Employee Resource Group Excellence

2The Seven Deadly Sins: Derailers That Prevent ERG Excellence

In our journey toward ERG excellence, we must address potential derailers – behaviors demonstrated by an employee resource group that get in the way of their effectiveness, progress, and ability to make an impact. A derailer is different from a weakness. Every employee resource group has weaknesses. A derailer is a weakness that requires improvement and therefore must be addressed.

When a train accidently comes off its tracks, it is called a derailment. The world derailer is thus a metaphor for something coming off its intended course. The use of the word derailment is appropriate for this book because these behaviors pose an obstruction of a process by diverting employee resource groups away from their intended destination of excellence. By studying common ERG derailers, we can hopefully avoid them or at least try to minimize them so if they do appear, they only temporarily deflect employee resource groups from their pursuit of excellence.

When derailers begin to appear, they limit or undermine ERG effectiveness. Derailers not only hurt performance; if not addressed quickly, they cause employees to not want to join an ERG. In my experience, some derailers create more problems than others with regards to hindering performance and the pursuit of excellence. But if employee resource groups become skilled at spotting potential derailers, they can learn to avoid them or to work through them as they pursue optimum performance ...