I’ve spent many years trying to understand the collective behaviors of organizations. What are the collective behaviors that make them successful and what are those behaviors that tend to get them off track? It’s not complex, just difficult.
At the top of the list is lack of clarity. Where are we going? Why? Why is this project important? What is the business we are in? Who are we serving and why? These are just some of the questions of clarity that are not answered, or not answered well. These are ‘foundational’ questions for organizations and they are asked/answered, or not, all over the organization. The questions vary from organizational, “what is the business we are in?”, to personal, “what is my role, the purpose of my job?” If we have clarity around the ‘foundational questions’ for ourselves and the organization we stand an improved chance of executing well.
Connected to clarity is the question of buy-in. Have we answered the ‘foundational’ questions and are we of one accord in their pursuit. Conflicting priorities, personal agendas, and people working against the common good, are common ways that execution is thrown off track.
As leaders we are always looking for ways of unifying our group in order to have them pulling in the same direction. This is important. At the top of the organization we are always shaping vision and direction and looking for this to be a unifying experience. At work, however, is a reality. The reality of individual skill gaps and teams that are not as capable. Sometimes, this is an indication of talent gaps that cannot be overcome. Often, it is a need to specifically identify the gaps, and implement the training, development, or coaching that will close those gaps. My observation is that if we are focused only on trying to get the ‘foundational clarity’ right, we are baffled when we still aren’t executing well. Perhaps we lack the talent. Perhaps we can develop people and close the gap.
The final observation is a little more complex. Its causes are many, but the overall observable behavior is that we have ‘energy’ pulling us away from our goals. This can look like one or more of the following.
- People who are not a good ‘fit’ for their job, the department, or the organization.
- People who say they are ‘on-board’ with what you are pursuing, but they really aren’t. Watch them closely and long enough and their behavior tells you that.
- What we say our ‘intentions’ are as an organization (i.e., goals, how we want to treat our people, our customers, and that we want to foster teamwork); the ‘reality’ of how we conduct ourselves (i.e., reward systems, review systems, feedback, failure to communicate, competition versus collaboration) are many times the unintentional ways we undermine our stated intentions and our culture.
These conditions act like a ‘boat anchor’ dragging our individual and collective capability. The degree they are present in combination and any magnitude will determine the ‘drag.’ This last group requires closer scrutiny, and often an outside ‘eye,’ is in order to determine their presence.
Their presence is perplexing to leaders because they don’t see them in any real sense, yet they do ‘feel’ their presence on the energy and capability of the organization to get things done and achieve results.
Next time I will explore possible solutions for these last ‘cultural conditions.’