Number 6
Dear Clients and Friends:
Who REALLY matters, what REALLY matters in
your company or organization? Do customers come first? Or employees? Are
values the centerpiece? Or open communication, or support for
entrepreneurialism, or collaborative leadership.
Now,
be honest. The answer may be none of the above. Unless
your company or organization is an exception, it's the CEO who
comes first, followed by his lieutenants. Customers are well down
the list. What really matters is making money and little else. Few
people know what the company's values are, much less follow them.
It
can be trouble enough to put the boss and making money ahead of
other parts of the organization or other concepts. Few employees
or customers root for an uninspiring organization. Ideas,
solutions get stymied when management denies permission for people
down the line to participate.
It can be trouble multiplied
when reality is denied.
People tend to read from
different pages...vision
is cloudy...saying one thing and doing another breeds contempt...numbers
are fictional...employees operate by guesswork (and the organization
dies by guesswork). The list of dysfunctional behavior goes
on and on. And, ultimately, companies, organizations suffer
the consequences.
How does it happen that some companies,
organizations get it so wrong?
Leadership...pure
and simple.
Leaders run organizations and
organizations are the sum of decisions, says Art Kleiner
in his book, Who Really 
Matters, one of
the best explanations of how organizations work.
An organization's core group of leaders
influences those decisions,
says Kleiner. "If people believe the core group needs and wants
something to happen, they assume that making it happen is part of
their job." Put another way, regardless of what leaders say matters,
if leaders indicate otherwise, the reality is otherwise.
No
matter the damage, many leaders can't bring themselves to change ,
to stop telling people, "Do what I say, not
what I do."
Why? Core group members are generally happy
campers...they
like having power, living in the spotlight. And they're usually
unwilling to give up their influence. Organizations are set
up to fall in love with core group members...and to treat them with
deference. Who's going to tell the emperors they aren't wearing any
clothes?
Core
group leaders can get it right...if they so choose.
The
way to do it: Include almost everyone in the core group.
It's a choice. As Kleiner puts it, organizations do exist where decision-makers
take into account all the members of the organization, where everyone
works on behalf of everyone else and things don't dissolve into either
bureaucratic torpor or chaotic everyone-for-themselves anarchy. Southwest
Airlines, Toyota are a couple of examples of inclusive core groups.
For
most leaders, that means changing the way they think ...about
different aspects of running an organization, including how people
are paid, how relationships are built. That's a tall order
for those more comfortable with different management styles. One
thing's for sure, responsibility for change can't be passed off down
the ranks. No one outside the core group of leaders can make it happen
in an organization.
Some signals that leaders are pulling
everyone into the core group.
They pay attention
to how employees are recruited, promoted, trained , rewarded.
It's one of the best places to get leverage for changing an organization.
They
model the way by paying attention to what really counts. That
means attending meetings, being visible around creative elements
in the company.
They let communication flow freely. They
encourage new patterns of conversation...who people talk with, what
they talk about, topics of conversation, frequency of contact and
those who overhear them.
They support entrepreneurial activity,
regardless of errors or failure. They know that allowing
an idea, project to go down in flames is a learning opportunity that
could yield huge dividends later. Some of the best strategy adopted
by the largest companies can come from unplanned entrepreneurial
activity.
They exhibit quality leadership...which
means they take credit where credit is due for the leadership they
have provided their teams, companies.
In sum, disconnects between what's said and what is are deadly. But organizations, leaders can choose a different route. Exactly how to do it can be the subject of several strategic conversations.
Yours very truly,
Principal, Conbrio
For more about strategic conversation, scenarios, strategic visioning, action planning and how we use visual language as a catalyst, visit our website at www.conbrioamericas.com , e-mail me at bbancroft@conbrioamericas.com or call at 214-941-8199.
