document do the talking. Even if you can’t get people to agree, at least they will be crystal clear where you stand.
