I was stimulated by a few articles in the June issue of HBR.
Why are we losing our good people? Edward Lawler
I think that often there is a very real tension about feeling misaligned. Do I need to hold my tongue and be ‘on the bus’, or do I need to voice my concerns?
Too often, I think leadership in American companies believe that by the fact that they feel they are very clear about the company purpose, plan and performance, everybody else should be. This issue can be exaggerated at times of change for a company, when leadership underestimate how long it takes to cascade the new religion.
There has to come a point when it's time to all be 'on the bus' (in Colllins speak), but it feels to me that usually it’s the ldrship that is wrong, feeling they’ve done the quick fix.
Toyota is a great example of the long run strategy, in the same issue (The Contradictions that Drive Toyota’s success. Hirotaka Takeuchi, Emi Osono, Norihiko Shimizu). V. last summer’s Toyota story, a deeper review, with the unsurprising conclusion that it’s much deeper than one process. A culture suitably complex and largely uncopyable.
If we can’t then produce the culture we want as quickly as we’d like, well we could do a lot worse that focusing on the basics:
The Secrets to Successful Strategy Execution. Neilson, Martin, Powers
This stresses the importance of RACI/RAPID type frameworks. My experience would support the idea that getting that right sorts out much of the rest – who needs what information, and how the org structure needs to support it. Personally, my feeling is that getting this straight makes everyone’s lives a lot easier. Culture then has time to breathe and mature, and we can perhaps let it evolve rather than push 'culture change' down everyone's throats.
Why are we losing our good people? Edward Lawler
I think that often there is a very real tension about feeling misaligned. Do I need to hold my tongue and be ‘on the bus’, or do I need to voice my concerns?
Too often, I think leadership in American companies believe that by the fact that they feel they are very clear about the company purpose, plan and performance, everybody else should be. This issue can be exaggerated at times of change for a company, when leadership underestimate how long it takes to cascade the new religion.
There has to come a point when it's time to all be 'on the bus' (in Colllins speak), but it feels to me that usually it’s the ldrship that is wrong, feeling they’ve done the quick fix.
Toyota is a great example of the long run strategy, in the same issue (The Contradictions that Drive Toyota’s success. Hirotaka Takeuchi, Emi Osono, Norihiko Shimizu). V. last summer’s Toyota story, a deeper review, with the unsurprising conclusion that it’s much deeper than one process. A culture suitably complex and largely uncopyable.
If we can’t then produce the culture we want as quickly as we’d like, well we could do a lot worse that focusing on the basics:
The Secrets to Successful Strategy Execution. Neilson, Martin, Powers
This stresses the importance of RACI/RAPID type frameworks. My experience would support the idea that getting that right sorts out much of the rest – who needs what information, and how the org structure needs to support it. Personally, my feeling is that getting this straight makes everyone’s lives a lot easier. Culture then has time to breathe and mature, and we can perhaps let it evolve rather than push 'culture change' down everyone's throats.
Comments