The lights they are a-suffering :: Draft

“Whatever we do, we got to keep the lights on”.

Most organisations have a specific budget set aside to “keep the lights on” if a worst case scenario ever plays out in front of its eyes. This explicit portion of the budget is safely tucked away to keep everything up and running if the unimaginable happens.

This is sensible. This is conservative. This is best practice.

You can almost see business people patting each other on the back saying: “Good job everyone, we really shot the lights out on that one!”

The typical revenue generating part of the business, however, knows that keeping the lights on is boring. It lacks creativity, it lacks innovation and it doesn’t propel anything forward. Increasing the throughput of the business at all costs is what this part of the business will be focussing on.

No wonder every organisation is in an eternal struggle with itself.