How to Release the Genius of the Organization?

 

Global engagement scores suck – everybody knows it. Despite the best efforts of Boards, HR professionals, consultants and the threat of AI, people don’t put their hearts into their work. For some reason, we just don’t care enough about the mission & purpose of our organization. And yet, people have never been more capable. What’s going on & how do we fix it?

What’s going on?

Why this mass disengagement?  Dr. Gary Hamel provides a compelling answer in his HBR articles. “Insipid, incremental, inertial” – that’s the modern corporation, he tells us. Despite some shining examples to the contrary, most people would agree with him. The root causes are many and include strategic issues such as an inability to articulate Mission & Values in compelling ways, incentive structures, bureaucracy, structural complexity, a feudal mindset, and tactical issues like the absence of Visual management & related methods that make both Purpose & Current Condition visible, thereby creating a recurrent ‘pull’. 

In a struggling company, there is an absence of ‘nudges’, those small encouragements from the culture & its core processes.  In a great company, by contrast, team members sense that “I’m expected to try stuff, to solve problems, and to propose ideas.” 

How Do We Fix It? 

To what purpose do we engage people?

1.     To protect our core business by solving thorny problems & thereby reducing cost & hassle, and

2.     To ignite new Growth using our marvelous modern technologies including AI, drones, Data Analytics, Robotics, Blockchain, VR, AR, and their permutations

And how do we provide the ‘nudges’ that encourage ‘Total Involvement’?

The Shark Tank & Centre of Excellence

As a mentor, my approach is to help provide:

·       The core skills in the form of ‘Learn by Doing’ curriculum developed & managed by the Centre of Excellence, and the

·       Forum & Showcase in which your best & brightest can shine, which we sometimes call the ‘Shark Tank,’ after the popular TV show which features young entrepreneurs pitching to grizzled business touts.

To start we focus on ‘Protecting the Core’ through root cause problem solving.  Over time we build toward ‘Igniting New Growth’ through the disciplines of Growth Hacking. Our Shark Tank is, in effect, a Talent Show, wherein our best & brightest can shine. We engage HR & the Board to ensure that proper recognition & rewards accrue to our stars. Our ‘Sharks’ comprise respected senior leaders, and it’s a ‘show’ in the best sense of the word.

In my experience, the Shark Tank is an excellent way of kickstarting a culture.  Sustaining a 'Total Involvement' culture is the next challenge, and the topic of future articles, blogs, and books.

Best wishes,

Pascal Dennis         E: pascal.dennis@leansystems.org

Strategy is Imagination - Making Strategy Fun Again (Part 1)

 

Strategy can be a drag, no? Flat, boring & superficial directives from on high prepared by disinterested technocrats, or even worse, by LLMs pretending to be human. You’ve probably seen the (dis)engagement data.  If you haven’t, give any AI engine the following prompt: ‘What is the current level of engagement in multinational corporations?’ – and run for cover.

Strategy is a big part of the problem, and over the next several articles, I ask ‘what’s wrong with strategy & how do we fix it’.

Strategy development, deployment & execution should be bracing, exciting and engrossing.  A process wherein you embrace your biggest challenges. Who are we? What are we really trying to accomplish? What are our main blockers & what do we do about them? What management systems and capabilities do we need to build to tackle them?

If such questions don’t engage us, is there any zest, brio or magic left in our working lives?

Strategy is Imagination

Strategy is the domain of the Dreamer, Artist, Hipster and Non-Conformist.  To paraphrase Aristotle, strategy is a place where things can be ‘other than they are’. And yet too often strategy comprises dry analysis performed remotely by disinterested people (or worse, AI) who don’t know or care that much about the business, and certainly not the essential ‘knicks & knacks’ behind a magic piece of hardware, software or service.

Remote technocrats with no skin in the game not only spoil the dish – they drive everybody in the kitchen crazy and eventually turn them off completely.  Hence, the global (dis)engagement scores. I’ve written elsewhere that widely used methods like OKR are prone to this syndrome. What’s the ‘View from the Floor’? Let me quote a team leader in a major bank: ‘Here’s another dumb thing they want us to do.’

Strategy is Storytelling

So, what’s the remedy?  Storytelling – strategy begins and ends there.  A strategy is tale with a beginning, middle and end.  It has a clearly defined shape, internal dramas, peaks & valleys and a hopefully satisfying resolution.  Strategy exists in Aristotle’s ‘World of Contingency’ – a place where things can be ‘other than they are’.  Analysis informs & validates the story, but a human beings shape it, feel it, and commit themselves to it.

There are no ‘new stories’ – researchers around the world agree on this. Some argue for seven basic plots, others cite six emotional arcs, and still others 36 basic dramatic situations. But everyone agrees there are no new story plots, emotional arcs or dramatic situations.

The same is true for strategy. In earlier articles I introduced the ‘Stick’ & most strategies comprise some permutation of its core elements. What makes a strategy compelling is the story.  How well have the strategy leader & team grasped the situation confronting them?  How well have they articulated their aspiration and winning logic?  How deep is their understanding of the conditions that must be true for this to work? How passionate is this team & leader?  Do we trust them to stay the course through the inevitable setbacks, disappointments and unforeseen disasters?

What makes for a great story? Compelling characters and their interaction, meaningful conflict, and emotional resonance.  A great strategy is pitch for the future, full of drama around ‘What Is’ versus ‘What Could Be’.  Great strategies have hooks, crises, heroes & villains, turning points, magical tools, self-realization, and a call to action.  Great strategies, like great pitches, are memorable: they pull you and fire you up.

In summary, strategy is imagination & synthesis. If you can turn your strategic problem into a compelling narrative, you’ve taken the first step towards achievement. More to come.

Best wishes,

Pascal Dennis         E: pascal.dennis@leansystems.org

Stratex Fundamentals – What Drives Achievement?

What drives StratEx achievement & how do we sustain it? Do the StratEx lessons I learned as a young Toyota engineer & manager still apply?

 What's in it for them?

I grew up in the ‘90’s on a steady diet of the Toyota Production System (TPS). Our compass through almost continuous expansion was a business system called ‘Hoshin Kanri’ or Strategy Deployment, which I’ve written about it extensively. The past decade my practice has evolved toward ‘ambidexterity’ and fields like financial services, consumer goods & Tech. My hypothesis: those will prosper who can both protect the core business with OpEx and ignite new growth with Digital methods.

So, do the TPS methods & mindsets I learned as a young engineer & manager apply? Yes, provided you translate & adapt them for each industry. (Does anybody care about how we did it at Toyota?) With that prologue, let’s see if we can answer the questions posed above.

What Drives Stratex Achievement?

Whether your focus is protecting the core business with Lean/OpEx, or igniting new Growth with digital methods, our motive force is smart, capable people continually solving problems (aka ‘Total Involvement’). This is the ‘wind that fills the sails’ and it has two parts: a) good people, and b) good systems that let them work with minimum hassle.

‘Good People’ entails answering the following questions:

·       What qualities do we need in our team members? How do we hire for those qualities?

·       How do we develop their skills? (Subordinate questions: What are the needed skills, skills gaps, and with what methods do we close them?)

·       How do we reward them & recognize their achievements?

·       How do we sustain a physically & psychologically safe workplace?

·       How do we engage team members in continuous improvement and/or innovation work?

·       How do we motivate them to continually improve themselves and help us to improve & innovate?

Our People management system must answer these questions in simple, concrete terms.  For example, ‘engagement’ means doing things such as Quick & Easy Improvements, Root Cause Problem Solving, and Innovation Sprints that generate Value which the CFO recognizes.  Filling out surveys or attending Senior Leader talks, while helpful for info-gathering, is not engagement.

‘Good systems’ means daily team huddles around team boards, a standard operating rhythm & huddle process at each level. It means a senior leader Obeya (Big Room, Control Tower, Cockpit) wherein the senior team addresses the big questions in a frank robust & visual way: What Should Be Happening?  What is Actually Happening? What are We Doing About It?  For leaders, what you do it what you get.

‘Good systems’ also means identifying & addressing blockers that hinder total involvement. These typically include bureaucracy, too many meetings, corrosive mental models (e.g. rewarding ‘busyness’ vs effectiveness), and perverse incentives.

How Do We Sustain Team Member Involvement?

We have to answer a difficult question: ‘What’s in it for you?’

Leaders need to explain why team members should go the extra mile & try to improve the current condition.  Does an answer like, ‘Because you need a paycheck’, instill passion & commitment?

Each leader has to reflect & answer this question in a heartfelt way.  Here the response of a leader I’ve been privileged to work with: ‘We want to win and be the best in our industry. We want to have fun & make money, and do right by our customers, team members & community. We want to invest in you & give you growth opportunities so you can help us to be the best. You’re going to learn leading edge methods, and you’ll have a job with us for as long you want one.  Your job may change, because we intend to keep improving. In return, you have to help us to improve, you have to be open & curious & energetic, and you have to tell us if something is not working and help us fix it.”

Best wishes,

Pascal Dennis         E: pascal.dennis@leansystems.org