I grew up by the Mediterranean Sea. Clear, warm, full of life beneath the surface. When I first saw the Baltic Sea, I realized how used I was to a sea that looks back at you. The Baltic doesn’t look back. It’s murky, cold, and somehow - lonely. Its seriousness is painted in shades of grey and green. In summer, it’s often too cold for swimming, temperatures are usually below 20°C, so for someone who loves warmth, like me, it’s not an ideal choice. My range? Knee-deep, then straight back to shore at lightning speed.
What really puts me off isn’t the cold - it’s the murkiness. That feeling of not seeing what lies beneath the surface. The reason for this appearance lies in the large amount of plankton and organic matter in the water. In addition, it’s less salty than most seas, which further shapes its character. But what the Baltic Sea is best known for today isn’t its color or temperature- it’s its so-called “dead zones.” The main cause is eutrophication, a process where excessive amounts of fertilizers end up in the sea, stimulate algae growth, and their decomposition consumes oxygen. The result? A sea where the depths are left without life.
This situation didn’t happen overnight. Part of it is natural - the Baltic is shallow and low in salinity. But a large part is also the result of human activity: agriculture, waste, and climate change. The “dead zone” in the Baltic Sea is one of the largest in the world - covering an area roughly the size of Denmark. In these deep areas, there are almost no fish or shellfish. Life exists only in a thin surface layer. We’re not talking about small, isolated issues. We’re talking about a vast area that is practically lifeless.
And this brings us to organizations. Just like the sea, organizations can develop their own “dead zones.”
Poor internal processes, weak culture, and system overload act like an excessive inflow of nutrients. If the inflow of negative factors - stress, bad practices, unnecessary processes - is not reduced, the organization begins to suffocate. It loses oxygen. It loses its ability to create value. In many organizations, there are departments that function exactly like this: they don’t grow, they don’t innovate, they just consume resources and survive. Most of us have probably recognized such zones within our own systems. What makes them especially problematic is that they often persist for illogical reasons.
In one smaller company I worked with, there was a department that had been generating losses for years. The issue wasn’t the market, but leadership that resisted change and people in the wrong roles. In the corporate world, such things are often cut quickly - numbers are clear, and there is little room for emotion. That logic makes sense. But when a person becomes just a number in a spreadsheet, something gets lost, something that doesn’t show up in reports: meaning. And without meaning, even the healthiest organization won’t stay healthy for long.
But sometimes, those cuts don’t happen. And that’s where the real problem begins: Expecting different results while keeping the same setup is a recipe for failure. And the fastest way to create a dead zone.
Just like in the Baltic Sea, the solution isn’t to pretend the problem doesn’t exist. Nor is it to simply “cut off” an entire department and forget about the people. The solution lies in stopping the inflow of toxic inputs. Stop ignoring processes that drain people’s energy. Talk openly about problems, because silence consumes the most oxygen in any office. And finally, change the setup: reshuffle roles, educate people, or rethink leadership.
Humanity in business does not mean tolerating dead zones. It means recognizing the problem early. Reaching out to those who are suffocating. Bringing in fresh air before it’s too late. Organizations are not the Baltic Sea. They don’t have to wait centuries to recover. We just need the courage to dive below the surface - no matter how murky it is.
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