Doing The Right Stuff

How do we know we are doing the right things in our organisations? It is not an easy question to answer of course, but it is a question that has surfaced frequently in recent discussions I have held with a range of clients. 

Three themes have emerged from these discussions - which are echoed in an excellent article in today's FT about the work of Russ Ackoff, and which prompted me to write this blog.

www.ft.com/cms/s/0/23909d6c-cd99-11de-8162-00144feabdc0.html

Firstly, we decide to act - to do something. It is easy to look to others, whether peers or seniors, but within our sphere of influence we can think big and start to change things. Why? Because we are well placed to know what changes will make a difference. As Russ Ackoff wrote: "organisations fail more often because of what they haven't done than because of what they have done". Whether managers have authority to take action was a hot topic in discussions I held recently with a group of high potential managers. The 'ah ha' moment for them was that they can act and take the intiative. As a result they have each identified actions they will take individually and as a group to start to effect change in the organisation. And...

Secondly, when we act we need to act in a way that reflects that everyone in business is interconnected - we are part of a bigger system. Which means we need to think big and think big picture. One of the common reasons why change fails is that managers try and change one part of the organisational system without seeing the business as a whole. And...

Thirdly, in embracing this interconnectedness we seek to build what Kotter calls a guiding coalition. Many of the problems we are dealing with in business are complex and no one person has the answer. So we are more likely to get to a right intervention when we wrestle with the complexities of issues together.