I would argue that systemic lazyness is usually the product of employees realizing that everything they do is pointless, and hence not bothering to do anything. And so Marissa's top priority at Yahoo should've been to find a reason for the company to continue to exist. Unfortunately, this is hard enough in a small startup where you need to convince 2-3 people to commit quickly to a choice of action and follow through on it, let alone a large one where you need to convince 20-30K, most of whom have already checked out. And so unfortunately, the first thing any turnaround CEO has to do is get everyone who's not committed to the company's success off the bus. (Oftentimes, you're doing them a favor anyway through this; coasting through life in the hopes that you won't be noticed is not a winning strategy long-term, and this frees them up to take other jobs where what they do actually does have a purpose.)
