WARNING – BLIND PROCESS KILLS RELATIONSHIPS
The Board as navigator:
Boards are responsible for creating systemic change and directing the alignment of effort (capability + will) to achieve defined strategies. Boards make choices during the business year and lead the implementation of those choices by creating communities of common interest.
But the World in which Boards navigate their organisations is turbulent and ambiguous; the business models they develop are increasingly complex and involve multiple, ‘non owned’ players in the value chains.
The solution is to build flexible business models, able to respond quickly to the continually shifting business environment and avoid the dissipation of effort and resultant destruction of value. This involves avoiding blind process and encouraging innovation.
Blind process is the result of regulating for every eventuality:
The message is not new. Aristotle (384 – 322 BC) wrote ‘Law is mind without reason.’ In the 1700s Adam Smith writing in The Wealth of Nations warned against the effect of a reductionist approach on worker’s mental capabilities. In the same era, Dr Samuel Johnson warned us that ‘corrupt societies have many laws.’
So if our boundary workers are not allowed to think for themselves, what do they tell our customers? From the telco and utility worlds, examples provided in the last few weeks include “We have a process" – "But your process is broken" – "That’s not my problem.” Or better still “There’s no technical problem so bad or complex that we can’t make it worse.” And finally “Yes, we are broken and no-one wants to fix us, so I’m leaving as soon as I can get out.”
And what do your customers do? Driven by fury and impotence and provided with global and instant connectivity, they tell anyone who is listening that you are broken and they do it on forums which you are not invited to.
Relationships which create innovation:
Wayne Burkan, writing in Wide Angle Vision highlights that the people who will lead organisations to the future are ‘disgruntled customers, off-the-scope competitors, rogue employees and fringe suppliers.’ These are the stakeholders we should be listening to and we may not like what they say.
Being accessible to multiple stakeholders relies on high visibility and the active quest for insights. In the 1980s, we talked about MBWA – managing by wandering about - but the wandering about needs to be in a spirit of positive enquiry rather than policing. Admired leaders have been promoting this approach for decades.
Virtual accessibility requires personal bravery too. Networked leaders construct pathways which allow them to be accessible but manage the noise which this generates. When ‘The Boss’ makes her email available to all stakeholders, it is pleasantly surprising how the efforts of the whole organisation align to the common purpose of listening and responding.