22. Know how things really get done.

My firm was called in to work with an organization that was struggling to integrate a newly acquired company into their own. We interviewed managers from both companies to get a sense of what was going on. The problem became clear. Although the acquiring company worked through short e-mails or a casual encounter at a colleague’s desk, the newly acquired company was trying to follow the acquirer’s formal policies and procedures. They were time-consuming processes involving detailed forms and systems. The acquiring company’s employees had long ago figured out how to work around them. But the new employees didn’t know any better. So they were constantly getting bogged down in red tape. In this case, we helped the acquiring company streamline their processes. But the takeaway lesson is that the way you get things done in theory is often not the way things actually get done on a practical level.

If you find yourself getting frustrated over how long a task is taking, find out who the right person is to speed the process along. Often, the people who grease the skids of an organization aren’t part of the formal reporting hierarchy. Knowing whom to go to, and learning how things really get done, is vital in any organization.