The ten biggest problems with the last business age - the so called knowledge economy and information age - how much more information do we need, before we make a true decision, and take action...and ten suggestions...
THE PAST
6. We automatically move in the direction of our most dominant thoughts
…Many initiatives have focused on not making mistakes – total quality, right first time, but they are focused on process, and not people, and, furthermore, on increasing our knowledge about process. Such data / knowledge, by itself is totally useless, and more of it only increases the jargon, hype and mystery of what is going on. We have enough information, thank you very much, and we have done sufficient analysis – analysing anything that moves, and quite a lot that doesn’t. An irony of the focus on process and not people is that process can’t work without people, and we have seen many examples of this over the last years, with Sainsbury’s stores depleted of stock, MFI losing two members of its board, and many public sector process projects going millions over budget. This is partly because organisations have become too complex. Often as a result of initiative piled onto initiative, poor communications horizontally, and organisational structures become more to do with control than clarity. This has led to duplicated work, teams at war with each other, and an overall lack of focus on releasing ideas, passion and true customer value…
THE FUTURE
6. People and Passion over Process and Procedure
All of your internal procedures must serve a purpose, that of your company and therefore your customers. We must remove our obsession with internal process, and constantly ensure they serve our purpose, and not a software supplier or consultancy. Place ownership at the heart of your organisation, and a culture that it is not only OK to belong to more than one team, it is imperative that you do. And, critically, there are no right or wrong ways to structure your organisation - achieve the best balance for your customers and costs and run with it, centralised or decentralised.
This is an area I have seen customers waste billions on, as one year they bring everything into head office, and a few years later it’s back out again, and so on.
• Ensure your frontline people have the freedom to intervene and override processes
that may not be working
• For every process, ask yourselves, so what?
• Process software works only if you install it alongside a leadership / cultural transformation programme – if your people decide a system will not work, it won’t
e-mail me david@nakedleader.com or post a comment:
I loved this one from Pat in Edinburgh:
There are two kinds of people in this life: Those who walk into a room and say, 'Well, here I am!" and those who walk in and say "Ahh, there you are"
Give me the second every time Pat - and it reminds me of a similar line
"Enough about me, let's talk about you - what do you think about me?"