Why Work So Often Absolutely Sucks

The key stakeholders problem -- which is also why AI might indeed be a "white-collar bloodbath."

Key stakeholders. You’ve probably heard that term at work once or twice. It’s somewhat interchangeable with the term “decision-makers.” Basically it means some combination of senior leadership, C-Suite, middle managers, third parties, vendors, etc. that get to “weigh in” on whatever the thing/project/idea being discussed is. These are the key stakeholders of the project. If you work on this project, the basic idea is that you’re beholden to these people. Makes sense. I’m basically just summarizing and explaining hierarchy right now.

There’s a problem with the ‘key stakeholders’ model, though. Let’s identify it and then see if we can solve it, shall we?

Key stakeholders: The background

Only about 20 years ago, the average number of people in the C-Suite was five. Today, it’s 10. That’s why your company has a “Chief Strategy Officer.” (In reality, doesn’t everyone need to own strategy?) So in two decades, we’ve doubled the number of senior decision-makers. In other words, we’ve doubled the number of potential key stakeholders on anything.

This isn’t necessarily surprising. Bureaucracy is actually exploding, even though we all like to define this as “The Age of Entrepreneurs.” From a strictly common sense standpoint, I can explain this bureaucratic uptick to you. Ready?

People don’t really want to make decisions.

It’s terrifying for most people. Because like — what if you’re wrong? That cuts to the very core of competence and relevancy, and that’s what most people are seeking at work. The less decisions your ass is on the line for, the easier your life becomes. And all the while, you can make more money (yay!) and tell people how relevant you are (double yay).

That’s the deal with bureaucracy and doubling the C-Suite. We are basically letting people get minted without proving anything or taking any real action in their professional lives. Most “Chief Solution Officer” guys are just moderately-competent middle managers that the existing executives like. It’s really that simple.

But now we come to a problem.

Key stakeholders: The problem

There are two issues here: