In their 2014 article, Organizational blind spots: Splitting, blame and idealization in the National Health Service, Marianna Fotaki and Paula Hyde take a close look at why people in organizations stay committed to ineffective strategies. They use the metaphor of “blind spots” to explain the psychodynamics of the resistance to change and denial behind being committed to ineffective strategies. They say:
Organizational blind spots arise when leadership and/or operational members in organizations are unable to acknowledge unworkable strategies. Unrealistic strategic aims mobilize and reinforce blind spots through processes of splitting, blame and idealization, thus enabling organizations to persist with unsuccessful courses of action.
Dynamic processes such as denial (i.e. failing to acknowledge environmental changes) and splitting (i.e. all or nothing thinking) are explored. Examples from the National Health Service in England (the NHS) are used to illustrate how and why blind spots can develop. It’s important to remember that resistance to change, or to different ideas and perspectives, is more much about emotions, identities, and attachments, than the change itself.
The bottom line is that sometimes escalation of commitment to ineffective strategies arises from the fears organizational members have about losing the image of “success” they hold for the organization, organizational members’ resistance to the unrealistic aspects of a proposed project or initiative, or as a response to pressures from communities and society. The solutions to this potential problem incorporate listening to dissenting voices (those pushing for change or for a different strategy), recognizing failures as signals that the environment is changing, and avoiding the temptation to blame failure on a person or department within the organization.
