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To deal with these issues of business agility, organizations typically implement traditional people management approaches. This includes things like performance appraisals, performance improvement plans, resource planning, incentive or rewards programs based on volume or individual performance, local optimization of departments through cost-centred funding models and/or department-specific objectives. The list goes on and on.
We believe the answer is organizations should focus on managing the work and the value in their system, and then build a culture and environment that supports people in being successful while working within that organizational system.
In simpler terms, if organizations really want to improve their predictability and delivery methods, then their leaders and managers need to become systems thinkers that focus on managing and evolving their organizational systems and work flow.
Read on to learn more!
The challenge
Organizations operate at a crossroads where profitability, sustainability, efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability intersect and compete. These elements are constantly in flux, so finding a suitable balance is a never-ending task for leadership and management.
When challenges occur the traditional approach is to manage the people. While this might work in some cases, the vast majority of failures and challenges exist within the system the working people are constrained by, and only management and leadership can control and change that system.
Eighty-five percent of the reasons for failure are deficiencies in the systems and process rather than the employee. The role of management is to change the process rather than badgering individuals to do better.
W. Edwards Deming
In other words, management and leadership often focus on fixing the wrong thing. Most of the opportunity for substantial improvement lies within the system itself, not with the workers.
Meanwhile, a carrot and stick approach may be a motivation for people if you have fundamental tasks, but when you rely on knowledge workers in a complex and / or complicated system, organizations should really use a different approach.1
To instill true, lasting, impactful improvement, organizations, leaders, and managers need to evolve their approaches. We believe they should focus on improving business agility by building and managing an effective system, hire motivated individuals, give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.2
The challenge
Organizations operate at a crossroads where profitability, sustainability, efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability intersect and compete. These elements are constantly in flux, so finding a suitable balance is a never-ending task for leadership and management.
When challenges occur the traditional approach is to manage the people. While this might work in some cases, the vast majority of failures and challenges exist within the system the working people are constrained by, and only management and leadership can control and change that system.
Eighty-five percent of the reasons for failure are deficiencies in the systems and process rather than the employee. The role of management is to change the process rather than badgering individuals to do better.
W. Edwards Deming
In other words, management and leadership often focus on fixing the wrong thing. Most of the opportunity for substantial improvement lies within the system itself, not with the workers.
Meanwhile, a carrot and stick approach may be a motivation for people if you have fundamental tasks, but when you rely on knowledge workers in a complex and / or complicated system, organizations should really use a different approach.1
To instill true, lasting, impactful improvement, organizations, leaders, and managers need to evolve their approaches. We believe they should focus on improving business agility by building and managing an effective system, hire motivated individuals, give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.2
The opportunity
This is where the opportunity lies…you can evolutionize your Organizations business agility. We provide the tools, techniques, approaches, and the means for you to organize the complexity of your organization, whether it be a business, non-profit, or otherwise.
We leverage industry-proven Lean, Agile, and Innovation practices to show you how to:
- make commitments and promises you can deliver on.
- focus on outcomes, not just outputs.
- grow a customer-centric mindset.
- deliver a smooth flow of predictable value to customers.
- build a resilient, thriving organization with long-term potential.
- measure what matters most though effective metrics and diagnostics.
- access data and information to drive systematic, empirical-based decisions.
- provide your stakeholders, customers, and employees with amazing experiences.
- evolve your organization to embrace change and a continuous improvement mindset.
- leverage the knowledge, power, and enthusiasm of the people working within your system.
A critical component for success is an effective vision that directly connects your strategy to the tactical work you perform to service your customer and stakeholder needs. This provides end-to-end transparency as to your priorities and commitments, helps you allocate capacity where it is needed most, evaluate and improve your ways of working, and critically assess and grow your organizational maturity, and elevate your business agility.
Alignment through clear, effective communication and persistent real-time feedback loops will ensure a common focus on your outcomes, goals, and expectations.
Leveraging appropriate practices, tools, policies, techniques, methods, frameworks, and scaling and/or de-scaling approaches will provide consistency on how to best collaborate across your organization.
Effective and meaningful metrics that align your actions to outcomes, including a direct tie between objectives, key results, and tactics.
Using empiricism to execute and iterate on your strategy in a quick, effective, way that provides fast feedback and frequent opportunity for adaptation.
Embracing continuous learning and innovation to help drive meaningful, positive, lasting change.
Simply put – we work with you to evolutionize your skills, your teams, and your organization
Let us help you to evolutionize your organization today!
- “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us” by Daniel H. Pink
- “Principles behind the Agile Manifesto” – https://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html