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Improving
Results and Satisfaction through Integration
My
research and experience has disclosed ten ways of leading and organizing,
each attuned to distinct challenges, each with their own gifts, and
each with their own pitfalls. All ways of leading and organizing are
present at all times within all organizations. Furthermore, all organizations
require all ten ways of leading and organizing to be healthy to optimize
their effectiveness in the world and the satisfaction of their employees
or members, customers, partners, suppliers, and the communities surrounding
them.
Each of these ten ways of leading and organizing can be either healthy
or unhealthy in any organization. When a way is healthy it allows and
nurtures integration, optimizes flow, creativity, and learning. This
results in an improved bottom-line and satisfaction for employees, customers,
and other stakeholders. When a way is unhealthy it dissociates parts
of the organization from one another creating turf wars, preventing
synergy from arising, wasting creative potential, and preventing learning
from experience. The intent of integration consulting is to bring each
way of leading and organizing into health.
In my experience organizations tend to over develop one or two ways
of leading and organizing. Usually this means that they are trying to
cope with challenges best handled by underdeveloped ways of leading
and organizing with the tools at hand, so to speak. They are ill equipped
for the task. This has the effect of over taxing present ways of leading
and organizing and eventually diminishes their health. If underdeveloped
ways of leading and organizing aren't developed into healthy operation,
and overall health restored to all ways, the organization will eventually
die.
Each way of leading and organizing displays a distinct pattern of attention
and action that is visible in the kind of information regularly reviewed
and the subsequent actions taken. During the initial phase of consulting,
knowledge of these patterns are used to assess the health of each way
of leading and organizing. Then new practices, reviews, readings and/or
training are assigned to groups and teams within the organization. Groups
are actively coached through breakdowns as they put these into daily
practice. These new practices and reviews shift the patterns of attention
and action in ways that nurture development and health in all ten ways
of leading and organizing over time. Typically, with commitment and
engagement, organizations can expect to experience early successes with
new ways of leading and organizing within a few months.
One early warning sign that
an organization's health is declining is frequent restructuring. These
are clear indications that leaders haven't found a way to overcome their
current challenges and are repeatedly using the only tools at hand to
try to address them. While well-intended, this pattern of frequent restructuring
tends to introduce more dissociation and divert attention and energy
from developing more adequate ways of overcoming the challenges to managing
the chaos of transition. The most an organization gains from frequent
restructuring is a string of short-lived fixes that "nibble around
the edge of the cracker."
When doing more of the same doesn't overcome the challenges at hand,
this is a clear sign that other underdeveloped ways of leading and organizing
must be developed. This is the toughest of predicaments facing leaders.
It means that today you don't know how to overcome the challenges that
face you. The only way forward requires leaders to face this truth and
that requires courage and integrity. In taking this step leaders open
up new possibilities for partnership and action. This is empowering
and live affirming. Without facing this truth, leaders are doomed to
repeat the failing pattern.
For this reason, the largest obstacle to nurturing the health and integration
of all ten ways of leading and organizing is leadership's way of being
in the predicament of not knowing how to overcome present challenges.
Therefore, concurrent with the new organizational practices and reviews,
leaders receive one-on-one leadership development coaching which focuses
on the special and critical role they play in leading to excellence
through establishing integration.
If your company suffers from the costly lack of integration, please
contact me to discuss how we could partner
to improve integration, bottom-line results, and satisfaction of employees
and customers. |
