Category: Insights

Blind process

WARNING – BLIND PROCESS KILLS RELATIONSHIPS

The Board as navigator:

Boards are responsible for creating systemic change and directing the alignment of effort (capability + will) to achieve defined strategies. Boards make choices during the business year and lead the implementation of those choices by creating communities of common interest.

But the World in which Boards navigate their organisations is turbulent and ambiguous; the business models they develop are increasingly complex and involve multiple, ‘non owned’ players in the value chains.

The solution is to build flexible business models, able to respond quickly to the continually shifting business environment and avoid the dissipation of effort and resultant destruction of value. This involves avoiding blind process and encouraging innovation.

Blind process is the result of regulating for every eventuality:

The message is not new. Aristotle (384 – 322 BC) wrote ‘Law is mind without reason.’ In the 1700s Adam Smith writing in The Wealth of Nations warned against the effect of a reductionist approach on worker’s mental capabilities. In the same era, Dr Samuel Johnson warned us that ‘corrupt societies have many laws.’

So if our boundary workers are not allowed to think for themselves, what do they tell our customers? From the telco and utility worlds, examples provided in the last few weeks include “We have a process” – “But your process is broken” – “That’s not my problem.” Or better still “There’s no technical problem so bad or complex that we can’t make it worse.” And finally “Yes, we are broken and no-one wants to fix us, so I’m leaving as soon as I can get out.”

And what do your customers do? Driven by fury and impotence and provided with global and instant connectivity, they tell anyone who is listening that you are broken and they do it on forums which you are not invited to.

Relationships which create innovation:

Wayne Burkan, writing in Wide Angle Vision highlights that the people who will lead organisations to the future are ‘disgruntled customers, off-the-scope competitors, rogue employees and fringe suppliers.’ These are the stakeholders we should be listening to and we may not like what they say.

Being accessible to multiple stakeholders relies on high visibility and the active quest for insights. In the 1980s, we talked about MBWA – managing by wandering about – but the wandering about needs to be in a spirit of positive enquiry rather than policing. Admired leaders have been promoting this approach for decades.

Virtual accessibility requires personal bravery too. Networked leaders construct pathways which allow them to be accessible but manage the noise which this generates. When ‘The Boss’ makes her email available to all stakeholders, it is pleasantly surprising how the efforts of the whole organisation align to the common purpose of listening and responding.

Board effectiveness insight: embed risk thinking

Effective Boards go well beyond annual exercises to create and review risk registers. They actively sponsor and co-ordinate the continuous collection of perceptions and insights from all stakeholder groups in order to exploit upside risk by developing prescience. Instead of viewing risk as a series of discrete events and their consequences, they address aggregated risk in their strategic thinking processes.  

The CTTG A6 facilitator question set:

Appetite

What categories of risk are you prepared to consider and to what extent?

Anticipate

What events might occur and how can you scan for early warning?

Analyse

How will you qualify risks to identify their potential causes and consequences?

Act

What needs to be done to exploit or mitigate each event and aggregated impacts?

Assess

How will you monitor the impact and consequences of events?

Adapt

How will you capture risk learning to inform future risk decision making?

How to plan strategic change?

The turbulent business environment which most organizations inhabit, has impacted the degree to which it is possible to plan strategic change. The pattern of external factors impacting organisations, has become more complex. A more responsive and adaptive approach is required in order to identify these factors and take early advantage of the opportunites to innovate or mitigate threats.

Planning strategic change is most effective when it recognizes and builds on the operational pulse of the organization.

Creating strategic change is about getting fit for an uncertain future, while also ensuring operational stability. Most analysts agree that strategic change derails as a result of inappropriate timing and lack of engagement.

While there is no blueprint for success, there are some tried and tested guidelines for increasing the likelihood of achieving the desired results.

Deciding when to launch new initiatives relies on the ability of business leaders to think strategically:

– Scanning the wider world, their market places and their operating environment

– Identifying the pattern of external and internal factors driving their strategic change

– Assessing their stakeholders’ attitudes and expectations

High performing organizations are adopting a participative approach to strategic planning, which surfaces all existing and proposed change initiatives and allows them to be evaluated in the light of strategic imperatives.

Change overload and fatigue are common complaints from Directors. At the same time, new initiatives are championed and obsolete ones are seldom ‘killed.’

Mapping all change initiatives against the business planning cycle, highlights conflicts and interdependencies, while providing an holistic view of the agenda the organization is being asked to embrace. Pinch points become apparent and Director time can be focused on steering multiple initiatives concurrently.

A participative approach to planning, ensures that constructive challenge becomes part of an effective process to determine which initiatives are Mission critical and when they should be launched. A common agenda is created and Directors can begin the process of engaging their stakeholders in the journey.

Leaders create their organisational drum beat

Leaders are primarily responsible for creating the culture which they inhabit – The organisational drum beat.

While any organisation will have developed habits based on historical behaviour, it is the words and actions of the current leaders which is primarily responsible for promoting what is acceptable and non-acceptable behaviour.

Where leadership behaviour is concurrent with espoused principles and values and strategic decision making is guided by those same principles and values, trust and respect will grow and enhance business performance.

The author collaborates with Dr Laurence Lyons, editor of Coaching for Leadership, “The single best collection of first rate articles on executive coaching – Warren Bennnis.” Together they research Principled Leadership, a philosophy which explores how the leader creates their organisational drum beat. Principled Leadership is based on the following concepts:

Truth – Principled leaders are authentic and true to themselves, recognising personal purpose, ethics and appropriateness of response. Their reputation for authentic behaviour is earned, respected and valued.

Politics – Principled leaders enable others to lead. They recognise that this is the style of choice for the advanced organisation paradigm, given that power relationships have altered, career paths are mobile and personal branding is essential.

Dialogue – Principled leaders create dialogue, founded on mutual respect and shared expectation of behaviour and outcome. They recognise the importance of both the journey and the destination.

Collective Success – Principled leaders enable collective success by inspiring and being inspired. They engage with others, sharing ideas and building common purpose. Their decisions and actions are informed by their principles.

Audit Questions:

– What are your organisation’s principles and values?

– How is your community encouraged to live those espoused principles and values?

– Are those espoused principles and values promulgated?

– How does your strategic decision making link with those espoused principles and values?

– How is dialogue created and sustained?

– How is the baton of leadership shared beyond those at the apex of the organisation?

– What value is placed on being authentic?

– What inspires your community?

– What role do you play in inspiring those around you?

So, are you a principled leader?