Ep. 311: The Corporate Hamster Wheel - Why Organizations Keep Running and Going Nowhere

Most organizations are extraordinarily good at activity and extraordinarily bad at progress. Meetings that produce more meetings. Initiatives launched before the last ones landed. Leaders who are permanently busy and chronically stuck. This is not a strategy problem. It is a pattern problem, and patterns live in culture, not in org charts. This episode examines the invisible cycles that keep organizations in motion without forward momentum: the norms, assumptions, and unspoken rules that make dysfunction feel like diligence.  In this episode: Meagan Bond, Tom Bradshaw, LindaAnn Rogers, Nic Kruegar, Stacy Lee, Rich Cruz I/O Career Accelerator Course: https://www.seboc.com/job Visit us https://www.seboc.com/ Follow us on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/sebocLI Join an open-mic event: https://www.seboc.com/events References: Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. Random House. Edmondson, A. C. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350–383. https://doi.org/10.2307/2666999 Edmondson, A. C. (2018). The fearless organization: Creating psychological safety in the workplace for learning, innovation, and growth. Wiley. Gallup. (2025). State of the global workplace: 2025 report. Gallup. Glassdoor. (2025). The hidden costs of layoffs: Workforce trust, engagement, and organizational performance. Glassdoor Economic Research. Keller, S., & Aiken, C. (2009). The irrational side of change management. McKinsey Quarterly. McKinsey & Company. (2021). The state of organizations 2021: Ten shifts transforming organizations. McKinsey & Company. Overmier, J. B., & Seligman, M. E. P. (1967). Effects of inescapable shock upon subsequent escape and avoidance responding. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 63(1), 28–33. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0024166 Peterson, C., Maier, S. F., & Seligman, M. E. P. (1993). Learned helplessness: A theory for the age of personal control. Oxford University Press. Russell Reynolds Associates. (2025). Global CEO turnover index: 2024 year in review. Russell Reynolds Associates. Samuelson, W., & Zeckhauser, R. (1988). Status quo bias in decision making. Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 1(1), 7–59. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00055564 Society for Human Resource Management. (2019). The high cost of a toxic workplace culture: How culture impacts the workforce—and the bottom line. SHRM. Society for Human Resource Management. (2024). SHRM Q4 2024 civility index: The state of workplace civility in the United States. SHRM.