Balloon theorems of organizational behavior

Today i propose the balloon theorems of organizational behavior.

All organizations constantly grapple with the problem of it's different functions such as for instance HR, Finance, Supply Chain Management, Engineering, Sales & Marketing being out of sync with each other. Depending on which function an employee comes from you'd hear things like Engineering does not tell us in advance what their manpower requirement is for us to plan recruitment, Engineering complains that sales & marketing is making customer commitments for delivery without consulting, Finance complains that supply chain is not doing the right thing in vendor selection for cost optimization. It is not unusual to hear these rants in any organization.

It is not a perfect world but then what's the fun if everything was perfect, inefficiencies challenge our creativity as we try to resolve them and so I present the balloon theorems of organizational behavior.

Balloon Theorems of Organizational Behavior

Theorem 1 - An organization is like a Balloon

Theorem 2 - The air pressure in the balloon is directly proportional to alignment that exits between the different functions of the organization. High air pressure means all systems are aligned and lower air pressure means systems are misaligned.

Theorem 3 - Just as the air pressure within a fully inflated balloon reduces over time an organizational functions that are completely efficient today will slowly start becoming inefficient over time.

Theorem 4 - You never know what's the maximum air you can blow into the balloon to inflate it to its maximum, you can keep trying but the balloon would ultimately burst because you never know how much is enough. That's a high price to pay! So, given Theorem 1 & 2, it follows that it is very unlikely you will find organizations whose systems are completely aligned and are operating at maximum efficiency.

Theorem 5 - Realigning organizational systems is done by applying pressure (by choosing a random spot on the balloon and squeezing it) on any one function of your organization to work better. See the picture above for an illustration of the process.

This causes air (inefficient individuals from inefficient functions) to move over into a low pressure half (the bottom part of the balloon in the pic). You now tie a chord at the spot that separates the two halves and release the air from the low pressure half. You now have a smaller organization (a smaller balloon) that is more efficient (higher air pressure in the balloon).

Theorem 6 - You cannot infinitely shrink the balloon to increase efficiency and so you need to infuse some fresh air once in a while which in turn creates some inefficiencies in due course. Then you just remember Theorems 1-5 again!