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theoveldsman · 2 years ago

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STRESS TESTING THE PEOPLE CREDITWORTHINESS OF ORGANISATIONS: THE PEOPLE EXCELLENCE STAR (10)

THE DAUNTING CHALLENGE OF UNLEASHING GENUINE, ONGOING OVERALL SYNERGIC FUSION WITHIN THE PEOPLE EXCELLENCE STAR

SETTING THE SCENE

An organisation is ready to embark on its journey of People Excellence as explicated in Articles 3 to 8, and consolidated in Article 9. But are we sure we are truly ready? Have we adopted the right Strategic People Excellence Meta-Thinking Framework at the requisite complexity level to infuse People Excellence into the very DNA of the organisation’s thinking, decisions, and actions to unleash overall synergistic fusion? Are we perhaps still not thinking and acting with respect to People Excellence in a mechanistic, linear, siloed, the-sum-total-of-separate parts, way?

Stepping back for a moment from the integrated elucidation in story-form in Article 9 of the People Excellence Star, expressed in the People Excellence Value Chain, the following critical, reflective question can be posed: Does this integrated ‘To Be’ People Excellence story genuinely reflect true, overall synergistic fusion within the People Excellence Star, pivotal in unleashing the continuous, full, self-renewing, ‘atomic’ power of People Excellence in the organisation through the ongoing, synchronous synergistic fusion of the Excellence Domains/Elements?

Is the story told in Article 9 still not too strongly linear in its exposition? Yes, we have accepted interdependencies and feedback loops which were progressively moulded into an integrated People Excellence Value Chain throughout Articles 3 to 8, with the culmination in Article 9. But is our overall mapping of the People Excellence Landscape at the requisite level of synergistic complexity? I have some serious doubts which I wish to explore in this article, and then offer a solution for consideration.

The purpose of this article is to propose a holistic, systemic, dynamic Strategic People Excellence Meta-Thinking Framework at the requisite complexity level, able to direct and guide the journey towards fully unleashing genuine, synergistic and synchronous People Excellence fusion in an ongoing, sustainable manner in the organisation.

The discussion in Article 10 proceeds as follows: Firstly, by explicating the daunting People Excellence complexity challenge: the need for a Strategic People Excellence Meta-Thinking Framework; secondly, proposing the People Interdependency Matrix to address this need; thirdly, making a practical recommendation on how to make Strategic People Excellence Meta-Thinking an everyday reality in the organisation; and fourthly, the location of the People Excellence Stress Test – as expressed in the People Excellence Star - in the Strategic People Landscape.

THE DAUNTING COMPLEXITY CHALLENGE OF PEOPLE EXCELLENCE: THE NEED FOR A STRATEGIC PEOPLE EXCELLENCE META-THINKING FRAMEWORK

The baseline, People Excellence Complexity Challenge

In the first instance, the People Excellence Star is made up of five Excellence Domains and 20 Excellence Elements, giving in its simplest form between 25 (for Domains) and 400 (for Elements) first-order, basic, straight-line relationships. These 25 and 400 relationships exclude any possible feedback or feedforward relationships, or the differential effects that Excellence Elements can have (to be discussed below).

Furthermore, it is also not a case of Either-Or relationships. One relationship between two Elements does not excludes other possible relationships with other Elements. It is rather a case of And/Both relationships: many possible relationships between all the Elements. To use the analogy of interpersonal relationships: Excellence Elements do not have life-long, single monogamous relationships but ever-varying polyamorous relationships with each other. This also implies multiple meta-relationships on top of relationships between individual Elements, ad infinitum. Additionally, different contexts affecting the types of relationships existing between Elements, and hence their differential effects.

Jointly, all these bewildering number of relationship permutations form the dynamic, integrated whole of the People Excellence Star. Genuine People Excellence in the organisation therefore is the overall outcome of the overall, ongoing, powerful, virtuous fusion amongst all possible relationships between and amongst all the Excellence Domains and their constituent Elements – concurrently and simultaneously. Everything affects everything because of the dense, multiple, interdependent, and reciprocally, and recursively influencing, relationships.

In an overwhelmingly complex way, the Domains/Elements function as an integrated, dynamic whole in a systemic, organic, and emergent way, producing overall People Excellence synchronous synergy, like the continuous powerful nuclear fusion in a star. This dynamic perspective of the People Excellence Star resonates with the underlying foundational view of the organisation as a living, emergent, self-organising, social ecosystem, framed by a Complexity world view (explicated in Article 2).

Moving to the next level of People Excellence Complexity Challenge

Further proof for the bewildering array of relationship permutations is to be found in the research evidence used to construct the People Excellence Star. Firstly, supporting the above base line Complexity Challenge, the research-informed discussion of the five Excellence Domains and 20 Excellence Elements in Articles 4 to 8 that uncovered wide-ranging evidence for dense, multi-directional relationships between the all the Excellence Elements making up the People Excellence Star.

Secondly, the elucidation of the People Excellence Star in these articles furthermore also gave strong evidence that a given Excellence Element - hypothetically called Element A in the exposition below - can vary in its effect in bringing People Excellence about. This is dependent on its relative location in the People Excellence Value Chain, and the ever-varying polyamorous relationships amongst Excellence Elements referred to above. Element A can be:

a cause (=antecedent): the state of an ‘earlier’ Element A directly affects the state of a subsequent Element(s) as outcome;

an outcome (=consequence): the state of Element A is the direct result of the state of an immediately preceding Element(s) as cause;

a precondition: Element A affects the state of another Element as a cause, which in turn affects a subsequent Element(s) as an outcome;

a recursor: the state of a ‘later’ Element A as a cause affects the state of an ‘earlier’, preconditioning Element(s);

a mediator: the state of Element A affects the nature of the relationship between a cause and outcome(s) of two other Elements;

an amplifier: the presence of Element A augments (=strengthens/weakens) the effect of the relationships between preconditions, a cause, and an outcome(s); and/or

a moderator (or contingency): Element A sets the boundary conditions for when, where, and by how much, the effects of other Element(s) on each other will be present.

Based on the above discussion, the figure below depicts the seven different effects that the very same Excellent Element, called Element A in our discussion, can have.

Using the above figure as the basis, a research-sourced illustration will be given to demonstrate the different effects that the very same Excellent Element can have in the People Excellence Star, depending on its location in the People Excellence Value Chain. The Excellence Element ‘Engagement’ will be used as an example, given the vast amount of research on this Element:

Engagement is a direct cause of outcomes related to the person (e.g., less stress, less absenteeism, an intention to stay, well-being, basic need satisfaction); the quality of work done (performance, creativity, innovation, productivity, job satisfaction); and the organisation (safety, customer service/satisfaction, organisational performance, financial performance, competitiveness).

Transformational/Transcendental (or Engaging) Leadershipand (High Commitment/High Involvement) People Practices are preconditions for High/Low Engagement as an outcome.

Engagement as a cause has a recursive (=feedback) effect on how positively (read ‘Engaging’) Leadershipand People Practices as preconditions are perceived.

Engagement mediates the effect of an individual’s organisational identification on his/her organisational commitment. Higher Engagement will heighten the positive impact that her/her organisational identification has on her/his organisational commitment.

Engagement amplifies (=strengths or weakens) the three-way relationship between People Practices (=Precondition), Organisational Climate (=Mediator), and Personal/Organisational Outcomes (=Outcome).

The above effects of Engagement are well established in the available research, but it can further be hypothesised that Engagement could also have the following effect, not reported in the current research literature to the best of my knowledge:

Engagement moderates the types and states of the relationships that can exist between People Practices (=Precondition), Organisational Climate (=Mediator), Committed Ownership (=Amplifier), and Personal/Organisational Outcomes (=Outcome) by setting certain boundaries. A minimum level of Engagement must be present for the relationships between the abovementioned Excellence Elements to hold.

Based on the above discussion on effects, the daunting challenge of People Excellence complexity can be taken to the next level. In total, an Excellence Element can have seven potential effects depicted in the above figure. Assuming that all 20 Excellence Elements can have all seven effects, it implies that there are potentially 207 relationship permutations. This equates to 1.28 billion possible relationships between the 20 Excellence Elements! This is even without even considering the infinite, moderating effect of different contexts on these relationships!

All in all, I would submit that the above exposition unequivocally proves the dense, multi-directional, ever-varying, polyamorous relationships between amongst all of the Excellence Dimensions and Elements. The unleashing of the full and continuous energy of the synergistic, synchronous fusion within the People Excellence Star in an organisation hence demands crafting a Strategic People Excellence Meta-Thinking Framework based on a complexity (also called a chaos) view of reality (=a world view).

In this Framework, People Excellence – manifested in the People Excellence Star – framed in a complexity view of the organisation as a living, social ecosystem – must be seen as an integrated, dynamic, systemic, complex whole, made up of reciprocally interacting variables with probabilistic effects and counter-effects.

The variables form dense, multi-directional, ever-varying polygamous relationships that configure into constructive (=order) or destructive patterns (=chaos), acting in accordance with a few underlying rules. A pattern represents a specific synergistic People Excellence fusion that is active in an organisation at any given time.

TOWARDS UNLEASHING ONGOING GENUINE OVERALL PEOPLE EXCELLENCE SYNERGISTIC FUSION IN THE ORGANISATION: THE PEOPLE EXCELLENCE INTERDEPENDENCY MATRIX

The People Excellence Interdependency Matrix is proposed as a systemic whole, complexity-framed, Strategic Meta-Thinking Framework of People Excellence. The proposed People Excellence Interdependency Matrix is strongly influenced by Cross-Impact Analysis (CIA), a well-accepted and widely-applied methodology in futuristic/strategic thinking/planning and in the intelligence community globally.

The aim of the proposed Matrix is to provide the action-directed leverage through which an organisation can unleash genuine, ongoing, full-blown, overall People Excellence synergistic fusion by conceiving and crafting desired configurations of People Excellence Dimensions and Elements. I.e., ongoing, virtuous People Excellence patterns. In a sense, built their own unique, organisation-specific People Excellence theory-in-action.

This Matrix would enable the organisation to take account of the multiple, ever-varying, polyamorous effects of the Excellence Elements as discussed above. In this way, the organisation can map and undertake its journey at the requisite complexity level towards unleashing ongoing, genuine, overall synergistic People Excellence fusion. The following topics are addressed next: firstly, an explication is given of the proposed People Excellence Interdependency Matrix; and secondly, the practical application of the Matrix is demonstrated.

The proposed People Excellence Interdependency Matrix

The figure (given in two parts to be joined together because of its size) below depicts the proposed People Excellence Interdependency Matrix as the action-orientated conceptualisation of a complexity-framed, Strategic People Excellence Meta-Thinking Framework.

According to the above figure, the proposed People Excellence Interdependency Matrix is constructed as follows: firstly, to accommodate the People Excellence complexity challenge posed in the previous section; and secondly, to provide the leverage of achieving overall synergistic fusion in the People Excellence Star. The Matrix is compiled as follows:

A 20 x 20 cell Matrix, mapping the People Excellence Territory, made up of the five Excellence Domains with their commensurate Excellence Elements (similarly colour coded). The Excellence Elements/Domains with their relative order and relationships are drawn from the People Excellence Value Chain. This construction of the Matrix aims to reflect the dense, multiple, first-order (or baseline), interdependent and reciprocally influencing relationships making up the People Excellence Star in which everything affects everything else. Not depicted are meta-relationships, i.e., relationships of relationships. An attempt at this will be explicated later.

The order in which the Domains and Elements are placed in the Matrix represents the typical order in which an organisation will normally proceed with its People Excellence journey though the Excellence Domains/Elements – ‘Outside-In-Outside’. From Context (top-left of the Matrix), to Identity (bottom-left and top-right), through Capacity and Delivery, to Outcomes and Relationships (top-left/right).

The cells on the diagonal (or lateral) axis – colour coded in the figure in the same colour as their associated Domains – represent the desired ‘To Be’ states of the respective Excellence Elements, as formulated by the organisation relative to the set People Excellence Specification (top-left cell). These are the thought leadership, research-sourced, and leading practices answers given to the Excellence Questions in Articles 3 to 8, combined into a coherent People Excellence story in Article 9, graphically depicted as an integrated People Excellence Value Chain. These ‘To Be’ states all have to be aligned, firstly, to the People Excellence Specification (top-left cell), representing the required Context- Organisation-People Fit, and then, secondly, must run as a golden thread diagonally through all of the 20 People Excellence Elements in order to form an aligned, normative ‘To Be’ People Excellence story line: ‘This is what our organisation should look like as a shining star when we are achieving People Excellence.’ Next, the lateral axis cells can be split into the desired ‘To Be’ states (as described above) and the current ‘As Is’ state in the organisation with respect to the Excellence Element concerned. These states are the outcome of having stress-tested the People Creditworthiness of the organisation as manifested in its present People Excellence. In this way, the excellence gap with respect to Excellence Elements can be established through a comparison of the two states on the diagonal axis.

The off-diagonal cells in the Matrix depict the spaces in which the nature and the status of the reciprocal interaction between two Excellence Elements can be mapped, also in terms of the desired ‘To Be’ states – derived from research evidence and leading practices - and the current ‘As Is’ state in the organisation. In these cells, the two interacting Elements can have any of the effects explicated in the above, such as being a cause, precondition, or outcome. The multiplicity of the off-diagonal cells is reflective of the dense, multi-directional, ever-varying polyamorous relationships between the Excellence Dimensions and Elements. Each Element has at least 30 basic relationships.

Two examples:

Ø Design and Culture (Excellence Domain 2: Capacity): Is the Design fully translated into the Culture? Inversely, does the Culture reinforce the Design?

Ø Leadership (Excellence Domain 1: Identity) and Engagement (Excellence Domain 3: Delivery): What is the reciprocal relationship between Leadership and Engagement? Does Leadership set up favourable preconditions for high Engagement as an outcome to nn occur? Recursively, how does the level of Engagement affect the experience of Leadership in the organisation?

The ever-varying polyamorous effects that an Excellence Element can have across the total Matrix (see the above figure again) will be dealt with in the practical illustration of an organisation embarking on the Excellence journey (explicated in the next section). All in all, the People Excellence Interdependency Matrix unequivocally illustrates the complexity of attaining and maintaining People Excellence in an organisation.

The practical application of the People Excellence Interdependency Matrix

The previous section has explicated the proposed People Excellence Interdependency Matrix as a Strategic People Excellence Meta-Thinking Framework, given in the above figure. The purpose of this section is to answer the question: How can the Matrix be used in practice within a specific organisation embarking on a People Excellence journey, aimed at enhancing the People Creditworthiness of the organisation?

The journey towards People Excellence, in applying the People Excellence Interdependency Matrix as a Strategic Meta-thinking Framework, consists of at least of the following Phases:

Phase 1: Set the People Excellence Specification demanded by the organisation’s operating arena (Matrix: Top left/right cell).

Aligned to the organisation’s strategic horizon, a future-referenced People Excellence Specification must be set for its operating arena (cf. Article 3). The People Excellence Specification, befitting the People Requirements imposed by the organisation’s context, spells out what People Excellence will look like when the organisation is achieving exceedingly well with its people in that context as and when a goodness of context-organisation-people fit has been achieved.

It provides the baseline ingredients of the People Vision of the organisation. The People Excellence Specification establishes the parameters within which the ‘To Be’ Excellence Elements of the organisation must be formulated.

Phase 2: Define the desired ‘To Be’ states of the organisation’s People Excellence Dimensions/Elements (Matrix: Cells on diagonal axis).

Moving diagonally across the Matrix - from Excellence Dimension 1: Identity to the Excellence Dimension 5: Relationships - the laterally aligned ‘To Be’ state for each Excellence Element must be generated, as referenced against the set, contextually-derived, People Excellence Specification. These ‘To Be’ states define the desired People Creditworthiness of the organisation. The diagonal axis alignment will serve as the comparative, normative benchmark for the organisation’s Excellence journey.

Next, split each diagonal axis Excellence cell in to two, and include alongside the ‘To Be’ state in each cell, the assessed current ‘As Is’ state of that Excellence Element in the organisation. This assessment reflects the stress testing of the organisation’s People Creditworthiness. Based on the comparisons of the desired ’To Be’ and ‘As Is’ states on the diagonal axis cells, Excellence gaps can be determined for the respective Excellence Elements. The gaps can be summated by Excellence Domain. Gaps (also those discussed below) can be coloured according to their strategic significance, risk-wise - red: critical impact; yellow: significant impact; and green: negligible impact.

During the unfolding Excellence journey, one also may depict in the diagonal axis cells how the ‘As Is’ state of an Excellence Element/Domain is progressively approaching the ‘To Be’ state as the gap closes through interventions.

Phase 3: Identify and prioritised successive Strategic People Excellence Thrusts (Matrix: Selected diagonal axis cell).

Relative to the organisation’s Purpose, Vision and Strategic Intent within its strategic horizon, and estimated risk, the People Excellence gaps - reflected in the cells on the diagonal axis – must be prioritised strategically to determine the order in which they have to be addressed. With which Excellence Domains/Elements and gaps does one want to start? And, in which order does one want to move across the Matrix with respect to Excellence Elements/Domains gaps in terms of the organisation’s strategic time horizon?

The prioritised Excellence gaps can be called ‘Strategic People Excellence Thrusts’. Given the multi-dimensional and multi-relationship complexity of People Excellence, Strategic Intervention Waves may be constructed per prioritised Strategic People Excellence Thrust to make the journey to People Excellence manageable, and increase the likelihood of success: Time Period 1, Time Period 2, Time Period 3…., each with its own sub-thrust as a core theme. It would be a high-risk strategy to tackle all the People Excellence gaps on the diagonal axis simultaneously.

Phase 4: Generate an integrated, systemic, and coherent portfolio of People Excellence Interventions to realise a chosen Strategic People Excellence Thrust (Matrix: Related off-diagonal axis cells)

The relevant Excellence Element(s) by Domains - with their associated interventions - must be identified, which would enable the realisation of the chosen Strategic People Excellence Thrust within a certain strategic horizon period. Put differently: which interventions must be undertaken to close the Excellence gap represented by the Thrust? The relationships and interactions between relevant Excellence Elements and a Strategic People Excellence Thrust are represented by the off-diagonal cells in the Matrix.

The goodness-of-fit of an Element/Domain with a chosen Strategic People Excellence Thrust is an important consideration here. Determining the relevance of an Excellence Element to a Thrust is in the final instance a judgement call. However, it would be more than wise to draw on thought leadership, research evidence, and leading practices such as those reported in Chapters 4 to 8 to identify relevant Elements.

The ‘To Be’ and ‘As Is’ states can be defined in the off-diagonal cells for each of the relevant Excellence Elements/Domains relative to the Strategic People Excellence Thrust. Next, interventions must be identified/designed to close the gap between the two states to affect the Strategic People Excellence Thrust. In turn, all these Excellence Elements/Domains (‘To Be’ and ‘As Is’) - with their accompanying interventions - must be moulded into an integrated, systemic, and coherent portfolio of Strategic People Excellence Elements/Domains Interventions.

Overall, this portfolio represents the Strategic People Excellence Intervention Plan of the organisation – the what, why, when, who, how, and whereto with respect to the Strategic People Excellence Thrust. The People Excellence Interdependency Matrix – incorporating and in combination with the People Excellence Value Chain – can be used to construct such a needed portfolio. Jointly applied, the Matrix, and People Excellence Value Chain as incorporated into the Matrix, enable the portfolio to meet the requirements of being integrated, systemic, and coherent.

The identification of the relevant Excellence Element(s) by Domains – with their associated interventions – can proceed as follows:

Sub-Phase 4.1: Relative to the specific Strategic People Excellence Thrust, specify the desired impact (=results), as reflected in Excellence Domains 4: Outcomes and 5: Relationships when a positive shift(s) has occurred in the Thrust.

Sub-Phase 4.2: Identify on the ‘input side’ of the Strategic People Excellence Thrust – the horizontal axis of the Matrix - the relevant Excellence Elements/Domains in terms of their reciprocal relationships with the Thrust, as well as the associated interventions, to be leveraged as Excellence Drivers to bring about the desired People Excellence impact, attributable to shifts in the Strategic People Excellence Thrust.

Sub-Phase 4.3: Identify on the ‘output side’ of the Strategic People Excellence Thrust – the vertical axis of the Matrix - the affected Excellence Elements/Domains’ reciprocal relationships which are expected to be enhanced recursively because of the ‘input’ Excellence Drivers bringing about the desired People Excellence impact. These are the positive ‘knock-on’ effects of the Excellence Drivers. The affected ‘output’ Excellence Elements/Domains’ relationships may be the same or different to the ‘input’ Excellence Drivers.

Additionally, the intended types of effect of the implicated Excellence Driver Elements in bringing about the desired change with respect to the Strategic People Excellence Thrust may be indicated. With respect to a Strategic People Excellence Thrust, what likely effect will an Excellence Driver have? Is the Driver a precondition, outcome, recursor, mediator, amplifier, or moderator? The types of effect give strong clues as to what role an Element as Excellence Driver will play in the change journey and/or the order in which Elements must be addressed. A precondition must be addressed before an amplifier, for example, to make a cause effective.

Phase 5: Roll out the Strategic People Excellence Intervention Plan, and monitor and track its impact in realising the selected Strategic People Excellence Thrust

This is the usual implementation, monitoring, tracking and corrective intervention action process. The only difference is that these actions happen in real time as the roll out proceeds, and is guided by real time, intelligent insight.

Phases 3 to 5 must be repeated as many times as there are Strategic Excellence Thrusts (reflecting Strategic Excellence Gaps), each with their respective intervention Waves operationalised into Strategic People Excellence Intervention Plans. This must be repeated until all of the strategically prioritised Excellence gaps on the diagonal Excellence axis of the Matrix have been closed, and dynamic stability has been attained and institutionalised in the form of virtuous People Excellence cycles (=patterns).

Or, be newly initiated as new Excellence gaps open because of the need to re-imagine and re-invent the organisation’s People Excellence because of shifts in the organisation’s operating arena and/or its internal context.

MAKING STRATEGIC PEOPLE EXCELLENCE META-THINKING AN EVERYDAY REALITY IN THE ORGANISATION

All-in-all, the Matrix as a Strategic People Excellence Meta-Thinking Framework can direct and guide an ongoing, integrated, systemic, and strategic dialogue at the requisite complexity level in the organisation, in its endeavour to unleash overall synergistic fusion regarding People Excellence. But how does one do it practically? How does one bring this dialogue to the everyday frontline in one’s organisation, using the Matrix?

I would suggest that an organisation sets up a People Excellence “Operating Room’, physically and/or virtually. On one wall, visually display the total Matrix with all the cells filled with the desired ‘To Be’ and ‘As Is’ states of the organisation as they are known, reflecting where the organisation stands right now in real time. As discussed before, gaps can be colour coded as red, yellow, and green, giving an immediate, visual overall picture of the organisation’s People Creditworthiness. (Displayed on the other walls could respectively be the current Strategic People Excellence Intervention Plan around the selected Strategic Excellence Thrust; the organisation’s Strategic People Intent with strategic people initiatives; and the organisation’s Identity with its constituent elements of Purpose, Vision, Strategic Intent, Core Values, and Legacy).

The organisation’s Executive and People Leadership Group could hold regular meetings in the Room, organised around selected People Excellence Themes, and work systematically across the displayed Matrix, updating the current state of People Excellence in the organisation as they understand it in real time. For example, they could take the desired ‘To Be’ vs. ‘As Is’ Leadership Element, and work across each cell in the Matrix to assess its relationship to, and impact on, all of the 19 other Excellence Elements.

This critical strategic dialogue could move in of three directions: (i) horizontally, seeing Leadership as an Excellence Driver affecting subsequent Excellence Elements; (ii) vertically, seeing which Excellence Elements recursively affect the effectiveness of Leadership; and (iii) define the desired People Excellence Outcomes/Relationships, and then work ‘backwards’ in identifying which People Dimensions/Elements will bring about the desired Outcomes/Relationships. This assessment becomes a real time, in time, People Creditworthiness Test of the organisation regarding Leadership. At the next meeting, for example, Culture can be taken as the theme, and so on.

Of course, the visual Matrix can be technologically-enabled into an highly interactive, digitised display, linking a cell to, for example, a video clip reflecting ‘a day-in-the-life-of-the-organisation’ in that cell; hearing people’s voices regarding what is happening in the cell; provide the available intelligence regarding the cell; and/or give the relevant interrogative questions one should ask to direct the dialogue with respect to the cell. Over time, even predictive, People Excellence decision-making algorithms can be generated. Only one’s imagination limits what could be linked digitally to the Matrix to broaden and deepen the dialogue.

The People Function of the organisation - in particular its Organisational/People Effectiveness Unit – would set and maintain the People Excellence Interdependency Matrix, also the People Excellence Operating Room. The organisation’s Executive and People Leadership Group would own and engage with the Matrix and dialogue around the Matrix, and the resultant decisions and actions.

LOCATION OF THE PEOPLE EXCELLENCE STRESS TEST – THE PEOPLE EXCELLENCE STAR – IN THE STRATEGIC PEOPLE LANDSCAPE

The key question is where the People Excellence Star is located as Strategic Stress Test in the Strategic People Landscape. The figure below depicts the Strategic People Landscape, indicating the location of the People Excellence Star therein.

According to the above figure, the People Excellence Stress Test, i.e., the People Excellence Star, forms the foundation of the Strategic People Landscape. The outcome of applying this Stress Test ��enters’ the Landscape through the chosen People Strategic Initiatives, identified through the application of People Excellence Interdependency Matrix, explicated in the previous section.

CONCLUSION

We have reached the end of our challenging, extensive, and deep-dive, journey around People Excellence. The endeavour of the journey was to propose and elucidate an integrated Strategic Stress Test of the overall People Creditworthiness of organisations within the frame of reference of the emerging new order. In the process, a praxeology of People Excellence was crafted: the ‘science’ dealing with the practice of People Excellence in organisations.

All that remains is to wish readers a difference-making, People Excellence journey with the organisations they are involved with. May your People Excellence engagements – purposed at bringing about an organisation in which people can flourish and thrive, and thus feel fulfilled – leave our world a better place for future generations.

Source

Veldsman, Theo H. (2021). The People Excellence Star. A strategic organisational stress test. Johannesburg: KR Publishing

website: www.kr.co.za

#people excellence

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theoveldsman · 3 years ago

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STRESS TESTING THE PEOPLE CREDITWORTHINESS OF ORGANISATIONS: THE PEOPLE EXCELLENCE STAR (9)

PEOPLE EXCELLENCE AS SYNERGISTIC FUSION ENERGISING THE ORGANISATION

SETTING THE SCENE

Analogous to the continuous nuclear fusion of hydrogen and helium in the core of a star, creating light and energy, People Excellence is the outcome of the powerful, virtuous fusion between all the Excellence Domains and their constituent Elements as contained in the People Excellence Star. They act in synergistic concert through an upward virtuous cycle of increasing People Excellence. (Or, inversely, a downward vicious cycle of decreasing People Excellence). This allows the organisation to achieve exceedingly well with its people. Indeed, being a shining ‘Star’ with respect to its people.

The overall synergy finds its concrete expression in the complete infusion of the total organisation with a coherent People Excellence story regarding the answers given to the twenty Excellence Questions, as contained in the five Excellence Domains making up the People Excellence Star. In this way, People Excellence becomes ‘genetically’ encrypted into the very genetic code of the organisation’s being and becoming.

The purpose of this article is to elucidate the complete story of People Excellence as synergistic fusion energising the organisation. The journey took us through Articles 3 to 8, covering the respective People Excellence Domains with their commensurate Excellence Elements will hence be integrated in this article. The article will proceed as follows:

What stories can be told about People Excellence in the organisation?

What are story-wise the thematic ingredients of the overall synergistic fusion within the People Excellence Star?

Telling a coherent ‘To Be’ People Excellence story based on leading thinking and practices

Telling the ‘As Is’ People Excellence Story of your own organisation, with the consequential, to-be-closed gap between the ‘To Be’ and ‘As Is’ States

WHAT STORIES CAN BE TOLD ABOUT PEOPLE EXCELLENCE IN THE ORGANISATION?

In terms of the overall People Excellence Star as depicted in the figure below, a story can be told about the People Creditworthiness of an organisation, based on the expositions in Articles 3 to 8 of the five Excellence Domains and their associated 20 Excellence Questions. The purpose of the People Excellence story is to weave an integrated, systemic picture of People Excellence in the organisation to unleash ongoing overall synergistic fusion.

Three People Excellence stories can and need to be told by, and in, an organisation, forming the more specific purpose of the article:

a coherent, aspirational People Excellence story regarding what People Excellence should look like in the organisation – a ‘To Be’ story – as elucidated in Articles 3 to 8, and based on the best thought leadership, research evidence, and leading practices.

what People Excellence currently looks like in the organisation – the ‘As Is’ story. This story will allow you as a reader to integrate your organisation’s ‘As Is’ People Excellence story into an overall, single story by consolidating the piecemeal assessments you did of your organisation’s People Creditworthiness whilst perusing Articles 3 to 8.

concurrently to telling the integrated ‘As Is’ People Excellence story of your organisation, developing an ‘In Between’ integrated, change navigation story of the People Excellence interventions required to enhance your organisation’s People Creditworthiness by closing the gap between the ‘To Be’ and ‘As Is’ People Excellence states in your organisation. These interventions could also have been identified piecemeal by you whilst doing the stress testing of each Excellence Domains in working through Articles 3 to 8.

WHAT ARE STORY-WISE THE THEMETIC INGREDIENTS OF THE OVERALL SYNERGISTIC FUSION WITHIN THE PEOPLE EXCELLENCE STAR?

The figure below provides a ‘menu’ of the thematic ingredients making up the overall synergistic fusion in the People Excellence Star, which was progressively crafted in the form of an integrated People Excellence Value Chain in progressing through Articles 3 to 8.

In terms of the above figure, the table below provides a comprehensive overview of the thematic ingredients of the overall synergistic fusion of the Star by People Excellence Domains and their respective Excellence Elements.

TELLING A COHERENT ‘TO BE’ PEOPLE EXCELLENCE STORY

Given story-wise the thematic ingredients making up the overall People Excellence synergistic fusion as reflected in the above table, the complete ‘To Be’ People Story can be told next, based on best thought leadership, research evidence, and leading practices. The story will move from the People Excellence Context through the respective People Excellence Domains: from Identity, Capacity, Delivery, Outcomes, to Relationships. This story will be told from a first person, organisational perspective to give it a personal flavour.

The People Excellence Context

Befitting People Requirements and Specification

We accept that every organisation is embedded in a chosen context: our organisation’s operating arena. Within the operating arena, we have chosen as a vantage point the Strategic Contextual Posture and Engagement Attitude of a Proactive Instigator of Change.

The emerging, new order faced by our organisation – constantly oscillating between Divergence and Convergence, and Order and Chaos – is permeated by Forces of Change which we must grasp well in their ramifications. This sets the People Requirements that are necessary for a good context-organisation-person fit to be attained. According to this emerging, new order, we have formulated the following overarching People Excellence Specification, which directs and guides us in terms of the content we aspire to award to our People Excellence Domains with their respective Elements:

Highly enabled, empowered and resilient people, who strongly identify with and feel valued by the organisation, and are productively and innovatively engaging collaboratively through personally purposeful and meaningful ways, to viably and sustainably create inimitable, delightful experiences for stakeholders.

Our People Excellence Specification provides a fixed reference point of what People Excellence as desired end-state in the final instance must look like when our organisation is achieving exceedingly well, when our people are unlocking real, amazing value and creating worthy, lasting wealth - consistently and continuously - to the amazed delight of our organisation’s stakeholders.

People Excellence Dimension 1: Identity

The appropriate Strategic Positioning of people in the future to contribute to the sustainable success and viability of our organisation: Leadership, Choice, Partnering, Alignment, Differentiation, Ownership

Our organisation has adopted an appropriate mix of shared How (=Transactional), Whereto (=Transformational), and Why (=Transcendental) Leadership, with a predominant weighting of a Transformational/Transcendental Leadership Stance to befit the emerging, new order. Whilst visibly demonstrating people-centric leadership, our leadership enables and empowers our organisation’s people through a productive, healthy Leadership Process.

Our adopted Strategic People Choice of our people being the only true value unlockers and wealth creators in our organisation is central to the continued success and viability of our organisation. Our Choice is reinforced by a commensurate High Commitment/High Involvement Psychosocial Contract of Partnering/Identification with our people.

Given our adopted Strategic People Choice, the People Professionals of our organisation are seen as true Strategic Partners whose value-adding and innovative contributions are eagerly sought out and truly cherished in attaining viable organisational success. In their role as Credible Activists, our People Professionals actively partner as People Experts with the leadership of our organisation to take co-responsibility to bring about and maintain the enabling and empowering conditions under which our organisation’s people can, want to, and do contribute to achieve our organisation’s Purpose and Envisioned Legacy.

We achieve Strategic Alignment by optimising the multiplicative relationships between the constituent pairs of our Organisational Identity and People Imperatives, creating strategic synergy. This alignment finds its expression in our Organisational Effectiveness Equation:

Organisational Effectiveness = f(People Capabilities/Organisational Purpose x People Energy/Organisational Vision x People Legitimacy/Organisational Core Values x People Autonomy/Organisational Goals x People Fulfilment/Organisational Outcomes/Legacy)

At all times, all our people actions are directed and guided by our inimitable, distinct and coherent Strategic People Position, embedded in our organisation’s strategic configuration of a humane World of Work, expressed in a People Charter: Our organisation’s basic beliefs regarding our people; Our Desired People Profile: a comprehensive, integrated picture of the ideal person we want to strategically attract, engage, and retain; and our all-pervasive, compelling People Value Proposition, equating to our People Brand Promise: the compelling reasons why the desired people our organisation wishes to employ will join, engage, and stay with our organisation. Our Strategic People Position is re-affirmed on an ongoing basis by our people’s beliefs about, and daily experiences of Our organisation.

Everyone in our organisation, regardless of level or status, has taken Committed Ownership of our organisation’s Identity, as well as our Strategic People Choice and Position. This committed ownership is both personalised, internalised and externalised, localised into everyone’s role and work space. This committed ownership is all-embracing: physically, cognitively, emotionally, spiritually, and morally.

People Excellence Domain 2: Capacity

The necessary people investment has been made to set up the potentiality in our organisation to perform excellently with our people: Design, Matching, Culture, Practices, Risk

Our organisation has a fit-for-purpose Design that ensures that the right things get done in the right places at the right times by the right people, teams, and units, governed by the necessary checks and balances. Our design is architected around meaningful work: people experience their work – and its resultant outcome – as being of real, lasting significance and worth to themselves and our stakeholders. Because we have moved from a Command-and-Control Organisational Shape to a High Network/High Engagement/High Responsibility Organisational Shape, our design enables and empowers everyone to contribute continuously to create inimitable, memorable experiences for our customers/clients and employees, who for this very reason choose us and stay with us.

In our organisation a Dynamic Matching exists at any given time between our strategically required Core Organisational and People Core Capacities through strong talent pipelines, closely synchronised within our progressively unfolding strategic horizon. At any given time we have the right people in the right numbers at the right time in the right place, who are able, willing, allowed, and want to perform, and are driven by a personalised sense of purpose and meaning.

Our organisation is glued together by a distinct, strong, but flexible Achievement/Caring Organisational Culture – our shared ways of seeing, interpreting, and acting upon the world, i.e., the personality of our organisation – aligned to our Organisational Identity. Our Culture has been translated seamlessly into our organisation’s hard- and software. Though strong, our Culture is flexible enough to adapt easily in response to the Organisation’s Identity changes and/or contextual challenges, demands and requirement shifts.

Specific to our organisation – and reinforcing our People Value Proposition – we have crafted a coherent, strategically aligned bundle of High Commitment/High Involvement People Practices, which solicit Agile, Creative, People Conduct. This bundle has been converted into a powerful people management tool set, enabling, energising, and empowering people to be the very best they can and want to be, and hence thrive and flourish.

We are prepared – proactively and reactively – for the People Risks our organisation may have to deal with at any time. In this way we have enhanced our organisation’s capacity to deal excellently with unexpected, adverse people events. Through learning from such events, we become better prepared to address future people risks even more effectively.

People Excellence Dimension 3: Delivery

Real time, amazing value-unlocking by people, with resultant outstanding organisational performance and success, contributing to a viable organisation: Climate, Balancing, Line of Sight, Resilience, Engagement.

Our organisation is infused at all times by an invigorating Organisational Climate – a collective, positive and healthy vibe – about events, actions, decisions, and experiences in our organisation. Our climate nurtures a high stock of psychosocial capital – a high sense of self-efficacy, optimism, hope, perseverance, and resilience. It also engenders a strong virtue-ality amongst leadership – a high presence of humaneness, courage, open-mindedness, creativity, curiosity, and prudence.

Within the delivery space of our fit-for-purpose design - across all organisational levels and areas - our people ensure through exercising real, moment-by-moment autonomy, that a Dynamic Optimal Balance exists in real time between their work demands and the resources they require to meet these demands. In this way we are not only creating multiple self-management opportunities for our people in which they feel that they are always personally in control of their work settings, but are also engendering high levels of commitment, engagement, performance, and well-being.

In our organisation a clear link exists between Effort - Performance - Valued Recognition/Rewards. Our people believe and experience - individually and severally - that a high likelihood exists that a certain Effort by them will result in a certain Performance. Consequently, that there is a high chance that they will receive the fair, equitable Recognition/Rewards that they deserve and value. We accept that people are unique in what they need and want. Hence, we have different permutations of Recognition/Rewards to fit the different needs and wants of our people.

Our organisation has change-fit people. We thus have a high presence of resilient people with the right change navigation mindset and attitude, who face with robust, quiet confidence the intended change journey of our organisation as the surest way of securing a viable future for our organisation and themselves. Our people ooze Confident Resilience. For us, resilience is the ability of our organisation and people to respond proactively and reactively to expected and unexpected events and changes – whether constructive or destructive – in our operating arena to ensure an ongoing good fit.

Increasingly, our organisation is realising its people potential as manifested in the positive, more-than-expected, upward spiraling of value unlocking and wealth creation by our Highly Engaged People. This is demonstrated in their vigour, dedication, absorption, and collaboration. Our organisation is able to completely harness and utilise the full capability of our people and the effective use of the available resources.

People Excellence Dimension 4: Outcomes

Within its chosen operating arena, ongoing wealth creation for the organisation’s key stakeholders is par for the course: Fulfilment, Success

People in our organisation believe and experience that our organisation is truly delivering on the promise contained in our People Value Proposition, as translated into our People Brand Promise. They are flourishing, and therefore are thriving, resulting in them feeling Fulfilled as whole persons in terms of their Needs (=satisfied), Being/Becoming Dimensions (=maturity and well-being), and Personal Identity (=unique, integrated, robust, continuous).

At any given point in time, we have deep, intelligent insight in real time what our people’s contribution is to the Performance and Success of our organisation, and can even proactively predict their contribution going into the future. This interrogative intelligence is expressed in a systemic, two-sided, multi-dimensional People Balanced Scorecard. The ‘two-sided’ predictive, interrogative Scorecard is used on an ongoing basis by all of our stakeholders to monitor, track, and affect in real time our people contribution and outcomes, and to make wise decisions accordingly.

People Excellence Domain 5: Relationships

An enviable Reputation, setting the standard: Goodwill, Legacy

We live by the mantra that value unlocking and wealth creation by our organisation and people is, in the final instance, about meeting the diverse needs/interests of our multiple stakeholders in a balanced, fair, and equitable manner. In this way, we are connecting the Purpose – our Why – of our organisation with the interests/stakes of our stakeholders. We see social (or relationship) capital – the Goodwill earned by our organisation – as the pre-eminent asset in ensuring our organisation’s continued viability.

Because we put relationships first, our organisation has a high amount of goodwill in the bank with all our stakeholders. This goodwill positively enhances our organisation’s legitimacy, reputation, and trustworthiness. This provides us with the required enabling space in which we can actualise our vision – a component of our Identity.

Being the steward of the assets entrusted by society to us, and by exercising Responsible Leadership, we are passionate about bringing about a Lasting, Worthy Legacy of sustainability: leaving behind a better world for current and future generations. This aspiration is core to the ‘Whereto’ of our organisation’s Identity – the ultimate reason for our organisation’s existence. We have translated and operationalised sustainability into a five-fold legacy, expressed in five interdependent Ps: Productivity, Prosperity, People, Peace, and Planet.

We take corrective action to be, and remain, a good, responsible social citizen through the unfolding, lasting and worthy legacy we are establishing. In this way we also grow the committed ownership by our people to our organisation. They can identify with what we stand for and want to leave behind.

THE ‘AS IS’ PEOPLE EXCELLENCE STORY OF YOUR OWN ORGANISATION WITH THE CONSEQUENTIAL, TO-BE-CLOSED GAP BETWEEN THE ‘TO BE’ AND ‘AS IS’ STATES

An organisation’s ‘As Is’ People Excellence story has to be compared to the above ‘To Be’ People Excellence story to determine the People Creditworthiness of the organisation. The reader had the choice to assess the ‘As Is’ People Excellence story of his/her organisation for the respective Excellence Domains and Elements in working through Article 3 to 8.

The summative assessments for each Domain done along the way, can now be transferred to the table below to arrive at the integrated ‘As Is’ People Excellence story of the reader’s own organisation compared to the desired ‘To be’ People Excellence story (elucidated in the previous section), reflecting the People Creditworthiness of the reader’s organisation. Concurrently, the gap between the ‘As Is’ and ‘To Be’ People Excellence States can also be determined. An ‘In Between’ integrated, change navigation story can now be developed of the People Excellence interventions required by closing this gap to enhance your organisation’s People Creditworthiness.

Next Topic

The journey towards People Excellence – Unleashing continuous, eco-systemic, synergistic fusion with the organisation

Source

Veldsman, Theo H. (2021). The People Excellence Star. A strategic organisational stress test. Johannesburg: KR Publishing

website: www.kr.co.za

#people excellence

0 notes

theoveldsman · 3 years ago

Text

STRESS TESTING THE PEOPLE CREDITWORTHINESS OF ORGANISATIONS: THE PEOPLE EXCELLENCE STAR (8)

THE PEOPLE EXCELLENCE DOMAIN 5 – RELATIONSHIPS: REPUTATION

SETTING THE SCENE

Excellence Domains 1: Identity – Strategic Positioning; 2: Capacity – Potentiality; 3: Delivery - Value Unlocking; and 4: Outcomes – Wealth Created have been stress-tested (cf. Articles 4 to 7). At this point we know our organisation’s People Creditworthiness, and possible interventions, regarding firstly, the strategic positioning of our people in the future viability of our organisation; secondly, whether we have made the required, pro-active people investment to capacitate our organisation for success; thirdly, is our organisation is unlocking value with its people; and fourthly, whether real wealth has been created by the organisation’s people for its stakeholders.

Next, the People Excellence Domain 5: Relationships must be stress-tested.

JOURNEY CO-ORDINATES

Excellence Domain 5: Relationships centres around the reputation the organisation has amongst its key stakeholders within its operating arena in terms of the difference it is making. This Excellence Dimension provides the ultimate stress test of the goodness-of-fit of the organisation within its context, and hence its long-term viability. This goodness-of-fit provides the organisation with its ‘license to operate’ – economically, socially, morally, and spiritually – by its stakeholders within the organisation’s operating arena.

As illustrated in the People Excellence Star below, this Excellence Domain embraces the Excellence Elements of Goodwill and Legacy.

DOMAIN MAKE-UP: RELATIONSHIPS

Excellence Element 19: Goodwill - How much goodwill does the organisation have in the bank with its stakeholders?

Value unlocking and wealth creation by an organisation and its people are ultimately about meeting the diverse needs/interests of multiple stakeholders in a balanced, fair, and equitable manner. It is the way in which the organisation connects the Purpose of its Organisational Identity – its ‘Why’ – with its multiple stakeholders. A stakeholder can be described as anyone - an individual, individuals, groups and/or institutions - that can affect and/or is affected by the actions of the organisation and its people, intended or unintended.

These actions consequently impact on the reputation, legitimacy, and even continued existence of the organisation within its operating arena, embedded in the broader context. It is about setting up and maintaining mutually beneficial relationships with all of the organisation’s stakeholders.

A wide range of diverse stakeholders with multiple needs/interests are the heartbeat of the emerging new order. In this order not only has the range of stakeholders expanded, but their needs/interests have become manifold, and they have become more publicly activistic about them. Empowered by social media, they can mobilise globally, literally in seconds, around an issue.

By giving stakeholders a key place in People Excellence, relationships become the fulcrum of wealth creation by the organisation and its people. Organisations unlock value to create wealth for stakeholders. From this perspective, the organisation equates in its very essence to a complex web (or connectivity) of relationships – internally and externally – which must be formed, nourished, grown, and terminated relative to critical stakeholders.

Put differently, the organisation exists by virtue of an ecosystem of value-adding and wealth-creating relationships. In many quarters it is argued that social (or relationship) capital - the goodwill earned and nurtured by the organisation - has become the most important asset of an organisation. High goodwill with stakeholders provides the organisation with continued access to opportunities, resources, expertise, and capacity because the organisation is seen as reputable, legitimate, credible, and trustworthy.

The wider and more constructive the network of relationships, the more social capital exists because parties can work together in trust. People and social capital are intimately linked in a threefold way: the people of the organisation use networking to get work done; external stakeholders give the organisation a ‘licence to operate’; and, in turn the social stability in society – to which the organisation contributes – allows the organisation to operate more effectively and efficiently. Social capital also bolsters organisational resilience because the organisation can draw on a wider network of resources and support when in a crisis.

By meeting the diverse needs/interests of multiple stakeholders in a balanced, fair, equitable, and purpose-linked manner, the organisation puts goodwill in the bank through the good reputation the organisation has built/is building. Its deep and dense relationships with its stakeholders allow the organisation and its leadership to pursue a longer term, and/or riskier, Vision and/or Strategic Intent. Organisational leadership is trusted and empowered to take bigger, calculated risks. They are given the leeway to take on greater opportunities as they journey into the future in pursuit of even bigger dreams and legacies.

At stake here in terms of People Excellence is:

whether the organisation recognises the full range of all its stakeholders and deals with the complete range of their needs/interests in a balance, fair and equitable fashion; and

the amount of goodwill – i.e., social capital - the organisation has in the bank with each stakeholder because of the degree of mutual benefit grown through relationships.

Excellence Element 20: Legacy - Is the organisation building a lasting, worthy legacy?

Every organisation leaves behind an intended/unintended, tangible/intangible, and positive/negative legacy of some kind for current and upcoming generations. A legacy is the ultimate way the organisation realises the ‘Why” (=Purpose) of its Identity. It hence forms the ultimate rationale for its existence, its ‘Wherefore’. This People Excellence Element deals with the worthiness and durability of the organisation��s legacy: is the organisation creating a better/good tomorrow for all by leaving a lasting, worthy legacy?

Stewardship through sustainability

In Article 3, the ever-widening adoption of the core value orientation of sustainability through stewardship was elucidated. I.e., using the assets entrusted to the organisation by society in such a way as to leave the world a better place for future generations. Put in a different way: Is the organisation a good social citizen? The make-up of a lasting, worthy legacy of the organisation from a People Excellence vantage point in terms of sustainability can be expressed in five, interdependent Ps (an extension of the triple bottom line of Profit, People, and Planet):

Productivity – the effective and efficient use of resources by the organisation

Prosperity – wealth creation by all that is fairly and equitably distributed to all

People – engendering the well-being of and care for people

Peace – promoting harmony and co-operation (read, inclusion) between and within diverse people, communities, and society

Planet - nurturing and protecting the ecological well-being of universe, environmental footprint of organisation

Pro-actively and re-actively, Sustainability with respect to the above 5Ps can be described in terms of four actions, 4Rs:

Recover what has been lost;

Renew what exists;

Restore to the necessary/ desired level/state; and

Retain at the desired level/state

Responsible Leadership

The quest to leave a lasting, worthy legacy necessitates Responsible Leadership. It refers to leadership that seeks to realise virtuously - i.e., in an ethical manner as directed by an inner moral compass - the common good in a balanced, fair, and equitable way for all the organisation’s stakeholders and society at large. It is about leaving the world a better place for upcoming generations by doing good and avoiding harm.

This leadership reaches beyond the confines of their own organisational boundaries into the context in which their organisation is embedded. Responsible Leadership gives practical substance to the organisation’s role as a genuine social citizen, inter alia expressed in terms of its corporate social responsibility (=CSR).

Responsible Leadership aligns the organisation’s Identity with its context. It complements the people-centric, servant leadership which forms the departure point for People Excellence in the organisation (see Excellence Question 1: Leadership). Whereas Responsible Leadership connects the organisation with its context, Servant Leadership focuses internally on making the organisation’s people flourish and thrive.

However, Responsible Leadership permeates - from the ‘outside-in’ - the organisation’s inner context with its external duty as an active social citizen. A foundational loop has now been closed for People Excellence. It starts and ends with leadership which in the final instance must provide a ‘Why’ to the existence of the organisation - its Purpose - and Legacy – its ‘Whereto’ - which now becomes societally shared, endorsed, and legitimatised.

To the degree that good social citizenship forms part of the organisation’s Identity – as manifested in the exercise of genuine corporate social responsibility – people with the same moral identity will be more affectively committed to the organisation; see their work as more meaningful; and are more highly engaged.

People Excellence necessitates that the organisation monitors and tracks its unfolding legacy through real time, integrated sustainability reporting, which it discloses publicly. It takes corrective action accordingly in order to be, remain, and be seen as a good social citizen. The organisation publicly shows how it is doing good and avoiding harm.

SYNERGISTIC FUSION: LEGITIMACY

Synergistically, Reputation regarding Excellence Domain 5 encompasses the organisation having a high amount of goodwill in the bank with all of its stakeholders; positively enhancing its legitimacy, reputation, and trustworthiness amongst its stakeholders; and, enabling the actualisation of the organisation’s Identity, specifically its Purpose as Why; and leaving behind a lasting, worthy legacy, its Whereto.

The figure below, highlighted in the coloured circle, the above Excellence synergy graphically in the form of the fifth, and final, building block in a now full People Excellence Value Chain.

Again, it is important to note in the above figure the reciprocal independencies of recursive, iterative matching between the Excellence elements making up this Excellence Domain - Goodwill and Legacy - and also between the Excellence Domains: Outcomes and Relationships. Furthermore, the feedback relationship of this Excellence Domain to the preceding Excellence Domains.

The state of this Excellence Domain as an ultimate stress test of the goodness-of-fit of the organisation with its context will over time strengthen or erode People Excellence in the preceding Domains by accelerating either the upward spiralling virtuous or a downward spiralling vicious cycles of People Excellence within those Domains.

The essence of the synergistic fusion in the dimension lies in Legitimacy. This is expressed in the organisation being awarded ‘a licence to exist and operate’ by the communities and society in which it is embedded, and publicly showing how it is doing good and avoiding harm.

LEADING PRACTICES

People Excellence Element 19: Goodwill - the organisation has a high amount of goodwill in the bank with all its stakeholders because it meets their diverse needs/interests in a balanced, fair and equitable manner, deeply connecting them with the organisation’s Purpose (=’Why’), which positively enhances its legitimacy, reputation, trustworthiness, and ultimately, its viability.

People Excellence Element 20: Legacy - the organisation is leaving behind a lasting, worthy legacy. It is creating a better/good tomorrow for all to the benefit of all through the exercise of Responsible Leadership by doing good and avoiding harm.

Next Topic

People Excellence as synergistic fusion energising the organisation

Source

Veldsman, Theo H. (2021). The People Excellence Star. A strategic organisational stress test. Johannesburg: KR Publishing

website: www.kr.co.za

#people excellence

0 notes

theoveldsman · 3 years ago

Text

STRESS TESTING THE PEOPLE CREDITWORTHINESS OF ORGANISATIONS: THE PEOPLE EXCELLENCE STAR (7)

THE PEOPLE EXCELLENCE DOMAIN 4 – OUTCOMES: WEALTH CREATED

SETTING THE SCENE

In Articles 4 to 6 The Excellence Domains 1: Identity – Strategic Positioning 2: Capacity – Potentiality; and 3: Delivery – Value Unlocking have been stress-tested.

At this point, we know our organisation’s People Creditworthiness and possible interventions regarding, firstly, whether we have chosen the right strategic positioning of our people that will ensure a high likelihood of the sustainable, future success of our organisation; secondly, whether we have pro-actively capacitated our organisation through the required investment for excellent people delivery, and hence for continued viable, organisational success; and, thirdly, knowing whether our organisation is unlocking outstanding value with our people to the continuing, amazed delight of our stakeholders?

Next, the People Excellence Domain 4: Outcomes must be stress-tested.

JOURNEY CO-ORDINATES

The People Excellence Domain 4: Outcomes deals with the results flowing from our organisation’s people performance: Wealth Created. Although only discussed now, this Domain, as well as Excellence Domain 5: Relationships, (to be discussed in Article 8) are Domains to be tracked and monitored all the time, in real time, providing in-time insight into the effect and impact of the preceding three Domains: Identity, Capacity, and Delivery - individually and in combination - and taking corrective action.

Thus, it may be useful to construct and activate Domains 4 and 5 in parallel to Domains 2: Capacity and 3: Delivery - to commence the monitoring and tracking of the latter two Domains as they are being rolled out and impacting. In this way, one will be able to take corrective action from the word ‘Go’. Domains 1: Identity does need to be in place first, however, as a precondition.

A further interesting angle to take in enhancing People Excellence in an organisation is to work ‘backwards’ by using the actual People Excellence manifested in Domains 4 and 5: Relationships to provide clues to prioritise the needed People Excellence interventions in the preceding three Excellence Domains: Identity, Capacity and Delivery.

As illustrated in the People Excellence Star below, Excellence Domain 4: Outcomes encompasses the Excellence Elements of Fulfilment and Success. Each is discussed in turn in the order listed.

DOMAIN MAKE-UP: OUTCOMES

Excellence Element 17: Fulfilment - Do the people of the organisation believe and experience in real time that the organisation is truly delivering on its People Brand Promise?

This Excellence Element within the Outcomes Excellence Domain, refers to the people-centric Outcome resulting from all the preceding Excellence Domains. The organisational Outcome, also within this Domain, is addressed by Excellence Element 18: Success (to be discussed next).

To be truly significant, organisational members’ belief in, and experience of, flourishing through thriving to fulfilment in the organisation, and vice versa, must be all embracing, and cover the whole person in all of his/her integrated, systemic, and organic complexity: Needs-Being/Becoming Domains-Personal Identity. The organisation’s people must believe and experience that they are the best they can be, want to be, and aspire to be, now and going into the future.

This discussion is graphically illustrated in the figure below in terms of people as complex, multi-dimensional, holistic beings, in a state of ongoing becoming, in satisfying their needs, and moulding their identity.

The People Brand Promise Journey

The experiential delivery of the organisation’s People Brand Promise as contained in its People Value Proposition (PVP) is not a single, once-off event. It is an unfolding, iterative journey of ongoing, successive states of experiential delivery on the Promise as expressed in the Brand across the total organisational landscape, covering all the People Excellence Domains. The Brand is a dynamic verb, not a static noun. The People Brand promise is thus both content and process simultaneously. This journey is depicted in the figure below.

According to the above, the People Brand journey consists of the crafting, explicitly or implicitly, of a Desired People Brand containing the People Brand Promise (Excellence Question 5: Differentiation). Next, is the everyday operationalisation of the Desired Brand through Talking (=Projected Brand) and Walking (=Lived Brand) by the organisation, in particular its leadership. Talking and Walking is the difference between what is espoused and enacted in the organisation, such as the espoused vs. enacted design (including meaningful work or not); awarded vs. exercised autonomy; and stated vs. perceived people practices.

Jointly, the Projected and Lived Brands generate the Experienced Brand - the Promise - as concretely experienced by organisational members – prospective and current. This Experienced Brand gives rise to the Real Brand: ‘This is what our organisation truly is known and stand for; is experienced according to our people’s thinking, feeling, deciding, responding, and doing; and in truly delivering on its People Brand Promise’.

However, the Desired and Real Brands may differ significantly in the eyes of the organisation’s people. The Real People Brand is how the People Brand Promise is believed and experienced as being actually and truly being delivered on. It is how the expectations contained in, and conveyed by, the Desired People Brand are realised through the totality of the successive, lived experiences of the Brand – from Desired, through Projected and Lived to Experienced – by people, individually and collectively - in their interactions with the organisation in real time, all the time.

The Real People Brand equates to the active People Brand Image. In turn, the Real People Brand has a certain People Brand Impact: to what degree do people genuinely feel fulfilled because they are thriving, given the actual delivery on the People Brand Promise? Successive Brands, constituting the unfurling Brand journey, feedback to earlier Brands. Ideally, the feedback must result in iterative adjustments and re-inventions in earlier Brands in order to meet the Brand Promise closer.

If kept, the People Brand Promise sets the organisation up for an upward spiralling, virtuous cycle of even higher levels of People Excellence because of the growing, experienced fulfilment by its people going into the future, especially because of higher levels of committed ownership and engagement. Concurrently, the organisation is increasingly experienced as trustworthy and authentic. It delivers on what it promises/promised.

People-wise, the future likely viability of the organisation – performance- and success-wise – is growing in security because of the ever-increasing positive cycle of truly delivering on the People Brand Promise, expressive of the organisation’s PVP – and is experienced as such by its people.

Excellence Element 18: Success - Does the organisation have real time, in time, interrogative intelligence regarding the contribution of its people towards its success and ultimate viability? As was stated above, Excellence Question 18: Fulfilment deals with a people-centric Outcome view: how fulfilled people believe and experience they are relative to the organisation’s Real People Brand. Excellence Question 19: Success takes an organisation-centric Outcome view.

It refers to the real time, in time, interrogative intelligence available in the organisation regarding the contribution of its people towards its continued viability according to the actual organisational outcomes achieved, particularly the value unlocking and wealth creation by its people. The organisation is applying intelligence-based insights instead of opinion, conventional wisdom, positional power, and/or the popular fads of the moment.

Achievement People Balanced Scorecard

An organisation-centric Outcome view, this requires, firstly, an Achievement People Balanced Scorecard (or Dashboard) that shows, monitors, and tracks in real-time in an integrated, systemic, multi-dimensional way the contributions of the organisation’s people to intended/desired organisational outcomes. The figure below gives an example of what such an Achievement People Balanced Scorecard could look like.

Inter alia, the suggested metrics included in the Scorecard must be derived from the Organisation’s Identity, specifically its Strategic Intent. The type and number of metrics included in the Scorecard must be chosen based on at least the following principles: (i) ‘Less is more’; (ii) the Pareto principle of ‘The 20% that will tell the 80%’ story’; (iii) an ‘Outside-In’, ‘Outcome-based’ analytical perspective; and (iv) be at the requisite Level of Work (LOW), in this case LOW4: Strategic Translation and Implementation.

The Scorecard is to be used in real time to access, report, recognise, and celebrate organisational achievements and successes. In this way, it is building and nurturing committed ownership and engagement amongst organisational members in real time. The Achievement People Balanced Scorecard must be owned, and used for strategic insight and action by the organisation’s Board, leadership, people, and even other external stakeholders like investors.

At most the role of the organisation’s People Professionals is to prepare and report on the Scorecard. All organisational members must be kept always informed on how the organisation is doing on an ongoing basis, such that they can take insightful, corrective action in their areas of accountability.

The most advanced evolutionary stage regarding the Achievement People Balanced Scorecard is when a sophisticated statistical measurement model – either a predictive linkage model or a decision-making algorithm – has been empirically validated for its portfolio of metrics to establish an Intelligent Balanced Scorecard. Such a model or algorithm will show the empirical interdependency between the variables contained in the organisation’s Achievement People Balanced Scorecard, allowing for the exploration of bold predictions and scenarios in a forward-looking, strategic manner, and not remaining locked in a historical, backward-looking picture.

In this way, intelligent prognoses can be made regarding the expected future people contributions also as the result of possible People Excellence interventions, focusing on different dimensions of the People Balanced Scorecard. Proactive, predictive actions can also be taken. This means opportunities can be capitalised on; risks can be mitigated; and organisational resilience can be bolstered.

Interrogative People Balanced Scorecard

Secondly, the Achievement People Balanced Scorecard given in the previous figure can be turned into an Interrogative People Balanced Scorecard, addressing ‘Why’, ‘Whereto’, ‘Who’, ‘What’ and ‘Where’ questions regarding the metrics reported on. In this way, the Achievement and Interrogative Balanced Scorecards become two sides of the same coin. An example of an Interrogative Scorecard is given in the figure below with example questions.

All-in-all, between the two Balanced Scorecards discussed above, a sequence of interventions can be established enabled by the linkage model/decision-making algorithm and interrogative questions, triggering a multiplier effect. This is akin to a strategic map that can be crafted for intelligently sequenced, interventions. The organisation has thus capacitated itself with future-driven, predictive, people intelligence turned into intelligent insight. It can now become an architect of its future, and not a victim because it is directed and guided by intelligent insight.

SYNERGISTIC FUSION: INTELLIGENT INSIGHT

Synergistically, Wealth Created regarding Excellence Domain 4: Outcomes entails the organisation’s people believing and experiencing that the organisation is truly delivering on its People Brand Promise, as expressed in its People Value Proposition. They feel genuinely fulfilled because they are flourishing and thriving. People’s contributions to the organisational performance and success are related, monitored, tracked, predicted, interrogated, and acted upon using real time, in time, proactive people intelligence.

The figure below depicts the above Excellence synergy graphically in the form of the fourth building block towards a full People Excellence Value Chain, highlighted in the coloured circle.

Again, it is important to note the reciprocal interdependencies of recursive, iterative matching between the Excellence elements making up this Excellence Domain. In particular to note, are the feedback relationships of this Excellence Domain with the preceding Excellence Domains: Identity, Capacity, and Delivery. Over time these relationships can ‘pour fuel’ on the upward-spiralling virtuous or downward-spiralling vicious cycles of People Excellence in these Domains, further strengthening or eroding People Excellence within them.

The essence of the synergistic fusion in this Domain lies in Intelligent Insight. Intelligent Insight entails understanding when, how, and with whom to do what. In the final instance, Intelligent Insight refers to Practice Wisdom.

LEADING PRACTICES

People Excellence Element 17: Fulfilment - the people of the organisation feel genuinely fulfilled as whole persons because they believe and experience unambiguously that their organisation is truly delivering on its People Brand Promise as contained its PVP in real time, all the time.

People Excellence Element 18: Success - the organisation has real time, in time, predictive, interrogative People Intelligence turned into Intelligent Insight in place to monitor, track, and affect in real time the people contribution to organisational success and viability, used by all stakeholders.

Next Topic

The People Excellence Domain 5 – Relationships: Reputation

Source

Veldsman, Theo H. (2021). The People Excellence Star. A strategic organisational stress test. Johannesburg: KR Publishing

website: www.kr.co.za

STRESS TEST

#People Excellence

0 notes

theoveldsman · 3 years ago

Text

STRESS TESTING THE PEOPLE CREDITWORTHINESS OF ORGANISATIONS: THE PEOPLE EXCELLENCE STAR (6)

THE PEOPLE EXCELLENCE DOMAIN 3 – DELIVERY: VALUE UNLOCKING

SETTING THE SCENE

In Articles 4 and 5 respectively, the Excellence Domains 1: Identity – Strategic Positioning and 2: Capacity – Potentiality have been stress-tested. At this point, we know our organisation’s People Creditworthiness and possible interventions regarding, firstly, the strategic positioning of our people in the sustainable, future success of our organisation through the strategic people choices we have made. Secondly, whether the necessary people potentiality (or investment) has been made to set up the required People Excellence conditions for thriving people, outstanding organisational performance, and success, making the organisation viable going into the future.

Next, the People Excellence Domain 3: Delivery must be stress-tested.

JOURNEY CO-ORDINATES

The Strategic People choices made in Excellence Domain 1: Identity set the strategic parameters for putting in place the necessary conditions for the organisation’s people to flourish and thrive; delight stakeholders; and contribute to making and keeping the organisation viable in Excellence Domain 2: Capacity. The mere potentiality contained in the created capacity (=our people investment) must be realised in Excellence Domain 3: Delivery. Hence, the created potential capacity of Domain 2 either enables or constrains actual delivery in Domain 3.

As illustrated in the People Excellence Star below, the Excellence Domain 3: Delivery, encompasses the five Excellence Elements of Climate, Balance, Line of Sight, Resilience, and Engagement.

DOMAIN MAKE-UP: DELIVERY

Excellence Element 12: Is the organisation infused by an invigorating Organisational Climate?

Organisational Culture was described in Article 5 as the institutionalised glue holding the organisation together daily in a distinct, shared way, i.e., its personality (see Excellence Element 9: Culture). It is the ingrained, shared ways of seeing, interpreting, and doing things in the organisation. In contrast Organisational Climate refers to the ongoing, varying mood (or vibe) permeating the organisation, often because of its Organisational Culture. It is the way things are experienced daily by people in the organisation. Organisational Culture is thus more fixed and durable, whilst Organisational Climate is more variable and temporary.

Organisational climate is the ‘touchable atmosphere’ and style with which people work together in the organisation – the ‘spirit and mood’ imbuing the organisation. It is the ‘smell and feel of the place’. The atmosphere can be comfortable, bearable, or uncomfortable, unbearable. Analogous to weather conditions that can be sunny, fine, rainy, or cold, Organisational Climate is either performance-enhancing/caring, or performance-demotivating/toxic. Like Organisational Culture, leadership plays a key role in engendering the Organisational Climate that exists in the organisation.

Organisational Climate arises out of the joint sense and meanings that organisational members as a collectivy award to their persoanl, daily experiences within and of the organisation and fellow organisational members. This results in commonly shared perceptions, thoughts, judgements, and feelings about the ruling mood pervading the organisation. The ruling mood is co-constructed by organisational members from their shared daily experiences-of, attributions-made-to, sense-making-of, and meanings-awarding-to organisational aspects, such as organisational goals, policies and standards, practices, work structures and processes, authority and accountability, relationships, leadership, recognition/rewards, organisational events, and achievements. But, in particular the People Practices in force with their translation into a people management tool set, applied daily in the organisation.

An ideal Organisational Climate nurtures and affirms the dignity and worth of individuals. It creates a psychologically safe space (=I can be who I am, want to be, and aspire to be without any come-backs); provides meaningfulness (=My work is worthwhile and of value); and makes a person psychologically available (=I am present, prepared, and willing to take the risk associated with engaging and contributing fully). Concurrently, an invigorating Organisational Climate engenders empowering, meaningful work experiences, resulting in positive views of leadership and strong followership. In this way, the physiological, psychosocial, and spiritual (not to be equated to religious) well-being of leadership and followers are grown, engendered, and sustained. They are flourishing and, hence are thriving. In this way they feel fulfilled.

An invigorating climate nurtures a “virtuosa” organisation which can be characterised as having:

a high ‘stock’ of psychosocial capital amongst organisational members – high levels of self-efficacy, optimism, hope, perseverance, courage, and resilience; and

a strong virtue-ality, modelled by the organisation’s leadership, manifested in a high presence of humaneness, truthfulness, open-mindedness, justice, creativity, curiosity, and prudence amongst leadership. The qualities of outstanding leadership listed under Excellence Element 1: Leadership also nurture this modelling: legitimacy, inspiration, humility, integrity, ethical, and authenticity.

Excellence Element 13: Balancing - Is the right balance achieved in real time delivery across the organisation between work demands and available resources through the autonomy exercised?

Real time delivery requires always maintaining across the whole organisation, the right balance between the work demands imposed and the resources required to meet those demands in order to deliver effectively and efficiently. Work demands entail the range, variety, and complexity of the tasks to be performed. I.e., the responsibilities allocated (architected through the organisational design) with the accompanying sumtotal of required energy needed to perform those tasks – physically, physiologically, psychosocially, socio-culturally, and spiritually. Resources refer to the available means (or enablers) to get the work done, which also can be physical, physiological, psychosocial, socio-cultural and/or spiritual in nature.

Autonomy awardedencompasses the freedom given (or the power/authority to act) to the party concerned to set the goals and make decisions to take the necessary actions to do the work with the available resources at hand relative to the work demands. And if necessary, making the necessary adjustments to bring the work demands and available resources into balance. Important is the distinction between the autonomy awarded and actually taken up by the party concerned. A party may be awarded high autonomy, but may be unwilling to exercise it due to psychologically unsafe conditions, internally and/or externally. The autonomy awarded and exercised (i.e., taken up), represents the ‘action space’ given to the party concerned, creating the opportunity for him to exercise agility, responsiveness, adaptability, and flexibility.

Finding this balance is an ongoing juggling game, made possible through the autonomy awarded to, and taken up by, the party concerned to affect the work-resources required balance, whether it is an individual, team, unit, or organisational level. At the individual/team level, this balancing act, exercised through the taken-up autonomy is called ‘job/team crafting’. Crafting entails the degree to which Work Team members/Work Role incumbents - in self-initiated and -directed ways - exercise the right to change the design of their work by shaping, moulding and redefining it in a (semi-) permanent way.

The figure below graphically summarises the above discussion.

Excellence Element 14: Does a clear line of sight exist in the organisation between Effort – Performance - Valued Recognition/Rewards?

People Excellence necessitates a clear line of sight between Effort-Performance-Valued Recognition/ Rewards in the organisation. People must believe, and then during delivery actually experience - both individually and collectively - that a certain Effort by them will result in a certain Performance. Consequently, they must believe that there is a high chance that they will receive fair, equitable Recognition/Rewards which they value as a return on their Performance.

A clear line of sight will invoke in people a strong sense of flow at work: a state of consciousness in which they will become totally immersed and absorbed in their work, enjoy it, and be intrinsically motivated by it. The higher the autonomy awarded/exercised by people (see Excellence Element 13: Balancing above), the more they themselves can ensure/craft a clear line of sight, which inversely further strengthen their sense of flow.

A clear line of sight will create a ‘pull’, instead of a ‘Push’, effect in the organisation: from Recognition/Rewards back through Performance to Effort. However, this pull is dependent on whether the Recognition/Rewards on offer by in the organisation to its people for the Effort exerted, and the Performance attained, are attractive to the individuals concerned. They place a high value them.

Highly valued Recognition/Rewards demand that different types and permutations of them exist in the organisation, attractive to different groups of organisational members as a function of differentiated segmentations of the organisation’s people, as contained in the organisation’s (segmented) People Value Proposition (see Excellence Element 5: Differentiation).

People thrive when their specific permutation of basic needs – meaning/purpose, actualisation, competence, autonomy, belonging (or relatedness) and security (including existence) – across all their Domains of Being/Becoming as embedded in their Personal Identity, are fulfilled through the Valued Recognition/Rewards they receive for their Effort and Performance.

Excellence Element 15: Resilience - Are the people of the organisation change-fit?

The emerging new order is infused by continuous, radical, and fundamental change against the backdrop of the shift from Complicated Contexts of Unknown Knowns to Complex Contexts of Unknown Unknowns, and even Chaotic Contexts of Unknowables. The frequency and severity of wicked challenges, issues, and problems - interspersed by Black Swans - are on the increase. Change is the only constant. The emerging new order imposes the imperative of ongoing, relentless, disruptive innovation as THE critical strategic renewal success factor for future-ready and -fit organisations to meet their aspiration to remain viable in the ‘creative, compelling, memorable experience-based’ economy.

Organisations are on a never-ending change journey of re-imagining and re-inventing themselves, requiring change-fit people who are enabled and empowered by effective change navigation and leadership. We are in the era of ‘always on’ transformation. It is the age of continuous discontinuities. People Excellence in the emerging new order thus necessitates change-fit people because of the continuous, fundamental, and radical changes in all four of the reciprocally interdependent worlds in which people are embedded. The figure below depicts the four worlds in which organisational members – as a collaborating action community, tied together by a shared Psychosocial Contract(s) – are embedded.

In the emerging new order People Excellence equates to having people who are at all times change-fit in all four of the worlds depicted in the figure above, relative to the never-ending change journey of their organisation. Change-fitness in the emerging new order implies a shift in Worlds 1 and 2 regarding the change navigation mindset and attitude of the people making up the action community. This will establish the right foundation upon which to build and maintain confident resilience in Worlds 3 and 4 as a Core Organisational Capability. This foundation provides the organisation and its people with the right set of glasses (World 1) and engagement style (World 2) to navigate change in Worlds 3 and 4.

Within these Worlds, four possible responses can be distinguished: Freeze, Fight, Flee, or Face. In terms of People Excellence, only the Face response reflects change-fit people. A ‘Face’ response is the change-fit ability of organisational members to engage - constructively, positively, and maturely - with whatever change they are confronted by within the framework of what they want to achieve, collectively and organisationally, over time. They honestly acknowledge and enthusiastically engage with the deep change(s) their organisation is undergoing in the ‘In-Between’ state, located between the ‘As Is’ and ‘To Be’ states. By facing the change in this way, the likelihood is high that they will thrive.

Core to change-fit people and their organisations, able to face the change, is resilience. Resilience refers to the ability of an organisation and its members to respond proactively and/or reactively to expected and unexpected events and changes – whether constructive or destructive – in its operating arena to better fit in, such that it strengthens and retains its continued viability. In short, it is the ability to bounce back to the necessary/desired state/level of functioning, either proactively by anticipating an event/change, or reactively to an unexpected event/change after it has occurred. The latter response has been the conventional definition of resilience. However, the emerging new order demands additionally that organisations – concurrently and proactively – build resilience.

Resilience enables organisational members to confidently adopt a ‘Face’ response to changing events, persons, and circumstances. They convey an overall sense of being efficaciously in control of the change they face relative to their intended destiny. They are not a victim of the change rushing upon them. People with confident resilience do not shy away from, rationalise, scale down, or resist change. For them dealing with change is par for the course. They face up to the change. They know and accept that in successfully addressing the ever-present change needs of their organisation, they are ensuring a future for themselves and their organisation.

They also understand and accept that at best only dynamic stability, and not permanent stability, can be achieved in their organisation, because change in the emerging new order is innate and continuous. Like taking ownership of their organisation’s Identity, they take ownership of and translate the ever-present, re-interpreted change need(s), as well as their response to it, into their work roles, daily work and work settings. The need for change, and the associated actions required to satisfy change needs, is not seen as an executive/senior leadership matter – it is everyone’s responsibility.

Excellence Element 16: Engagement - How engaged are people in their work?

The awarded/taken up autonomy (Excellence Element 13: Balancing above) has created the ‘action space’ in which an organisation’s change-fit people (Excellence Element 15: Resilience above) can engage with their designated work - contained in their Work Roles located in the organisational design - in meaningful waysin pursuit of highly Valued Recognition/Rewards (Excellence Element 14: Line of Sight above).

The preconditions exist for people to now become and be personally engaged by taking up their work through unlocking real, amazing value and creating worthy, lasting wealth - consistently and continuously - to the continuing, amazed delight of the organisation’s beneficiaries. In a sense, engagement is the ultimate climax to, and destination of, the overall People Excellence journey. People are realising consistently high returns on the people investment made by their organisations through the People Excellence preconditions that were set up to engender high engagement, as sketched in the Excellence Domain 2: Capacity. People are thus performing outstandingly in an upwardly spiralling cycle of increasing value unlocking and wealth creation, in turn enhancing organisational performance and viability all round.

High engagement entails the strong identification - and hence the deep, energetic immersion - of people as whole persons with and in their work as contained in their work and Work Roles. Engagement is above and beyond the ‘normal call of duty’ – physically, physiologically, psychosocially, socio-culturally, and spiritually – in pursuit of gaining Valued Recognition/Rewards that can fulfil their basic needs and give expression to their Personal Identity. It is the extra, over-and-above, personal investment – body, mind, soul, and spirit – that a person is willing to make in their work to achieve desirable ends, personally and for their team, colleagues, organisational unit, and organisation. People are flourishing in their work, hence are thriving, and feel fulfilled.

Whereas committed ownership (=Excellence Element 6: Ownership) relates to an affective attachment to the organisation per se, as well as what it stands for; engagement refers to an affective attachment to one’s designated work. To use a sports metaphor: committed ownership is about getting into a chosen game, and sticking to it. Engagement is about playing the game enthusiastically: body, mind, soul, and spirit.

People’s deep, energetic immersion with and in their work also is manifested in a ‘Beyond Self’ engagement with their team, colleagues, organisational unit, organisation, and beyond. This ‘Beyond Self’ engagement strengthens people’s sense of belonging and their committed ownership (=Excellence Element 6: Ownership).

SYNERGISTIC FUSION: MULTIPLICATION

Synergistically, Value Unlocking regarding Excellence Domain 3: Delivery embraces infusing the organisation with an invigorating Organisational Climate – a conducive, positive vibe - nurturing a high stock of psychosocial capital and virtue-ality; the achievement in real time delivery across the organisation because of an optimal balancing between work demands and required resources through the appropriate autonomy being awarded and taken up; establishing a clear line of sight between Effort-Performance-Valued Recognition/Rewards; and growing through ongoing learning, change-fit people with the right change navigation mindset and attitude, who demonstrate confident resilience; and highly engaged people, performing outstandingly, individually and collaboratively.

The figure below depicts in the coloured circle the above Excellence synergy graphically in the form of the third building block towards a full People Excellence Value Chain.

Again, it is important to note the reciprocal independencies and dynamic, organic coherence between all the Excellence elements making up this Excellence Domain. Firstly, the progressive, sequential, linear alignment order of the five Excellence Elements: Climate, through Balancing, Line of Sight, Resilience, to Engagement (i.e., the order of the discussion above). Secondly, the enabling conditions that Climate provides to the four other Excellence Elements. Hence its placement in the figure behind the other four Elements’ blocks. Thirdly, the leveraging role that Balancing, Line of Sight, and Resilience play with respect to Engagement within an enabling Climate.

Like all the previous Excellence Domains, over time the reciprocal interdependencies form either an upward spiraling virtuous cycle or a downward spiraling vicious cycle of People Excellence conditions. The essence of the synergistic fusion in this Domain lies in Multiplication: Going forward, later Elements strengthen the effects of earlier Elements. And then recursively, the effects of later Elements further strengthen the effects of earlier Elements.

Again in the figure, the extended lines for Leadership and Ownership serve to indicate their onward influence on the other two, still-to-be-discussed, Excellence Domains. Also, the direct connection between Leadership and Climate, through to Engagement, illustrates their intimate, co-variant relationship. It also implies that Climate is a critical enabler that leadership can use to engender Engagement, and then multiply its effect through Balancing, Line of Sight, and Resilience.

LEADING PRACTICES

People Excellence Element 12: Climate - the presence of an Invigorating Organisational Climate, engendering psychological safety, in this way nurturing a high stock of psychosocial capital and virtue-ality in the organisation, recursively nurturing an even more Invigorating Climate.

People Excellence Element 13: Balancing - the achievement of an optimal balance between work demands and required resources through the appropriate autonomy being awarded and taken up across the organisation, to create the opportunity for high levels of people commitment, engagement, performance, and well-being.

People Excellence Element 14: Line of Sight - a clear link exists between Effort-Performance-Valued Recognition/Rewards in the organisation, aligned to different segmentations of people’s needs, and wants in the organisation.

People Excellence Element 15: Resilience – a high presence of resilient people with the right change-navigating mindsets and attitudes, who own and embrace with robust, quiet confidence the intended change journey of the organisation as the surest way of securing a viable future for their organisation and themselves. Posed in the negative: the absence/low frequency of a high prevalence of Bad Stress, Burnout and Derailment because people are change-fit.

People Excellence Element 16: Engagement - the majority of the organisation’s people (> 75%) are highly engaged – demonstrated in high levels of vigour, dedication, absorption, and collaboration – unlocking more value and creating greater wealth than what is normally expected – resulting in delighted stakeholders and an ongoing viable organisation.

Next Topic

The People Excellence Domain 7 – Outcomes: Wealth Created

Source

Veldsman, Theo H. (2021). The People Excellence Star. A strategic organisational stress test. Johannesburg: KR Publishing

website: www.kr.co.za

#people excellence

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theoveldsman · 3 years ago

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STRESS TESTING THE PEOPLE CREDITWORTHINESS OF ORGANISATIONS: THE PEOPLE EXCELLENCE STAR (5)

THE PEOPLE EXCELLENCE DOMAIN 2 – CAPACITY: POTENTIALITY

SETTING THE SCENE

In Article 4, the Excellence Domain 1: Identity has been stress-tested: Has the strategic positioning of people in the future, viable success of the organisation been explicitly deliberated, chosen, and rolled out? Put slightly differently, has the right strategic foundation regarding people been laid by adopting the right strategic thinking framework regarding flourishing and thriving people? Metaphorically, are we in the right place with our people for what we are setting out to achieve?

At this point, we know our organisation’s people creditworthiness in this Excellence Domain (=Leadership, Choice, Partnering, Alignment, Differentiation, and Ownership); we understand what our strengths and weaknesses are; and we have pointers towards the strategic interventions needed to close the excellence gap. As noted before, this Excellence Domain creates the strategic parameters for setting up the subsequent Domains.

Next, Excellence Domain 2: Capacity must be stress-tested.

JOURNEY CO-ORDINATES

The thrust of Excellence Domain 2: Capacity is Potentiality. It deals with the overarching Excellence Element of whether the organisation has put in place the necessary conditions to engender, nurture, grow, and maintain People Excellence in the organisation within the strategic parameters set by the Excellence Domain 1: Identity. These conditions create the potential space for the organisation’s people to flourish and thrive; delight stakeholders; and contribute to making and keeping the organisation viable.

However, the created capacity of Excellence Domain 2: Capacity is mere potentiality which must be realised in Excellence Domain 3: Delivery by the organisation’s people in terms of value unlocking. Thus the key question regarding Excellence Domain 2: Capacity under discussion here is: Has the organisation made the required, upfront people investment to create the potentiality for it to be a viable organisation through attaining an unassailable competitive edge with its people?

Excellence Domain 2: Capacity is informed by the iron cast principle – one gets what one invests in and for. From another angle, this Excellence Domain is about the ‘people readiness’ of the organisation for its unfolding, strategic journey into the future to successfully realise its Identity within Excellence Domain 3: Delivery. No Capacity, no Delivery. No investment, no performance.

As illustrated in the People Excellence Star below, Excellence Domain 2: Capacity encompasses the five Excellence Elements of Design, Matching, Culture, Practices, and Risk.

DOMAIN MAKE-UP: CAPACITY

Excellence Element 7: Design - Does the organisation have a fit-for-purpose organisational design, architected around meaningful work?

Organisational design (or architecture) (OD) refers to the Operating Model of the organisation. It entails the ‘delivery logic’ set up by organisation to establish, unlock, and deliver ongoing value for its stakeholders. It pertains to how the required work of the organisation must be allocated, done, and governed. The design of the organisation provides the designated boundaries of accountability, responsibility, and authority regarding the work to be done within and by the organisation. A fit-for-purpose design must ensure that the right things get done in the right places at the right times by the right people, teams, and units, governed by the necessary checks and balances.

A fit-for-purpose OD, providing the conditions for People Excellence, must ultimately be people-centric. Meaningful work has been found to be the most important People Excellence indicator of a people-centric OD as it allows people to thrive and flourish. Meaningful work implies a direct line of sight to the organisation’s Purpose as contained in its Identity. Meaningfulness pertains to the degree to which people experience their work – and its resultant outcome – as being of real, lasting significance and worth to them: (i) by becoming more of oneself through one’s work; (ii) by allowing one to express one’s true self; (iii) by binding one with others in a deep way; and (iv) by making a true difference through the value one’s work delivers to stakeholders.

As worthy work, meaningfulness pertains to: (i) doing well: work that is good in itself; (ii) doing with: authentic work relationships with others; (iii) doing good: work that is of benefit to others; and (iv) doing beyond: work that serves the greater good. In turn, meaningfulness nurtures greater personal authenticity and higher work engagement. In the final instance, meaningfulness is in the eye of the beholder, i.e., the person doing the work. This person experiences the work as meaningful or not, regardless of whether the intention was to architect meaningful work.

Excellence Element 8: Matching - Are the Core Organisational and People Capacities matched within the progressively unfolding strategic horizon of the organisation?

The adopted Organisational Design specifies the functional requirements of the Core Organisational and People Capabilities required by the Operating Model as the delivery logic of the organisation. The Core Capabilities enable the organisation to gain a sustainable competitive edge in its chosen markets, and thus sustainable viability. Capabilities can be substantive, e.g., the effective/and or efficient producing, delivery and/or use of a technology, process, resource, key product/service, strategic customer and/or key talent. Or, be qualitative, such as the Capability of agility, ambidexterity, responsiveness, and/or innovativeness.

Core Organisational and People Capabilities must be dynamically matched at all times in real time within the progressively unfolding strategic horizon of the organisation as it moves into the future. This matching will ensure that the required overall capacity to deliver has been ‘installed’ and is available timeously in the organisation. The dynamic matching must ensure a good organisation-person match. The delivery of the Core Organisational Capabilities – the people demand side of the organisation – has to be directly mirrored by the available, matched People Capabilities – the people supply side of the organisation – in terms of the desired people profile(s).

Getting the dynamic matching of the People Demand and Supply sides right means, People Excellence-wise, having at any given time the right people in the right numbers at the right time in the right place, who are able, willing, allowed, and want to perform, leveraged by a personalised sense of purpose and meaning. This match finds its People Excellence expression in strong strategic people (or talent) pipelines with respect to the organisation’s different Talent Pools, e.g., Succession, High Potential, Solid Citizens, and Alumni, closely aligned to the organisation’s Identity, especially its Strategic Intent.

Excellence Element 9: Culture - Is the organisation ‘glued’ together by a distinct, strong but flexible Organisational Culture?

Organisational Culture refers to the distinct, shared ways of seeing, interpreting, and acting upon the world, which is deeply institutionalised in the organisation. It is the ‘glue’ holding the organisation together. Given the emerging new order permeated by the VICCAS world, it is argued in some quarters that Organisational Culture is the new ‘structure’ holding the organisation together.

Organisational Culture is made up of the collection of conscious/unconscious shared assumptions, beliefs, values, and norms, which are translated and enacted daily upon in distinct ways of thinking, deciding, doing, and valuing things by people in the organisation. Organisational Culture frames, mobilises, directs, guides and focuses people energy in a shared way in the organisation in the endeavour to achieve its strategic aspirations.

Organisational Culture can be characterised according to two dimensions, resulting in four types of Organisational Culture. These dimensions are:

Performance vs. Relationship Orientation; and

Control vs. Commitment Orientation.

The four Organisational Culture types that can be constructed from these two dimensions are:

Achievement (Performance/Commitment);

Caring (Commitment/Relationship);

Power (Relationship/Control); and

Role (Control/Performance).

The figure below provides detail descriptions of the four Organisational Culture types, infused by certain underlying core qualities, e.g., an Internal vs. External Focus. These are pure types. Usually an organisation has a dominant culture type with elements of the other types being present simultaneously to a lesser degree. As depicted in the figure, the culture type dominant in the organisation must fit its Identity. Naturally, the functions, layers, and hard- and software of Organisational Culture - are manifested differently in each of the culture types.

Excellence Element 10: Practices - Has the organisation crafted a coherent, aligned set of High Commitment/High Involvement People Practices, and effectively translated them into a commensurate people management tool set for daily use in the organisation?

The organisation must put in place the necessary People Practices (=People Policies) that will solicit the Expected, Desired People Conduct to be manifested by its people. The new, emerging order this Agile, Autonomous, Creative Conduct. The Practices must also match the people the organisation wishes to attract, engage, grow, and retain. The aim of all these is to create the conditions for the organisation’s people to be highly engaged on a daily basis, in this way bringing about People Excellence.

No single People Practice (=the proverbial silver bullet) will ensure the Expected, Desired People Conduct. A coherent, synergistic, and mutually reinforcing bundle of Practices must be crafted. The crucial guiding question when crafting a bundle of Practices is: Will this bundle create and maintain the favourable conditions and resources through which people would be able to demonstrate the Expected Desired Conduct, allowing them to flourish and hence thrive, concurrently allowing the organisation to perform excellently people-wise?

A People Practices bundle must operationalise into the everyday people ways of doing things: (i) the Strategic People Choice of the organisation with its commensurate Psychosocial Contract, and (ii) its Strategic People Position (=the Strategic People Choice Triangle of People Charter, Desired People Profile and People Value Proposition relative to how the organisation has strategically configured its World of Work) (all discussed under Excellence Domain 1: Identity).

A coherent, synergistic, mutually reinforcing bundle of People Practices must cover the whole people value chain of Attract-Perform-Grow-Retain. The bundle of Practices also must have a balanced mix of Practices to Enable (=capacitate), Energise (=motivate), and Empower (=act autonomously) people in doing their work in the organisation, in this way engendering High Commitment/High Involvement. High Commitment/High Involvement Practices are high on Enable, Energise, and Empower. In turn, a crafted bundle must translated into the appropriate people management tool set (=people processes, procedures and systems) to be used by everyone in the organisation daily basis.

In this respect, leadership plays a critical mediating role in the effectiveness of People Practices in the organisation. Therefore, the earlier statement that: ‘People join organisations; they stay because of the leadership’ (see Excellence Element 1: Leadership) must be qualified to read: ‘People join organisations, but stay to the extent that leadership’s talking is translated into concretely experienced, High Commitment/High Involvement Practices and Tools’.

Excellence Element 11: Risk - Does the organisation have a People Risk Mitigation strategy and plan, addressing its people risks proactively?

In a hyper-turbulent and hyper-fluid world, the imperative of disruptive innovation necessitates taking risks, which are frequently significant. It necessitates that ruling conventions of doing things must be challenged; the new must be explored and discovered; accepted boundaries must be broken down; unknown/unexplored territories must be opened up; the improbable and impossible must be made achievable; and ongoing future-probing experimentation and testing must occur in real time. Intra- and entrepreneurial thinking and doing must become an organisational way of life.

Ongoing risk assessment and mitigation by the organisation has therefore become mission-critical in ensuring and securing a sustainable future for the organisation. The risk assessment and mitigation process allows the organisation to systematically and proactively consider the actions to be taken if and when probable adverse events occur that may detrimentally affect the organisation’s performance, and even its continued existence. At worst, its viability may be significantly compromised, even be unrecoverable. Risk assessment and mitigation have a direct bearing on building and maintaining organisational resilience (to be discussed under Excellence Element 16: Resilience).

With respect to people risk mitigation, People Excellence pertains to proactively protecting people as a critical investment of the organisation. They are a centre piece in the organisation’s set of ‘crown jewels’ in a world in which people have become key to outstanding organisational performance and success. It has been asserted that people risks are probably the biggest source of organisational risk in the emerging new order. Sound people risk management provides the organisation with a proactive and reactive response capability regarding unanticipated, adverse people events.

SYNERGISTIC FUSION: REINFORCEMENT

Potentiality synergy with regard to the Excellence Domain: Capacity can be described as follows: Capacity entails having a fit-for-purpose organisational design, architected around meaningful work for everyone; dynamically matching the Core Organisational and People capabilities required by the organisation within its progressively, unfolding strategic horizon, manifested in strong talent pipelines; knitting the organisation together through a distinct, strong but flexible Organisational Culture; crafting a bundle of High Commitment/High Involvement People Practices, soliciting and supporting the Expected Desired People Conduct, and effectively translating them into a commensurate people management tool set for daily use in the organisation; and having a robust people risk mitigation strategy and plan in place, addressing the organisation’s people risks proactively in accordance with its risk appetite.

The figure below depicts the above Excellence synergy graphically in the form of the second building block towards a full People Excellence Value Chain, highlighted in the coloured circle. Again, it is important to note the reciprocal independencies and dynamic, organic relationship between all the Excellence Elements making up this Excellence Domain. Firstly, the progressive, sequential, linear alignment order of the five Excellence Elements: Design, through Matching, Culture, Practices, to Risk (i.e., the order of the discussion above). Secondly, the reinforcing foundation that Culture provides to the four other Excellence Elements. Hence its placement in the figure behind the other four Elements’ blocks. Thirdly, the operational translation of Design and Culture into Practices, which must reinforce Matching.

Like in the case of Excellence Domain 1: Identity, all of the reciprocal interdependencies form either an upward spiralling virtuous cycle or a downward spiralling vicious cycle of People Excellence conditions over time. The essence of the synergistic fusion in this Domain lies in Reinforcement. Reinforcement encompasses that later Element enforcing and strengthening an earlier Element(s).

Again in the figure, the extended lines for Leadership and Ownership indicate their onward influence on the other, still-to-be-discussed, Excellence Dimensions. The direct connection between Leadership and Culture also illustrates their close, co-variant relationship (in the order of 70%). This implies that Culture is an important leverage that leadership can use with respect to setting the parameters for the content to be awarded to the other four Excellence Elements in this Excellence Domain.

LEADING PRACTICES

People Excellence Element 7: Design - the organisation has a fit-for-purpose design – architected around meaningful work for everyone – ensuring that the right things get done in the right places at the right times by the right persons, teams, and units, governed by the necessary checks and balances.

People Excellence Element 8: Matching - a dynamic match exists at any given time between the Core Organisational and People Capacities of the organisation, as synchronised relative to its progressively unfolding strategic horizon, operationalised in strong talent pipelines.

People Excellence Element 9: Culture - the organisation is glued together by a distinct, strong but flexible Achievement/Caring Organisational Culture – aligned to its Identity – which is seamlessly translated into the organisation’s cultural hard- and software, enabling and empowering people to achieve outstandingly in mutually supportive ways.

People Excellence Element 10: Practices - a coherent, strategically aligned bundle of High Commitment/High Involvement People Practices is in place, soliciting and supporting Agile, Autonomous, Creative Conduct, converted into a powerful people management tool set, enabling, energising, and empowering people to be the very best they can and want to be, and hence thrive.

People Excellence Element 11: Risk - the organisation has a formalised, comprehensive, up-to-date, People Risk Mitigation Strategy and Plan that addresses the organisation’s people risks proactively in accordance with its risk appetite.

Next Topic

The People Excellence Domain 3 – Delivery: Value unlocking

Source

Veldsman, Theo H. (2021). The People Excellence Star. A strategic organisational stress test. Johannesburg: KR Publishing

website: www.kr.co.za

#People Excellence Star

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theoveldsman · 3 years ago

Text

STRESS TESTING THE PEOPLE CREDITWORTHINESS OF ORGANISATIONS: THE PEOPLE EXCELLENCE STAR (4)

THE PEOPLE EXCELLENCE DOMAIN 1 – IDENTITY: STRATEGIC POSITIONING

SETTING THE SCENE

In Article 3, I explicated that the People Excellence Star is embedded in a context, the organisation’s operating arena. The synergistic fusion for People Excellence sought regarding to the context by the organisation, is a good Context-Organisation-People Fit.

Fit Synergy entails, firstly, the adoption of the right Strategic Contextual Posture and Engagement Attitude in order, secondly, to formulate an overarching People Excellence Specification, befitting the operating arena of the organisation in accordance with the contextually imposed People Excellence Requirements. The contextually derived, People Excellence Specification spells out how people in the organisation must act to thrive in the emerging, new order, in this way contributing to making the organisation successful and viable in the present and future. The necessary conditions – in terms of the People Excellence Dimensions and Elements – must now be set up within an organisation for its people to be able to act in this way.

This article deals with People Excellence Domain 1 - Identity: Strategic Positioning. This Domain is explicated according to the following topics: Journey Co-ordinates; Domain Make-up; Synergistic Fusion; Leading Practices; and Stress Test.

JOURNEY CO-ORDINATES

Within the parameters set by a contextually derived, People Excellence Specification, the Departure Point and Foundation for People Excellence is to be found in the Excellence Domain 1: Identity, with its thrust of Strategic Positioning. This Excellence Domain sets the direction for, forms the anchor to, and leverages, all the other Excellence Domains. It deals with the overarching Excellence Question: Has the strategic contribution of people in the viable, future success of the organisation been explicitly and pro-actively deliberated, chosen, and implemented? This Domain sets the true north for People Excellence in the organisation within its operating arena, as reflected in its placement in the People Excellence Star, depicted in the figure below.

It is posited that the departure point of, and foundation for, People Excellence in the organisation is a clearly defined, distinct and strongly entrenched Organisational Identity. Identity plays this role because it encompasses the ‘Why’ of the organisation as social citizen, linking it to society, in particular through its Purpose. Organisational Identity represents the fulcrum of the spiritual capital of the organisation. It manifests what kind of socially responsible citizen the organisation aspires to be. Organisational Identity finds its concrete, visible expression in its espoused and experienced Organisational Image and Reputation amongst its stakeholders (discussed further under Excellence Dimension 5: Relationships).

Organisational Identity (we, us and them) relates to the understanding amongst stakeholders of who and what the organisation is; what it stands for and does; whom it belongs to; and what it aspires to: How do we see ourselves? How are we seen? How do we wish to be seen? As indicated in Article 2 already, Organisational Identity is composed of: Purpose, Vision, Strategic Intent, Core Values and Legacy. In the emerging new order with its hyper-turbulence and hyper-fluidity, Organisational Identity – in particular, Purpose – provides a fixed reference point and secure anchor for an organisation, also with respect to People Excellence. Hence, its mission-critical strategic importance.

The most widely accepted differentiating features of Organisational Identity are contained in the organisation’s core, distinctive, differentiating, and enduring attributes. The People Excellence Specification gives an external, and Organisational Identity an internal, reference point to the organisation regarding People Excellence within its operating arena.

Exercising the right choices regarding Organisational Identity directly affects the organisation’s continued viability. Organisational Identity sets the parameters for the desired People Excellence within the organisation as a socially responsible citizen, relative to its operating arena. Growing flourishing, thriving, and fulfilled people as a outflow of People Excellence, will capacitate the organisation to be viable for the benefit of all its stakeholders.

DOMAIN MAKE-UP: IDENTITY

As illustrated in the People Excellence Star above, Excellence Dimension 1: Identity is made up of five interdependent Excellence Elements: Leadership, Choice, Partnering, Alignment, Differentiation, and Ownership.

Excellence Element 1: Leadership - Is the right leadership manifested in the organisation?

Excellent leadership is probably the most important (or significant) differentiator between more or less successful organisations. Such leadership takes an organisation from good to great, and from Low to High Commitment/High Involvement/High Performance, people-wise. As the saying goes: “People join organisations; they stay because of the leadership”. Excellent leadership can make anything between a 15% and 40% difference in an organisation’s performance, depending on the context in which the leadership is demonstrated.

The People Excellence Specification sets the overarching parameters for the type of leadership necessary to make People Excellence a reality in the organisation. This is leadership for whom it is natural to set up and maintain the organisational conditions under which people can be, and are, highly enabled, empowered and energised, i.e., people-centric leadership. People-centric leadership satisfies the basic psychological needs of followers, making them thrive and feel fulfilled through being highly engaged. Leadership who can do this, is seen - in a reciprocal manner - even more positively by followers.

The quality of answers given to the subsequent People Excellence Elements making up this Excellence Domain is a direct function of putting the right leadership in place from the word ‘Go’, because leadership create the conditions for People Excellence. Even more so, Leader Excellence is the golden thread running through the entire People Excellence Star in its entirety. It permeates the total Star into its very core.

As a Vantage Point, the leadership of an organisation must deliberately and explicitly choose a point of view regarding what leadership will be about in their organisation, and how they live it. This Vantage Point must fit the organisation in terms of the type of leadership it needs, in the present and into the future. Leadership’s chosen Vantage Point finds its concrete expression in a Leadership Stance: ‘What is our definition of leadership which befits our organisation?’ A Leadership Stance can be equated to the Purpose of leadership.

Three Basic Leadership Stances can be distinguished:

‘How’ leadership: Transactional leadership – operational execution.

‘Whereto’ leadership: Transformational leadership – the envisioning and realisation of a shared dream, guided by a set of core values as guiding principles.

‘Why’ leadership: Transcendental leadership – providing Purpose and Meaning by leaving a worthy, lasting Legacy behind.

The leadership of the organisation must craft a Leadership Stance which will be the most suitable mix of the three Basic Leadership Stances – more or less Transactional, Transformational and Transcendental – which have a goodness-of-fit with their organisation. The chosen Stance will set up the Vantage Point from which leadership will fulfil their roles in their organisation.

The chosen Leadership Stance must be translated and operationalised into a Leadership Charter (or Philosophy). The Charter contains the ‘Commandments’ of what is acceptable leadership in the organisation: ‘With respect to leadership, this is what we stand for, believe in, aspire to, and act like’. I.e., the Charter specifies in concrete terms the organisation’s beliefs, values, norms, attitudes, and conduct regarding leadership. The Charter must be lived everyday by the leadership of the organisation.

Excellence Element 2: Choice - Has a clear, deliberate Strategic People Choice been made – entrenched in the commensurate Psychosocial Contract – by the organisation, and do all ‘people’ thinking and actions in the organisation resonate with this Choice and Contract?

Every organisation makes a Strategic Choice – implicitly/by default or explicitly/deliberately – regarding the strategic role people must play in the success and viability of the organisation, now and into the future. Making a clear, deliberate Strategic People Choice presumes that the organisation has a clearly defined, distinct, differentiating, and strongly entrenched Organisational Identity.

The Strategic People Choice Question can be split into two Excellence sub-themes: (i) making the right explicit, deliberate Strategic People Choice; and (ii) setting up a Psychosocial Contract, commensurate with this Choice.

Strategic People Choices

At least three basic Strategic People Choices can be distinguished:

Choice 1: People as a cost to the organisation.

Choice 2: People as an asset (or even the most important asset) of the organisation.

Choice 3: People as the value unlockers and wealth creators of the organisation.

Each choice has an underlying view of how people are seen by the organisation, and how they must be led and managed. The people view is framed by a fixed or growth mindset. A fixed mindset centres around the belief that the abilities of people are innate, given, and cannot really be developed much, if at all, over time. A growth mindset is based on the belief that people’s abilities are malleable, and can be significantly developed and expanded. A chosen people view, framed by a certain mindset, sets up the parameters for how the later Excellence Elements will be conceived and set up.

The table below provides a comparison the three Strategic People Choices.

Psychosocial Contract

The basic, ‘under-the-water’ relationship between the organisation and its people is grounded in a Psychosocial Contract. (The formal employment contract depicts the ‘above-the-water’ formalised, organisation-people relationship). In terms of their basic relationship, a Psychosocial Contract entails the two-way expectations of the reciprocal obligations that the organisation and its people have of each other regarding their respective demands and inducements.

From the organisation’s side, these expectations are related to performance (=demands) and recognition/rewards (=inducements). From the people’s side, these expectations relate to opportunities (=inducements) and needs/values/meaning (=demands). Demands and Inducements can be physical, physiological, psychosocial, and socio-cultural. Trust forms the very foundation of the contract. Trust within the Psychosocial Contract refers to the meeting of reciprocal obligations as promised – consistently and predictably – over time, under all circumstances.

Psychosocial contracts can be characterised in terms of being Transaction-based (Imposed or Negotiated) vs. Relationship-based (Purpose-fulfilment or Value-added); and Power-driven (Extrinsic or Intrinsic) vs. Needs-driven (Tit-for-tat or Co-creation). Based on these dimensions, four types of Psychosocial Contracts can be distinguished, as depicted in the figure below.

The above chosen Strategic People Choice by an organisation requires the deliberate setting up of a commensurate, reinforcing Psychosocial Contract between the organisation and its people. Strategic People Choice 3: People being central to a viable organisation in the emerging new order, implies that the organisation must have a commensurate Psychosocial Contract with its people, allowing the organisation to engage them fully as value unlockers and wealth creators. The chosen Contract must also be aligned to the selected Leadership Stance.

Excellence Element 3: Partnering - Does the expected role and contributions of People Professionals within the organisation match the organisation’s Strategic People Choice?

The strategic positioning of People Professionals, and hence their role and contribution within the organisation, is a direct function of the organisation’s Strategic People Choice as outlined above. The expected role and contributions of the organisation’s People Professionals must match the Choice made.

In the emerging new order in which people are moving centre stage, Strategic People Choice 3 is the only real choice in pursuing People Excellence in a sustainable, viable manner. This Choice implies that People Professionals must fulfil the role of Strategic Organisational Partners.

From a strategic organisational perspective, they must partner synergistically with the organisation’s leadership to take shared responsibility to bring about and maintain the enabling and empowering organisational conditions under which the organisation’s people can, want to, and do contribute fully to the organisation’s ongoing success, and the realisation of its Envisioned Legacy relative to its Purpose. This necessitates a strong People Function presence and voice at the Board and Executive levels of the organisation.

Excellence Element 4: Alignment - People-wise, is the organisation strategically aligned to its Identity?

The Key People Imperatives – forming the foundational core of the People Strategic Intent and setting its basic strategic parameters – must be strategically aligned to the organisation’s Identity. The Key People Imperatives can also be seen as the Strategic People Thinking Framework for the organisation. This strategic alignment is the first, foundational step in the establishing an inimitable, distinct, and coherent Strategic People Position for the organisation (see the next, Excellence Element 5: Differentiation).

Five Key People Imperatives - with their corresponding Organisational Identity elements - can be distinguished as shown in the table below.

The People Imperatives given in the table above can be converted into a full Organisational Effectiveness (OE) (=Organisational viability/success) Equation, expressive of the tight strategic alignment to be created and maintained between the Organisation Identity and Key People Imperatives, engendering strategic alignment synergy:

Excellence Element 5: Differentiation - Does the organisation have an inimitable, distinct, and coherent Strategic People Position?

The People Differentiating Position can be depicted in the form of a Strategic People Position Triangle, made up of the organisation’s People Charter, Desired People Profile, and People Value Proposition. This Triangle pivots centrally around how the organisation wishes to strategically configure the World of Work for itself. The figure below depicts this ‘inverted’ Strategic People Position Triangle. Why ‘inverted’? The ‘Inverted’ Triangle illustrates graphically that the People Charter forms the normative foundation of the other two components of the Triangle.

As a departure point to its Strategic People Choice about its People Charter, Desired People Profile, and People Value Proposition, the organisation must make a deliberate, explicit choice – from a people perspective – of how it endeavours to strategically configure the World of Work for itself as an organisation. Put slightly differently, it is the organisation’s strategic conceptualisation of what the DNA of work will look like in its everyday delivery in the organisation. If a humane World of Work is to be configured, the organisation’s World of Work must take into consideration the requirements set by people as complex, multi-dimensional, holistic beings in terms of their Dimensions of Being/Becoming, Basic Needs and Personal Identity.

The figure below depicts some of the more critical dimensions the organisation can consider in strategically configuring the World of Work for itself relative to humane work requirements. The configuration choices are not ‘Either-Or’ but ‘And/Both’, with the relative weighting of options. For example, the relative weighting of personalised and standardised work conditions; or remote, dispersed, online locations and physical, centralised, on locations. The pattern of choices must be reciprocally supportive and intelligible to form a coherent World of Work within the organisation.

The People Charter - the first component of the Strategic People Position Triangle - sets normative people guidelines with respect to the other two elements of the Strategic People Position Triangle, and must also fit the People Excellence Specification set by the emerging new order. The People Charter encompasses the organisation’s fundamental beliefs about its people, and the rights they can lay claim to in the World of Work. The People Charter not only gives concrete expression to the Strategic People Choice made by an organisation, but also operationalises in concrete, practical detail the nature of the desired Psychosocial Contract between the organisation and its people.

The Desired People Profile – the second component of the Strategic People Position Triangle – refers to the organisation having a clear picture of the ideal type(s) of person it wants to employ, now and going into the future, aligned to the organisation’s Identity. Put differently: ‘What will it take to succeed and thrive in our organisation as a person?’ The Desired People Profile gives a comprehensive, integrated picture of the ideal person the organisation strategically endeavours to attract, engage, and retain.

Once the Desired People Profile has been generated for the organisation, meeting the People Excellence Specification of the emerging new order, a matching People Value Proposition (PVP) (or ‘Employee Value Proposition’) must be crafted. The PVP forms the third component of the Strategic People Position Triangle. A PVP deals with the compelling reasons why the desired persons the organisation wishes to employ will join, engage, and stay with the organisation. From a prospective employee’s perceptive, a PVP answers the key question: ‘Will I flourish if I join the organisation? And because I flourish, will I thrive as a total person, and hence feel fulfilled?’

Excellence Element 6: Ownership - Have the organisation’s people taken a personalised, committed ownership of the organisation’s Identity, its Strategic People Choice, and its Position?

People Excellence necessitates that all people in the organisation, regardless of status and level, take ownership of who and what the organisation is; what it stands for; where it is going; what it wants to achieve; and what lasting difference it wants to make, organisationally and people-wise. In short, people understand and own (=identify with) their organisation’s Organisational Identity, including its translation into the organisation’s chosen Strategic People Choice and crafted Strategic People Position, as well as the further roll-out of People Excellence into the successive Excellence Domains and Elements. They feel they belong in the organisation – this is where they want to be, and where they want to contribute. They have a sense of being connected to the organisation at a deep level because they can identify with what it stands for, and subsequently live it out in their work.

SYNERGISTIC FUSION: CONGRUENCE

Strategic Positioning synergy regarding the Excellence Domain: Identity can be described as follows: Identity encompasses putting the right leadership in place as a departure point to engender and grow People Excellence, next making the right choice regarding the strategic, value-adding role people must play in the organisation’s performance and success, and consequently its continued future viability. Accordingly, the right roles must be awarded to People Professionals in the organisation, given the selected strategic people choice. Next, strategic alignment between the organisation’s Identity and Key People Imperatives must be ensured to generate strategic synergy, followed by generating an inimitable, distinct and coherent Strategic People Position. This must be framed by a strategic configuration of the World of Work in and for the organisation, made up of a clear, explicit, and shared People Charter; a Desired People Profile; and a compelling People Value Proposition. Lastly, building and nurturing committed ownership – internalised and externalised – amongst by all organisational members to all the above.

The figure below depicts the above Excellence synergy in the form of the first building block towards a full People Excellence Value Chain, highlighted by the coloured circle. Important to note is the reciprocal interdependencies and dynamic, organic coherence between all the Excellence elements making up the Excellence Dimension. This occurs time-wise in a linear progression from Leadership, through Choice, Partnering, Alignment, and Differentiation to Ownership when the Excellence Elements are put in place.

Once the Elements are in place, the reciprocal interdependencies between the Elements settle over time in a non-linear fashion into either an upward spiralling virtuous cycle – a strengthening and refinement of Strategic Positioning, or into a downward spiralling, vicious cycle – the erosion of the Strategic Positioning of People Excellence. Each cycle has a knock-on effect on the subsequent Excellence Domains. The essence of synergistic fusion in this Domain lies in Congruence. Congruence entails the consistent, harmonious ‘hanging together’ at the same time of all the Excellence Elements making up this Excellence Domain.

Also important to note in the figure are the extended lines for Leadership (=directing and shaping) and Ownership (=buy-in and support), illustrating their onward influence on the other, still-to-be-discussed, Excellence Dimensions. As stated in the introduction to this article, this Excellence Domain forms the Departure Point of, and Foundation for, People Excellence, and the still-to-be-discussed Excellence Domains.

LEADING PRACTICES

People Excellence Element 1: Leadership - Whilst applying a shared, predominantly Transformational/Transcendental Leadership Stance – and visibly demonstrating the Leadership Qualities of legitimacy, inspiration, humility, integrity, ethical, and authenticity – leadership enables and empowers the organisation’s people through a productive, healthy Leadership Process to actualise a desired, inspiring future for the organisation for all.

People Excellence Element 2: Choice: People as value unlockers and wealth creators are central to the success of the organisation, with a reinforcing commensurate High Commitment/High Involvement Psychosocial Contract of Partnering/Identification. The Talking and Walking of this Choice and Contract are manifested daily in an uncompromising and consistent manner in the organisation in all its people thinking and actions.

People Excellence Element 3: Partnering - The People Professionals of the organisation are true strategic organisational partners in their roles as People Experts, acting as Credible Activists, whose value-adding and innovative contributions are eagerly sought out and truly cherished in attaining viable organisational success, because they co-enable and co-ensure a high likelihood that the people of the organisation will thrive as boundary-busting value unlockers and wealth creators through productive and satisfying experiences.

People Excellence Element 4: Alignment - A high alignment exists between Organisational Identity and the Key People Imperatives through the dynamic optimisation of the multiplicative relationship between all the Identity and Imperative constituent pairs, resulting in a strong strategic synergy manifested in a high Organisational Effectiveness.

People Excellence Element 5: Differentiation - An inimitable, distinct, and coherent Strategic People Position, framed by a strategically configured World of Work – expressed in the Strategic People Triangle made up of People Charter, Desired People Profile, and People Value Proposition – expressive of the Strategic People Choice of people as value unlockers and wealth creators, and a High Commitment/High Involvement Psychosocial Contract of Partnering/Identification, compliant with the set People Excellence Specification of the emerging new order.

People Excellence Element 6: Ownership - Everyone in the organisation is a committed owner of the organisation’s Identity, as well as of its Strategic People Choice and Position, as personally internalised and externalised into his/her accountable workspace and role.

Next Topic

The People Excellence Domain 2 – Capacity: Potentiality

Source

Veldsman, Theo H. (2021). The People Excellence Star. A strategic organisational stress test. Johannesburg: KR Publishing

website: www.kr.co.za

#People Excellence Star

0 notes

theoveldsman · 3 years ago

Text

STRESS TESTING THE PEOPLE CREDITWORTHINESS OF ORGANISATIONS: THE PEOPLE EXCELLENCE STAR (3)

THE PEOPLE EXCELLENCE CONTEXT: THE ORGANISATION AND ITS PEOPLE BEFITTING ITS OPERATING ARENA

SETTING THE SCENE

In Article 2, I explicated the make-up and dynamics of the proposed People Excellence Star - with its respective Excellence Domains and Elements - at a high level as an integrated Strategic Stress Test of the People Creditworthiness of an organisation. According to this article, firstly, the People Excellence Star is embedded in a context, its strategically demarcated operating arena, in which it endeavours and aspires to operate and compete. The operating arena sets the people requirements – to be translated into people specifications – to be successful in the context concerned. Ultimately, People Excellence is achieved when a good contextual-organisation-people fit exists.

Secondly, the proposed People Excellence Star is made up of five interdependent, reciprocally influencing Excellence Domains: Identity, Capacity, Delivery, Outcomes, and Relationships. The respective strategic thrusts (or themes) of the different Domains are: Identity = Strategic Positioning; Capacity = Potentiality; Delivery = Value Unlocking; Outcomes = Wealth Created; and Relationships = Reputation. The order (as listed above) in which the Domains will be discussed in subsequent articles is reflective of the approximate progressive People Excellence journey that needs to be followed in the organisation.

Thirdly, each Excellence Domain of the People Excellence Star is composed of Excellence Elements, also interdependent and reciprocally influencing, providing at a granular level the details of an in depth integrated Strategic Stress Test of an organisation’s People Creditworthiness. The twenty Excellence Elements are elucidated in the form of Excellence Questions.

The purpose of this article is to explicate the People Excellence Context in which the People Excellence Star is embedded. The various ingredients of the People Excellence Star – from Context through to Domains – are explicated in Articles 3 to 8 under the following headings:

Journey Co-ordinates: the relative location of the discussed People Excellence ingredient within the Star

Domain Make-up: the Elements making up the People Excellence ingredient concerned

Synergistic Fusion: the overall, continuous, powerful virtuous synergistic fusion one desires to unleash in the People Excellence ingredient concerned

Leading Practices: the People Excellence standards one has to judge oneself by and aspires to regarding the People Excellence ingredient

Stress Test: assessing the level of Excellence in one’s own organisation regarding the People Excellence Leading Practices with respect to People Excellence ingredient concerned

Next, then the explication of the People Excellence Context.

JOURNEY CO-ORDINATES: PEOPLE EXCELLENCE CONTEXT

All organisations are embedded in a chosen context. Within this context, the organisation chooses a strategically demarcated operating arena in which it endeavours to compete viably. The context and the organisation with its people form an inseparable, seamless, holographic, and dynamic whole. One cannot be understood without the other. Organisations and their contexts reciprocally co-evolve and co-unfold.

Engaging with the inseparable organisation-context relationship requires, firstly, deciding what strategic contextual posture and attitude to adopt in engaging with the context; secondly, building an in-depth understanding of the context with its accompanying challenges, demands and requirements, now and into the future; and, thirdly, determining what is necessary to attain a good fit between the organisation and its context in order to attain People Excellence.

All of the above, apply to People Excellence equally: the context imposes certain people challenges, demands and requirements on the organisation, now and into the future. People Excellence is achieved when a good fit exists: there is overall synergy between the operating arena of the organisation (=its external context) and the content awarded to the Excellence Domains/Elements by the organisation (=its internal context) with respect to its people. The external operating arena dictates and sets the People Excellence Requirements for the organisation. Without a deep understanding of these People Excellence Requirements, People Excellence cannot be properly thought through, institutionalised, and lived in the organisation.

In turn, the external contextually imposed People Excellence Requirements must be translated into a People Excellence Specification for the organisation concerned. This Specification provides the fountainhead for a contextual-goodness-of-fit People Vision for the organisation. It acts as a reference point according to which the internal organisational context must be constituted to attain People Excellence as manifested in thriving people, delighted stakeholders, and a continuingly viable organisation. The form this translation takes, is framed by the to-be-discussed-below, strategic contextual posture and engagement attitude adopted by the organisation.

Ultimately, People Excellence is the synergistic outcome of the interaction between how People Excellence is conceived, constituted, institutionalised, and lived in the organisation relative to the context in which the organisation has chosen to operate strategically, and aspires to compete viably over its strategic time horizon.

DOMAIN MAKE-UP: PEOPLE EXCELLENCE CONTEXT

Strategic contextual posture and engagement attitude

The leadership of an organisation must choose a strategic contextual posture and engagement attitude as a vantage point to the Context. The Contextual Engagement Attitude, with its accompanying Strategic Contextual Posture, frames how leadership will perceive, interpret, and act upon the contextual challenges, demands and requirements faced by the organisation. The figure below graphically gives the respective options regarding Contextual Postures and Engagement Attitudes.

Using a chosen Contextual Posture and Engagement Attitude, leadership generates an understanding of the current and emerging new order in the context in which their organisation must operate, and how they intend responding to it.

Emerging, new order faced by organisations

A fundamental, radical transformation is occurring in the underlying basic dynamics of the world as we know it presently. This transformation represents an emerging, new order that is reshaping the current world in its totality and essential nature. The very fabric of the current world is being rewoven into a fundamentally new, dynamic tapestry.

The figure below provides a high-level synopsis of the emerging new order faced by organisations with respect to which they must choose a Contextual Posture and Engagement Attitude.

Chaordic Age

We are living in the Chaordic Age, in which the world continuously oscillates between order and chaos. We are in the Age of Continuous Discontinuities. Organisations are facing a higher frequency of Dilemmas (e.g., Do we compete and/or co-operate?); Paradoxes (e.g., Do we focus on the present and the future simultaneously? Do we need to be proactive and reactive? Do we use Simplicity and Complexity as vantage points?); Pendulum swings (e.g., When do our strengths invert to become weaknesses – the Icarus Paradox?); and Black Swans (e.g., How do we become crisis-proof and able to bounce back effectively when a crisis like Covid-19 hits us?).

The world is transforming into Complicated Contexts of Unknown Knowns to Complex Contexts of Unknown Unknowns, and even Chaotic Contexts of Unknowables. It is shifting from the Domain of Best Practice through the Domain of Experts, to the Domains of Emergence and Rapid Response, towards Confusion. All in all, organisations are facing, and increasingly will face, a higher frequency of more far-ranging and intricate wicked challenges, issues, and problems, making the world a riskier place to operate in.

Growth of the VICCAS World

Qualitatively, the overall context can be characterised as the VICCAS (an extension of VUCA) world of increasing Variety, Interdependency, Complexity, Change, Ambiguity, and Seamlessness (i.e., boundaryless). Everything and everyone are immersed in, and infused by, this world. Organisations have continually sense, assess, and monitor VICCAS in their operating arenas, requiring ongoing agility.

Exponentially accelerating Technological Innovation

The current, exponentially accelerating technological innovation can be encapsulated in the term ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’, characterised by the acronym, DIVAS:

Digitisation: making everything and anything computer readable and processable anywhere (e.g., digital records of everything such as voice and facial recognition; biometrics; block chain; cybercurrency).

Interconnectivity: everyone/everything talking to everyone/everything (e.g., the worldwide web; social media; smart phones; the Internet of Things; cloud computing; virtual collaboration platforms like Skype and Zoom; the merging of disciplines like info-tech, bio-tech and nano-tech into one).

Virtualisation: being present and delivering in cyberspace on an ongoing basis anything, anywhere, anytime, anyhow, for anyone, seamlessly merging physical and virtual reality into one, i.e., the ”phygital” reality (e.g., augmented reality; streaming of entertainment; virtual equipment as a parallel, digital equivalent of their physical counterparts).

Automation: performing a process or practice, and taking decisions and actions, through technological means with no/minimal human mediation (e.g., robotics, 3D printing, Artificial Intelligence (AI)).

Smart: generating data from everything/anyone, affecting machine learning through feedback, and/or turning data into intelligence through decision-making algorithms to take focused, automated, real time, in time, validated, predictive decisions and actions (e.g., AI, machine learning, decision making algorithms, cloud).

Shift in the Profile of the Future Worker

In future we are going to see more mobile, self-reliant, diverse, questioning, and critically discerning workers of multiple generations at work, engaging with a calculated commitment on their own terms with employing organisations. Their expectations of organisations, they will be more demanding. They will be seeking reputable, high profile organisations with credible, purpose-driven, influenceable leadership; and work settings that are challenging, stimulating, meaningful, purposeful, collaborative, team-based, that offer ongoing learning and development opportunities, taken up at their own behest at a time and place decided by them, built around their needs and aspirations relative to where they are in their self-navigated careers.

The emerging future workers will be much more inner-directed, assertive, calculative, independent and mobile, will more aggressively seek meaning and purpose (=‘Why, and to what end am I doing this?’) regarding the work and organisations they engage with. They will require organisations to care for their total well-being as people, fuelled by the desire to be engaged in meaningful work as total beings in terms of their hearts, minds, souls and spirits, and addressing all their basic needs.

The drive towards Sustainability

The growing adoption - sometimes enforced - by organisations, of the core purpose of sustainability through stewardship: leaving the world a better place for current and upcoming generations, concurrently caring for the assets entrusted and used by an organisation on behalf of, and for, the common good. I.e., organisations serving humanity at large and not only themselves in a self-centred and -referencing manner. Organisations should demonstrate genuine social citizenship: visibly and tangibly doing good and avoiding harm.

The rise of diverse, activist Stakeholders

Within the center of the triangle of the above three forces of change, immersed in the VICCAS world, the organisation is enmeshed in an ever-extending, increasingly diverse range of activist stakeholders with shifting interests, demands and expectations, most frequently in conflict, demanding trade-offs. They mobilise around issues, generations and/or interests. At a minimum, activist stakeholders demand socially responsible organisations that are publicly accountable to society.

Stakeholders’ increasingly strident voices are significantly amplified by social media, enabling their rapid mobilisation, both nationally and globally. Concurrently, the growing frequency of the (deliberate, targeted) spread of misinformation, fake news, and post-truths.

Relentless, ongoing, disruptive (even destructive) innovation

Against the backdrop of the above major forces of change, disruptive (even destructive) innovation has become THE critical strategic, renewal success factor for organisations aspiring to remain future-ready and -fit. Not merely to survive, but to thrive going into the future. This implies a fierce entre- and intrapreneurial spirit to pervade organisations if they wish to remain viable with people at the center as value-unlockers and wealth creators. In turn, the relentless, ongoing disruptive innovation requires continuous, deep relearning, learning, and unlearning by all.

From their contextual understanding of the emerging, new order as outlined above, leadership must derive the People Excellence Requirements being imposed on organisations in general. In turn, these People Excellence Requirements must be translated into a future-fit People Excellence Specification for the organisation, framing the content awarded to the organisation’s People Excellence Domains and Elements.

SYNERGISTIC FUSION WITHIN PEOPLE EXCELLENCE CONTEXT: FIT

The synergistic fusion sought regarding the People Excellence Context is a good Context-Organisation-People Fit. Fit Synergy entails the adoption of the right Strategic Contextual Posture and Engagement Attitude to formulate an overarching People Excellence Specification, befitting the operating arena of the organisation in terms of the contextually imposed People Excellence Requirements.

The People Excellence Specification will direct and guide the organisation in terms of the content it must award to the People Excellence Domains with their commensurate Elements relative to the organisation’s Identity (to be discussed in the next article).

The figure below illustrates the above discussion graphically.

LEADING PRACTICES: PEOPLE EXCELLENCE CONTEXT

Strategic Contextual Engagement Attitude and Posture

Genuine strategic People Excellence assumes that the organisation’s leadership has chosen a Strategic Contextual Engagement Attitude that is predominantly a Transform/Recreate Frame from a Future perspective, leveraged from a Strategic Contextual Posture of being a Proactive instigator of change (refer to the first figure). This Strategic Contextual Posture and Engagement Attitude appear to be the most appropriate vantage point from which to view the emerging, new order in order to craft an appropriate contextual-fit, People Excellence Specification.

The People Excellence Requirements for the emerging, new order

The figure below provides an overall view of the future-expected People Requirements, derived from an in-depth contextual scan and analysis of the emerging, new order (not reported here).

The People Excellence Specification for the emerging, new order

The People Excellence Specification is the operationalisation of People Excellence, given an organisation is achieving exceedingly well with its people – its ‘People Excellence Vision’ so to speak – whilst befitting the People Requirements of the organisation’s context. This is the concretisation of the previous description of People Excellence in general terms relative to the People Requirements of the organisation’s context: Our people are unlocking real, amazing value and creating worthy, lasting wealth, consistently and continuously, to the delight of all stakeholders of the organisation. This is an ‘outside-in’, ‘business by design’ approach to the generation of a People Excellence Specification.

It is proposed that the emerging, new order faced by organisations, at present and going into the future, with its consequential People Requirements as per the above figure, necessitates the following general People Excellence Specification, given below. This Specification serves as a normative reference point for People Excellence as a future-directed, desired end-state in the organisation. However, this Specification has be customised to match the Identity of the specific organisation concerned relative to its chosen operating arena:

Explanations of some of the key terms included in the above People Excellence Specification are needed:

Enabled: People have the wherewithal to do the work in terms of their personal capabilities and resources.

Empowered: People have the freedom to act (=the autonomy) in their areas of accountability/ responsibility relative to stakeholders.

Agile: The nimbleness to move at speed in a flexible, responsive way matched to the rate of change.

Innovatively: Ongoing, zero-based, renewal and re-invention.

Collaboratively: Working with other parties in a networking, partnering way, both inside and outside the organisation.

Viably: The assured, continued existence of the organisation.

Sustainably: Serving the common good by leaving the world a better place for upcoming generations.

The People Excellence Specification spells out how people in the organisation must act to thrive in the emerging, new order, in this way contributing to making the organisation successful and viable in the present and future. The necessary conditions – as informed by the People Excellence Dimensions and Elements – can now be set up within an organisation for its people to be able to act in this way.

TAKE-AWAYS

People Excellence Star is embedded in a context. The context represents the strategically demarcated operating arena of the organisation in which it endeavours and aspires to compete successfully.

The synergistic fusion for People Excellence sought, is a good Context-Organisation-People Fit. Fit Synergy entails, firstly, the adoption of the right Strategic Contextual Posture and Engagement Attitude in order, secondly, to formulate an overarching People Excellence Specification, befitting the operating arena of the organisation in terms of the contextually imposed People Excellence Requirements.

The contextually derived, People Excellence Specification spells out how people in the organisation must act to thrive in the emerging, new order, in this way contributing to making the organisation successful and viable in the present and future. The necessary conditions – in terms of the People Excellence Dimensions and Elements – must now be set up within an organisation for its people to be able to act in this way.

The emerging, new order faced by organisations, at present and going into the future, with its consequential People Requirements, necessitates the following generic People Excellence Specification for organisations in general: Highly enabled, empowered and resilient people, who strongly identify with and feel valued by the organisation, and are productively and innovatively engaging collaboratively through personally purposeful and meaningful ways, to viably and sustainably create inimitable, delightful experiences for stakeholders

Next Topic

The People Excellence Domain 1 – Identity: Strategic Positioning

Source

Veldsman, Theo H. (2021). The People Excellence Star. A strategic organisational stress test. Johannesburg: KR Publishing

website: www.kr.co.za

#people excellence

0 notes

theoveldsman · 3 years ago

Text

STRESS TESTING THE PEOPLE CREDITWORTHINESS OF ORGANISATIONS: THE PEOPLE EXCELLENCE STAR (2)

THE MAKE-UP AND DYNAMICS OF THE PEOPLE EXCELLENCE STAR

SETTING THE SCENE

In Article 1 of my series of blogs on People Excellence, I outlined the pressing need for an integrated Strategic People Excellence Stress Test that organisations can use to gauge their People Excellence, in order to take appropriate strategic action to enhance their People Creditworthiness. The need for such a test has been triggered by people moving centre stage as the only true value unlockers and wealth creators in the continued future success of organisations, driven by ongoing, relentless, disruptive innovation in the experience-based Knowledge Society.

In the final instance, People Excellence is about thriving people truly unlocking real, amazing value, in this way creating worthy, lasting wealth for all stakeholders - consistently and continuously - and ensuring an ongoing viable organisation.

The purpose of Article 2 on People Excellence is to explicate at a high level the make-up and dynamics of the proposed People Excellence Star - with its respective Excellence Domains and Elements - as an integrated Strategic Stress Test of the People Creditworthiness of an organisation.

The respective Excellence Domains with their respective Elements were drawn from several sources:

The extensive People Excellence literature by thought leaders over many years, such as Arnold Bakker, Michael Beer, Wayne Cascio, Jim Collins, Jac Fritz-Enz, Arie de Geus, Ed Lawler, Mark Huselid, Wiliam Joyce, Christo Nel, Nitin Noria, Jerry Porras, Jeffrey Pfeffer and Dave Ulrich.

The latest research on topics related to People Excellence such as strategy; strategic talent management; organisational design, culture, and climate; high performance/commitment work systems; work engagement; as well as positive psychology addressing flourishing, thriving, and fulfilled people, and their well-being.

The regular Global Best Companies to Work For, Most Admired Companies, Human Capital, and CEO surveys and reports by leading consulting institutions.

My own research and publications over many years around People Management/Excellence.

My consulting assignments for over 35 years, particularly in the areas of People Strategic Intent and People Excellence.

The article proceeds: firstly, by presenting the proposed People Excellence Star; secondly, by explicating the make-up of the Star in terms of Domains and Elements; thirdly, by discussing People Excellence as the overall outcome of the synergistic fusion within the People Excellence Star; and, finally, by outlining the variables to consider when stress testing an organisation’s People Creditworthiness.

THE PROPOSED PEOPLE EXCELLENCE STAR

The figure below depicts graphically the proposed People Excellence Star as an integrated, organisational People Excellence Stress Test with its respective Excellence Domains and Elements.

As per the above figure, it is important to note, firstly, that the People Excellence Star is embedded in a context. The context represents the strategically demarcated operating arena of the organisation in which it endeavours and aspires to operate and compete. Ultimately, People Excellence is achieved when a good contextual fit exists. There is overall synergy between the operating arena of the organisation (its external context) and the content awarded to the Excellence Domains/Elements by the organisation (its internal context) relative to its people I.e., a good Context-Organisation-People fit.

According to the above figure, secondly, the proposed People Excellence Star is made up of five interdependent, reciprocally influencing Excellence Domains: Identity, Capacity, Delivery, Outcomes, and Relationships. In terms of this figure, the respective strategic thrusts (or themes) of the different Domains are: Identity = Strategic Positioning; Capacity = Potentiality; Delivery = Value Unlocking; Outcomes = Wealth Created; and Relationships = Reputation. The order in which the Domains will be discussed in subsequent sections is reflective of the approximate progressive People Excellence journey that needs to be followed in the organisation.

According to the above figure, thirdly, each Excellence Domain of the People Excellence Star is composed of Excellence Elements, also interdependent and reciprocally influencing, making up at a detailed level the integrated Strategic Stress Test of an organisation’s People Creditworthiness. The twenty Excellence Elements are elucidated in the form of Excellence Questions in subsequent sections.

The choice of the proposed Excellence Domains/Elements follows the Pareto Principle: which 20% of the Domains/Elements make an 80% difference in terms of the organisation’s People Excellence? These Domains/Elements have been distilled from the sources listed in the introduction to this chapter.

THE MAKE-UP OF THE PEOPLE EXCELLENCE STAR

In this section, a high-level overview is given of the Excellence Domains with their respective Excellence Elements making up the proposed People Excellence Star (refer to the above figure).

People Context

The People Excellence Requirements of the context must translated into a People Excellence Specification for the organisation that befits the operating arena of the organisation. In this case People Excellence is manifested in Fit Synergy – the organisation with its people fits its context in terms it operational demands.

Excellence Domain 1: Identity– the pro-active, strategic positioning of people in contributing to the organisation’s performance, success and future viability

Excellence Domain 2: Capacity (Reinforcement synergy) – setting up the necessary people potentiality to achieve excellently

Excellence Domain 3: Delivery (Multiplication Synergy) – the real time, actual value being unlocked by the organisation’s people

Excellence Domain 4: Outcomes (Wisdom Synergy) – the wealth that has been created by people of the organisation for its stakeholders

Excellence Domain 5: Relationships (Legitimacy Synergy) - the reputation the organisation has regarding the difference it is making for its stakeholders

Excellence Domain 1: Identity

This Excellence Domain entails the designated strategic role that people are expected to play relative to the Identity of the organisation: Who and what are we? What do we stand for and aspire to? The identity of the organisation encompasses its Purpose, Vision, Strategic Intent, Core Values, and Legacy.The overarching Excellence Element about this Excellence Domain is: Has the appropriate strategic positioning of people with respect to the organisation’s future viability, relative to its Identity, been explicitly and deliberately chosen, and is it being put into practice in the organisation through the right strategic actions?

In this case People Excellence is manifested in Congruence Synergy – the Excellence Elements making up this Domain harmoniously hang together and resonate with each other.

Six Excellence Elements make up this Domain:

Leadership: The organisation is led in a people-centric way.

Choice: An upfront, clear, deliberate Strategic People Choice has been made regarding the strategic role that people must play in the viability of the organisation.

Partnering: The People Professionals of the organisation are true strategic partners whose contributions to the success of the organisation are eagerly sought out and highly cherished.

Alignment: The organisation’s Identity and Critical People Imperatives are strategically aligned to create ongoing, strategic synergy.

Differentiation: An inimitable, distinct, and coherent Strategic People Triangle – made up of the organisation’s strategic configuration of the World of Work for itself, its People Charter, its Desired People Profile and its People Value Proposition – is in place.

Ownership: The people of the organisation have taken committed ownership of the organisation’s Identity, and believe they belong here.

Excellence Domain 2: Capacity

This Excellence Domain is about the ‘people readiness’ of the organisation for its intended strategic journey into the future in realising its Identity. The overarching Excellence Element relative to this Excellence Domain is: Has the organisation created the necessary people potentiality (or made the necessary people investment) to achieve what it sets out to achieve as captured in the organisation’s Identity?

In this case People Excellence is manifested in Reinforcement Synergy – a later Element in this Domain enforces the impact of an earlier Element.

Six Excellence Elements make up this Domain:

Design: The organisation has a fit-for-purpose organisational design.

Matching: The Core Organisational and People Capacities are matched within the progressively unfolding strategic horizon of the organisation.

Culture: The organisation is ‘glued’ together by a distinct, strong but flexible Organisational Culture.

Practices: The organisation is using High Commitment/High Involvement people practices that have been translated into a corresponding people management tool set.

Risk: The organisation has a people risk mitigation strategy and plan in place to deal proactively with its people risks in accordance with its risk appetite.

Excellence Domain 3: Delivery

This Excellence Domain entails the actual vs. desired value being unlocked by the organisation’s people, given its people potentiality (or investment). The overarching Excellence Element regarding this Excellence Domain is: What value is being unlocked by the organisation’s people, and concurrently the active presence/absence of enablers (and on the downside, the barriers) to high, real time, people engagement and performance in the organisation?

In this case People Excellence is manifested in Multiplication Synergy – Elements strengthen the effects of one another, jointly and concurrently.

Five Excellence Elements make up this Domain:

Climate: The organisation is infused by an invigorating Organisational Climate.

Balancing: At all levels – individual, team, organisational – the right dynamic balance exists between work demands and required resources, attained through awarded/exercised autonomy.

Line of Sight: A clear line of sight exists in the organisation between Effort – Performance - Valued Recognition/Rewards.

Resilience: People deal with the stresses, trauma, and strains engendered by the continuous radical and fundamental changes facing the organisation with confident resilience. They are change-fit.

Engagement: People are highly engaged in their work and organisation.

Excellence Domain 4: Outcomes

This Excellence Domain encompasses the actual contribution of people to the organisation’s performance and success relative to its Identity, currently and going into the future. The overarching Excellence Element about this Excellence Domain is: What wealth has been created by the organisation’s people for its stakeholders?

In this case People Excellence is manifested in Wisdom Synergy – Intelligent Insight: understanding when, how, and with whom to do what.

Two Excellence Elements make up this Domain:

Fulfilment: People believe and experience that the organisation is delivering on its People Brand Promise as expressed in its People Value Proposition.

Success: The organisation has deep insight – based on real time, in time, intelligence – into the contribution of its people towards its success and continued viability.

Excellence Domain 5: Relationships

This Excellence Domain refers to the social capital being nurtured and grown with stakeholders by the organisation and its people, and what lasting, worthy legacy it is leaving behind. The overarching Excellence Element regarding this Excellence Domain is: What reputation does the organisation have amongst its key stakeholders within its operating arena in terms of the difference it is making?

In this case People Excellence is manifested in Legitimacy Synergy - the organisation being awarded ‘a licence to exist and operate’ by the communities and society in which it is embedded, because it is publicly known to be doing good and avoiding harm.

Two Excellence Elements make up this Domain:

Goodwill: The organisation has a high level of goodwill in the bank with its stakeholders.

Legacy: The organisation is building a worthy, lasting legacy for upcoming generations.

PEOPLE EXCELLENCE AS THE OVERALL OUTCOME OF SYNERGISTIC FUSION WITHIN THE PEOPLE EXCELLENCE STAR

The picture of People Excellence Star given in the above figure is static, but People Excellence is a verb, not a noun. Analogous to the continuous nuclear fusion at the core of a star of hydrogen and helium through the continuous combination of atomic nuclei which generates and releases ongoing energy, creating light, People Excellence is the outcome of the overall, continuous, powerful, virtuous fusion between all of the above Excellence Domains with their constituent Elements. Everything affects everything else in an ongoing energising or de-energising way.

The interdependent and reciprocally influencing relationships between the Excellence Domains - through their commensurate Excellence Elements - cannot be overstressed. Earlier discussed Domains build on latter discussed Domains – and vice versa – in a reciprocal, synergistic and integral way to form and function as an integrated whole in a systemic, organic and emergent way like a star. It has been found that the degree of overall organisational integration is a significant differentiator between high- and low-performing organisations.

The People Excellence Domains with their commensurate Elements act together in positive, rhythmic and synergistic concert, in this way capacitating the organisation to achieve exceedingly well with its people. Domains and Elements configure into dynamic patterns that are expressive of an upward, virtuous cycle of increasing People Excellence. The organisation is a ‘shining star’ with respect to people. Of course, a downward, vicious cycle of decreasing People Excellence is also possible in an organisation. This type of organisation is a ‘Black Hole’ regarding its people.

The to-be-explicated operating laws governing the ongoing synergistic fusion of the People Excellence Star as an integrated whole are: fit, congruence, reinforcement, multiplication, wisdom, and legitimacy (referred to above), as well as systemic, organic and dynamic Both/And fusion (to be explicated in later sections). This dynamic perspective on the People Excellence Star resonates with the underlying foundational view of the organisation as a living, emergent, self-organising, social ecosystem. This view is founded in a complexity world view.

STRESS TESTING PEOPLE EXCELLENCE IN THE ORGANISATION: LEVELS, STAKEHOLDERS, VIEWS, AND METHODS

The stress testing of an organisation’s People Creditworthiness must consider four stress testing variables: levels, stakeholders, views, and methods. Each is discussed in turn.

Levels

Four reciprocally interdependent levels of stress testing People Excellence can be distinguished:

Macro level: The organisation as a whole

Meso level: Organisational units

Micro level: Teams

Micro level: Individuals.

The focus of the workshop is on the macro level, i.e., the organisation as a whole, using a strategic vantage point. Naturally, People Excellence at this level can/needs to be deconstructed to the other levels, depending on the aim of the stress test to determine the granular People Creditworthiness of the organisation.

What is the status of Excellence at the lower levels of the organisation? Where is it outstanding and where is it poor? In turn, how does it manifest itself in a summated form at the organisational level? What are the interdependencies of the People Excellence’s Domains and Elements at the different levels? And how similar or different are the variables affecting People Excellence at the different levels?

Stakeholders

Stress testing the People Creditworthiness of an organisation, whatever level is being used, can be done by soliciting the views of one or more stakeholders, such as the Board, leadership, organisational members in general, customers, suppliers, shareholders, and/or community. Regardless of the stakeholder(s) chosen, a representative sample must be drawn for the selected stakeholder grouping. A multi-stakeholder approach is highly recommended to arrive at a robust, triangulated picture of the ‘true’ People Excellence of an organisation, in contrast to the parochial, one-sided, siloed view of a single stakeholder.

Views

Top-down and/or bottom-up views of People Excellence can be established in an organisation. Hence, the connection can be determined between the leadership’s intentions and actions with respect to People Excellence in the organisation (top down), and organisational members’ interpretation and experience of such thinking and actions (bottom up).

Vast differences may exist between the leadership’s talking and walking of People Excellence in their organisation, and/or organisational members’ interpretation and experience of the what, how and why of the leadership’s intentions and actions regarding People Excellence. A complicating mediating variable is the high likelihood that the degree of similarity between various parties may vary by organisational level.

Methods

Various methods can be used to conduct the stress testing: interviews, focus groups, and/or questionnaires. The choice of a method must be carefully weighed up in light of each method’s strengths and weaknesses in terms of reliability and validity, as well as its breadth and depth, i.e., the richness of the data collected. A multi-method approach, applied differentially across levels, stakeholders and views, would be most powerful.

In summary: the most powerful Stress Test of People Excellence in an organisation uses multi-level level, multi-stakeholder, top-down/bottom-up views, and a multi-methods approach to arrive at a triangulated, true determination of an organisation’s People Creditworthiness.

TAKE-AWAYS

The Star represents an integrated, strategic organisational People Excellence Stress Test to direct, guide, intervene into, and track the People Creditworthiness of an organisation. The results of the Stress Test can be used as input into the crafting of the organisation’s Strategic People Intent, with its corresponding strategic initiatives reflective of the People Excellence gaps to be closed.

The People Excellence Star is composed of five interdependent, reciprocally influencing Excellence Domains: Identity, Capacity, Delivery, Outcomes, and Relationships. The Excellence Domains are made up of twenty Excellence Elements in total.

People Excellence is the outcome of the overall synergistic fusion amongst the Excellence Domains with their constituent Element.

The stress testing variables to consider when determining the People Creditworthiness of the organisation are: levels, stakeholders, views, and methods.

The most powerful Stress Test of People Excellence in an organisation is a multi-level level, multi-stakeholder, top-down/bottom-up view, in conjunction with a multi-method approach, to arrive at a true determination of an organisation’s People Excellence.

Next Topic

The People Excellence Context: Ensuring the organisation and its people befit its operating arena

Source

Veldsman, Theo H. (2021). The People Excellence Star. A strategic organisational stress test. Johannesburg: KR Publishing

website: www.kr.co.za

#People Excellence Star

0 notes

theoveldsman · 3 years ago

Text

STRESS TESTING THE PEOPLE CREDITWORTHINESS OF ORGANISATIONS: THE PEOPLE EXCELLENCE STAR

THE MISSION-CRITICAL IMPERATIVE OF PEOPLE EXCELLENCE

SETTING THE SCENE

In the disruptive innovative, ideas-experience-based economy, people are the only true value unlockers and wealth creators in organisations because this economy is fuelled by power of people’s imagination, creativity, and ingenuity. Organisations have to re-imagine and re-invent their experience-packaged Client and People Value Propositions in this economy in real time, all the time, in previously unimaginable, sustainable ways.

This economy is furthermore permeated by the pressure for organisations to be responsible, social citizens with a strategic focus on sustainability. Organisations have to re-think and re-invent everything they do from the vantage point of leaving the world a better place for upcoming generations, and serving the greater good. This also demands people’s imagination, creativity, and ingenuity. If people are central to the continued viability of organisational performance and success, in the present and the future premised on sustainability, knowing the state of the organisation’s People Excellence is a critical imperative for every organisation.

If there is on top of this criticality of people being the only true value unlockers and wealth creators in organisations, a global war for top talent, then ‘critical’ turns into a mission-critical imperative. But, within the emerging new order the war for talent has taken on a qualitatively different tone. Firstly, the war has shifted from merely attracting the best people to ensuring that they are fully engaged, continuously grow, and are committed to stay. Secondly, that the attracted ‘can do’ people truly want and ought to make a real difference-making, purpose-directed contribution that serves the greater good from a sustainability perspective.

The ‘hard’ talent war of ‘can do’ attraction has become even harder by turning into a ‘soft’ talent war of want, ought to, and purpose. It is about crafting and maintaining a (hyper-) personalised, meaningful experience of thriving, and hence personal fulfilment, for people in the organisation. In turn, ensuring a continuously viable organisation in the emerging new order. A highly individualised people experience of and at work has become the fulcrum to, and leverage for, People Excellence. Concurrently, customers are also in search of inimitable, delighting experiences. Thus people and client value propositions have to be re-imagined and re-invented continuously.

Organisations that institute effective people experience practices reap the following positive outcomes (Bersin & Enderes, 2021):

Organisational: are 2.2x more likely to exceed their financial goals; and 2.4x more likely to delight customers;

Innovation: are 3.7x more likely to adapt well to change; and 4.3x more likely to innovate effectively; and

People: are 5.1x more likely to create a sense of belonging; 5.2x more likely to be a great place to work; and 5.1x more likely to engage and retain people.

Strategically knowing the state of an organisation’s People Excellence – the People Creditworthiness of the organisation – hence has become a mission-critical imperative for every organisation, in the present and into going into the future.

The purpose of this series of blogs is to propose and explicate a strategic organisational stress test of the People Creditworthiness of organisations, called the People Excellence Star, enabling the identification of strategic people interventions to bring about People Excellence.

This introductory blog covers the flowing themes: defining People Excellence; People Excellence as strategic organisational focus; the People Excellence Star as stress test of the organisation’s People Creditworthiness; the unique value-add of the People Excellence Star; and, a preview of the make-up of the People Excellence Star.

DEFINING PEOPLE EXCELLENCE

People Excellence can be defined as consistently, achieving exceedingly well with the people of the organisation. When People Excellence is present, organisations are unlocking real, amazing value and creating continuous, worthy, and lasting wealth with its people to the amazed delight of all the organisation’s stakeholders. In the process, the organisation is great at making its people thrive. Its people are the best they can and want to be. Hence, they are experiencing genuine, deep personal fulfilment because they are flourishing. In these organisation people are ends in and of themselves, and not treated as means to ends.

Within the disruptive innovation, ideas-experience-based economy, People Excellence is furthermore permeated by the pressure for organisations to be responsible, social citizens embracing all stakeholders with a strategic focus on sustainability. Organisations must serve the common good of humanity in a sustainable manner – leaving the world a better a place for upcoming generations who will also be able to satisfy their needs. The organisation is endeavouring to be the best in and for the world. They do good, and avoid harm. This demands that organisations must be purpose-driven. In turn, they must give their people the opportunity to find meaning in their work by being purpose-driven in and of themselves.

Put metaphorically, People Excellence signifies an organisation being THE shining star with respect to its people. It is seen and used independently as THE people standard. The organisation has institutionalised the circular, value-unlocking/wealth creating, core value chain, depicted in the figure below in the form of a People Excellence Triangle.

As can be seen from the above figure, People Excellence sits at the confluence of Thriving People; Delighted Stakeholders as Beneficiaries; and a Viable Organisation. In turn, People Excellence results in an outstanding level of People Effectiveness in the organisation. The former is thus the strategic means to the latter as an outcome, recursively feeding back on the former in a continuously virtuous cycle.

PEOPLE EXCELLENCE AS STRATEGIC ORGANISATIONAL FOCUS

If the centrality of people in an experience-based Knowledge Society is accepted as mission-critical in ensuring the ongoing viability of the organisation, then People Excellence needs to become a regular Board and Executive strategic agenda item for ongoing, in-depth, vigorous dialogue, and discussion. Beyond the confines of the Board and Executive, People Excellence must also permeate the everyday organisational narrative about its people providing ongoing strategic direction and guidance.

The ongoing People Excellence dialogue must trigger strategically directed interventions initiated from wherever in the organisation. People Excellence must be continually and radically re-imagined and re-invented to shift competitive boundaries in the ‘create’, experience-based economy through creatively engaged people. Good is never good enough!

People Excellence therefore must not, and cannot, be side-lined to the People (or HR) Function as a lesser, ‘nice-to-hear’ matter, only requiring ad hoc attention in a transactional, cost-efficient manner. Or, only becomes a priority when a people crisis upends the organisation, such as industrial action, a pressing shortage of key talent, rising customer dissatisfaction, or a pandemic. For various other reasons, investors, regulators, and society also have a growing keen interest in the state of People Excellence of organisations.

THE PEOPLE EXCELLNCE STAR AS STRESS TEST OF THE ORGANISATION’S PEOPLE CREDIT WORTHINESS

If the mission-criticality of thriving people is accepted as an imperative for future viable organisational performance and success, as well as delighted stakeholders, how can one assess the overall People Creditworthiness of an organisation? What is needed is an integrated, strategic, organisational People Excellence Stress Test that can be used by organisations to gauge their People Excellence and take appropriate strategic actions to enhance it.

The People Excellence Star is proposed as integrated stress test of how well an organisation is doing with its people: its People Creditworthiness. The Star aims to provide in strategic, yet practical way an integrated means to assess People Creditworthiness of organisation, paying equal attention to people and organisational perspectives.

Why a ‘Star’ as the metaphor of People Excellence? Firstly, People Excellence signifies that an organisation is a ’Shining Star’ regarding its people. In stark contrast to a Shining Star is a Black Hole organisation: an organisation that is inhuman and inhumane, and exploits and destroys its people. Secondly, A star provides fixed point to plot and navigate one’s direction despite distractions and unknown. The People Excellence Star endeavours to provide steady compass setting to People Excellence in organisation. Thirdly, the chemistry at the core of a star of the ongoing fusion of hydrogen and helium that generates and releases ongoing energy providing light, is indicative of People Excellence as the outcome of unleashing the overall, continuous, powerful virtuous synergistic fusion of all the People Excellence Domains and Elements in the organisation. People Excellence is not a single, static state thing but a dynamic, evolving whole.

The Star as strategic stress test of the organisation’s People Creditworthiness provides the baseline diagnostic assessment for the crafting of the organisation’s Strategic People Interventions, giving the strengths and weaknesses of the organisation’s People Excellence as unveiled by the test. This is succeeded by monitoring and tracking the People Excellence journey of the organisation.

The power of the People Excellence Star is that it provides a map of the territory called ‘People’, which frames systemic, dynamic, strategic people thinking in an organisation. Given the above discussion, it should be patently clear that the People Excellence Star must be owned by the leadership community of the organisation, reinforcing the view already expressed before.

THE UNIQUE VALUE-ADD OF THE PEOPLE EXCELLENCE STAR

An integrated, balanced, strategic perspective

Although People Excellence has received attention in both the theoretical literature and in practice for many years, the approach and assessment to it have frequently been at a tactical-operational level, which is typically fragmented and siloed into stand-alone Excellence Domains/Elements. These are frequently punted individually as THE silver bullet to bring about People Excellence. Fads and fashions also play their enticing and seducing roles on the side.

People Excellence furthermore is often framed one-sidedly from the organisation’s perspective, ignoring the perspectives of the people who are active contributors to, and beneficiaries of, People Excellence. This frequently results in people becoming only the means to People Effectiveness as the end.

In the to-be-discussed exposition of the People Excellence Star, equal weight is given to the simultaneous synchronicity of the organisational and people perspectives. This is why People Excellence was described above as attaining the simultaneous synchronicity of thriving people, aimed at delighting stakeholders AND a viable organisation (refer to the above figure).

The use of the word ‘integrated’ refers thus concurrently, firstly, to the integration from a strategic vantage point of the fragmented Excellence Domains in the literature. And, secondly, through integration achieving the simultaneous, balanced synchronicity of organisational and people excellence perspectives.

A practice perspective, solidly grounded in thought leadership, research evidence and leading practices

The focus of the People Excellence Star is firmly founded on the practice of People Excellence in organisations. It is about assisting in making People Excellence happen at the coal face of the organisation’s daily functioning. Also, to provide insights into possible strategic people interventions which can form the basis for crafting the Strategic People Intent of the organisation, given the uncovered People Excellence gap.

Yet this practice perspective is not pulled out of the thin air. It draws extensively on the best thought leadership; the latest research; and cutting-edge practices regarding People Excellence. Hence the Star rests on sound, robust, and tested foundations.

Relevance to the new World of Work

The new World of Work, also called the emerging new order, forms the explicit frame of reference for the construction and content of the People Excellence Star. The Star inter alia incorporates the underlying, basic dynamics of the emerging new order; the major forces of change shaping the emerging new order such as the growth of the VICCAS world; exponentially accelerating technological innovation as manifested in the Fourth Industrial Revolution; and the profile of the worker of the future,

Hence the subsequent discussions in later blogs regarding the different Excellence Domains/Elements making up the People Excellence Star, have a direct and immediate relevance to the emerging new order faced by organisations, in the present and future, in which they must realise People Excellence.

A PREVIEW OF THE MAKE-UP OF THE PEOPLE EXCELLENCE STAR

The to-be-proposed People Excellence Star consists of five People Excellence Domains, made up twenty Excellence Elements in total. The Domains are: Identity, Capacity, Delivery, Outcomes, and Relationships. The respective strategic thrusts of the respective Domains are: Identity: Strategic Positioning; Capacity: Potentiality; Delivery: Value Unlocking; Outcomes: Wealth Created; and Relationships: Reputation. These Domains with their commensurate Elements will be discussed in the subsequent blogs.

TAKE-AWAYS

People are the only true value unlockers and wealth creators in the emerging compelling, memorable, experience-based economy. They are central to ongoing viable organisational performance and success, premised on sustainability.

People Excellence is about thriving people truly unlocking real, amazing value and creating worthy, lasting wealth for delighted stakeholders - consistently and continuously - in this way ensuring a viable organisation for all stakeholders.

Strategically knowing the state of the organisation’s People Excellence – the People Creditwortiness of the organisation – have become a mission-critical imperative for every organisation, including its Board, Leadership, and stakeholders.

There is a pressing need for an integrated, strategic and organisational People Excellence Stress Test that can be used by organisations to gauge their People Excellence and take appropriate strategic actions to enhance it.

The People Excellence Star is proposed as an integrated test of how well an organisation is doing with its people: its People Creditworthiness. The Star aims to provide in a strategic, yet practical way an integrated means to assess the People Creditworthiness of an organisation, paying equal attention to the people and organisational perspectives.

The exposition of the People Excellence Star is firmly rooted in best thought leadership, latest research, and cutting-edge practices. In this way, it is endeavoured to make integration, balance, robustness, and relevance the unique value-adds of the People Excellence Star.

Next Topic

The make-up and dynamics of the People Excellence Star

Source

Veldsman, Theo H. (2021). The People Excellence Star. A strategic organisational stress test. Johannesburg: KR Publishing

website: www.kr.co.za

#People Excellence

0 notes

theoveldsman · 5 years ago

Text

MASTER OF THE LEADERSHIP UNIVERSE (35)

CRISIS LEADERSHIP EXCELLENCE: NAVIGATING IN, BEYOND, AND THROUGH A CRISIS

At a glance

Leadership is about imagining possible futures pro-actively, and realising a chosen, shared, desired future with followers making up a team, organisation, community or society. True leadership is pro-actively being the architect of a chosen, desired future, not the reactive victim of an imposed or reacted-to future.

Formally described, leadership encompasses the exercise of persuasive influence by one or more persons (=leaders), engaging a set of stakeholders (=followers) in an enabling and empowering way with regard to a joint course of action (=dream), intended to bring about a collective, ensured future outcome with a desired effect (=legacy) within a specific context.

But how must leadership respond when a crisis arises? Crises will occur. This certainty is woven into the very fibre of life. Yet in the current VICCAS world of increasing Variety, Interdependency, Complexity, Change, Ambiguity and Seamlessness, the likelihood of crises has increased significantly. Organisations that excel at Crisis Leadership will win the race to the future they desire.

My article sets out to explore and elucidate what I believe to be the appropriate leadership response to dealing with a crisis: navigating through an ‘In’-‘Beyond’-‘Through’ Crisis Response. My article only focuses on organisational leadership. The article covers understanding a crisis; the make-up of the ‘In’-‘Beyond’-‘Through’ Crisis Response; its critical success factors; the core crisis leadership capabilities required by this Response; and lastly, the 10 commandments of crisis leadership excellence.

UNDERSTANDING A CRISIS

A crisis is an unexpected, threatening event, which as a significant interruption endangers the likelihood of a team, organisation, community or society realising its chosen, shared, desired future, contained and expressed in their shared dream with its intended legacy. A crisis threats either to derail the journey undertaken to realise the chosen shared, desired future; and/or to destroy the chosen, shared, desired future by rendering it highly undesirable as an outcome.

A crisis is the unholy, wicked confluence of unexpectedness, threat, uncertainty and urgency. In short, a crisis is an emergency that detrimentally disrupts the expected status quo, resulting in dire consequences. More specifically, a crisis potentially can threaten to disrupt a system, a structure, a way of doing/ living, accepted values, and/ or people.

Often, a crisis is not so much a crisis in an objective, factual sense, but becomes such in the eyes of those who have to deal with and are impacted by the event, given their perceptions of the threat, as well as their stake in, the impact of, and the consequences of, the event. These perceptions give a certain rhythm or pulse to a crisis: fast/slow; positive/negative; trust/suspicion; good/bad; important/unimportant; contained/widespread; winners/losers. Although the word ‘crisis’ as a dangerous threat invokes all of the aforesaid, it also simultaneously triggers the opportunity to make or make things differently and/or better.

A crisis is always accompanied by a pressure cooker-like stress for a number of reasons:

important decisions have to be taken under conditions of typically quite severe time pressure;

there is often insufficient information, especially because of time pressure;

the event is not static but evolving in its knock-on consequences and impact – frequently rapidly;

choices and trade-offs have to be made between often unattractive alternatives;

additional resources, sometimes substantive, have to be found quickly to deal with the crisis; and

the close, ongoing public scrutiny by stakeholders of every move made, even bringing to bear the history of past moves on other/related matters, strongly fueled and given momentum by the social media in a uncontainable, runaway fashion.

MAKE-UP OF AN APPROPRIATE CRISIS LEADERSHIP RESPONSE

As a departure point, leadership needs to respond in an integrated, comprehensive and balanced manner to a crisis. The essence of such a response can be summed up in a single phrase: leadership has to navigate concurrently In, Beyond and Through a crisis.

In engaging with a crisis, leadership has to concurrently demonstrate the following responses:

‘Navigate’: leadership has to respond in a juggling, iterative, adaptive and systemic manner to a crisis, because a crisis cannot be managed in a programmatic, linear fashion due to its unexpectedness, uncertainty, ambiguity, evolving nature and unpredictable impact.

’In’: leadership has to recognise that the organisation faces a crisis, and Frame the crisis correctly in order for leadership to engage appropriately with it.

‘Beyond’: leadership has to Anchor the crisis by using the Identity of the organisation as a secure reference point and fixed compass setting during the chaos of engaging with the crisis.

‘Through’: leadership has to Resolve the crisis by crafting and rolling out a fit-for-purpose solution – the intervention – to recover from the crisis.

Whilst Framing-Anchoring-Resolving a crisis, leadership must ensure, grow and maintain adequate levels of Organisation and People Capitals (explicated later) within their organisation in order to address the crisis successfully. On the one hand, leadership must protect the running down of these Capitals during the crisis, while on the other, they must leverage these Capitals to deal with the crisis effectively.

The figure below depicts the above discussion in the form of a Crisis Leadership Response Triangle. The lines linking the three responses illustrates the navigating nature of addressing a crisis. Each ingredient of the Triangle is discussed below.

‘In’ Leadership Response: Frame

The unexpected, threatening event has occurred; leadership is ‘In’ the crisis. As the initial triggering response to put the wheels in motion, leadership must put on the right set of glasses to ensure that they have a 2020 vision of the crisis. This set of glasses enables them to take stock of and position the crisis right if they are to have any chance of dealing with it appropriately.

At least three factors must be considered in framing the crisis right: territory, dynamics and engagement mode.

Factor 1: Territory

The territory of (or ‘space’ occupied by) the crisis has to be demarcated correctly by considering at least the following factors in order to accurately profile the threat faced:

Magnitude – the variables/stakeholders implicated with the numbers per variable/stakeholder affected: uni-dimensional vs. multi-dimensional in a contained, extrapolative progression vs. unbounded, exponential progression.

Interdependence – the interconnectedness of variables/stakeholders affected: independent vs. serially or reciprocally interdependent.

Urgency – the timeframe required to deal with the crisis: sudden, acute, here-and-now threat vs. smouldering, creeping threat.

Uncertainty – ‘knownness’ of crisis: unknown vs. known.

Severity – degree of impact: temporarily (=deviation from normal) vs. permanent (=new normal).

Time frame – single, once-off event vs. unfolding, series of evolving events.

A high level static and/or dynamic model can be built based on the above to map the crisis in terms of different probable scenarios as the crisis unfolds, allowing predictions and thus enabling the proactive identification of recovery actions. The greater the scope, complexity, urgency, uncertainty, severity and time frame of a crisis, the greater the threat it poses and the more difficult its manageability’.

For example, in the case of COVID-19, scientifically derived, epidemiological projections based on a static model, with a large amount of uncertainty, during the 2nd/3rd week of March 2020 for South Africa showed that a slow and inadequate response by the South African government to the outbreak of the virus could result in anywhere between 87,900 (10% infection of population) and 351,000 (40% infection of population) deaths, and cause the health system to be totally overwhelmed and collapse.

Apart from the medical impact and personal emotional trauma, the knock-on economic impact (e.g. employees unable to be at work and hence not being paid, and organisations earning no/little revenue with the resultant retrenchment of employees and reduced tax income to the state) and socio-cultural impact (e.g. restrictions on social and religious events, shopping and entertainment) have to be modelled.

Factor 2: Dynamics

Demarcating the territory of a crisis provides a relatively static picture of it. A more dynamic picture must therefore be built of the crisis based on the accurate recognition of the nature of the situational dynamics represented by the crisis that has to be addressed. The situational crisis dynamics represent the DNA code of the crisis.

A crisis can represent one of four types of possible situational dynamics, indicative of the complexity of the crisis faced.The table below provides an overview of the different types of situational crisis dynamics (cf. Kurtz & Snowden, 2003; Snowden & Boone, 2007).

Factor 3: Engagement Mode

With accurate recognition of the type of situational crisis dynamics faced within the demarcated crisis territory, leadership next has to choose the best overall mode to engage constructively with the crisis concerned.

The below table gives different leadership engagement modes with their associated actions relative to the different situational crisis dynamics (cf. Snowden & Boone, 2007).

The basic thrust of the ‘Through’ Response (to be discussed below) is to move the level of the manageability of the situational crisis dynamics as rapidly as possible from a Chaotic Crisis to a Complex Crisis, and then to a Complicated Crisis (see above table).

In summary: the ‘In’ leadership response enables leaders to Frame the crisis right by: demarcating the crisis territory appropriately; accurately recognising the situational crisis dynamics; and choosing the appropriate mode of engaging constructively with the crisis. It must be stressed that Framing is an iterative, ongoing process, where an initially adopted frame may change over time as the crisis unfolds, as a different/ deeper understanding of the crisis emerges, and as the ‘manageability’ of the crisis is improved by leadership.

‘Beyond’ Leadership Response: Anchor

As an unexpected, threatening event, a crisis creates turbulence, fluidity, uncertainty and ambiguity. In countering these crisis qualities, leadership has to Anchor the organisation ‘Beyond’ the here-and-now existential threat of the crisis. They can do this by using the Identity of the organisation as a secure reference point and fixed compass setting. Organisational Identity must inform – in real time, all the time, in all places – leadership’s thinking, decisions and actions during the unfolding, and seemingly overwhelming, snowballing chaos of dealing with the crisis effectively.

Organisational Identity (we, us and them) relates to organisational members’ understanding of who and what their organisation is; what it stands for and does; who it belongs to; and what it aspires to. How do we see ourselves? What do we stand for? How are we seen? The constituent elements of the organisation’s Identity are depicted in the figure below.

A strongly entrenched Organisational Identity empowers everyone at their level in an organisation to take the right decisions and actions because Organisational Identity serves as a common comparison base. In this way, everyone in the organisation and beyond can be turned into a leader in his/her sphere of action, and hence take on the burden jointly to deal effectively and successfully with the crisis. A leadership miracle can happen: everyone becomes an amazing leader.

A strongly entrenched Organisational Identity also reduces the likelihood of short term, reactive, destructive thinking, decisions and actions compromising the future performance, success and sustainability of the organisation.

‘Through’ Leadership Response: Resolve

Relative to and in-between the ‘In’ Response: Frame – the right set of glasses in profiling the crisis accurately - and the ‘Beyond’ Response: Anchor, – Organisational Identity as secure reference point and fixed compass setting in the sea of chaos – the ‘Through’ Response has to occur. Leadership has to Resolve the crisis by crafting and rolling out a fit-for-purpose solution as an intervention to the crisis. The solution must enable leadership to work ‘Through’ the crisis by resolving it in order to recover sustainably.

Resolving the crisis with the aim of ensuring an effective recovery entails a number of steps that are depicted in the figure below. Important to note from this figure is the interdependence amongt the steps, as well as the embeddedness of the ‘Through’ Response steps in the ‘In’ and ‘Beyond’ Responses in an iterative, integrated, complete and balanced manner. Given space constraints, only highlights of each step is briefly discussed.

Right Attitude

As a departure point to the ‘Through’ Response, the right Attitude must be adopted and shared by all organisational members, modeled by leadership: “The crisis can and must be resolved whatever it takes. Our very future is at stake.” This ‘can do’, barrier-busting Attitude must be infused by, and leveraged from, the right People Capital (see below).

Inspiring a Crisis Resolution Vision

Next, a clear, inspiring Crisis Resolution Vision must be crafted relative to the Organisation Identity: “When we have resolved the crisis, what will our team, organisation, community or society look like in having successfully addressed the crisis with all of its impacts, consequences and knock-on effects?”

If the crisis is radical and fundamental in its impact, the Crisis Resolution Vision may have to describe a new normal. For example, the successful relocation of people displaced by rising sea levels; a healthy population immune to the COVID-19 virus; or, a different mode of working, e.g. working from home.

Coherent set of Solution Design Specifications

Given the right Attitude and a clear, inspiring Crisis Resolution Vision, a coherent set of Solution Design Specifications for a fit-for-purpose crisis solution must be generated, which is able to resolve the crisis. Examples of such specifications are: core value coherence; contextual-fit; requisite complexity; outside-in; stakeholder inclusivity; solution delivery anywhere, anytime, anyway, anyhow, to anyone; and the solution improves after every use (=minimum viable design).

Fit-for-Purpose Solution

Relative to the inspiring Crisis Resolution Vision and Solution Design Specifications, a fit-for-purpose Solution must be crafted to resolve the crisis in terms of its triggers, evolution, impact and consequences. The Solution must include a clear, robust Recovery Strategy with priorities and Recovery Plan, detailing the why, what, how, who, where and when.

Recovery Intelligence

The Solution must be accompanied by the formulation of an Intelligence Measurement Model to monitor and track the full range of possible Solution outcomes impact, in this way providing real time, in time intelligence with respect to the effectiveness of the Solution, i.e. a ‘smart’ Solution has to be crafted, enabling the monitoring and tracking of the crisis recovery.

The Intelligence Measurement Model’s ‘radar screen’ and ‘bandwidth’ must be broad enough to pick up the full dimensionality of the Solution outcome impact: intended and unintended; positive and negative; tangible and intangible.

Implementation, Monitoring and Tracking

Finally, the Recovery Solution is implemented, monitored and tracked in terms of the Intelligence Measurement Model, and course adjustments made.

NAVIGATION

Crisis implies change by its very nature; the unexpected has occurred, causing a threatening disruption which needs to be minimised or eliminated. From the moment a crisis has occurred and an ‘In-Beyond-Through’ Response: Framing-Anchoring-Resolving is triggered, a sound change navigation strategy and plan must be crafted and rolled out in support of the Response.

It is outside of the scope of this article, given space constraints, to address change navigation in any great detail. Suffice to say that the same change navigation principles apply in the case of dealing with a crisis as with any large scale organisation intervention. The only difference being, given the features of a crisis - outlined in the introduction of this chapter as a threatening emergency which detrimentally disrupts the expected status quo with dire consequences, infused by unexpectedness, threat, uncertainty and urgency - impose a different flavour and rhythm on the application of these principles.

PROTECTION OF AND LEVERAGE OF PEOPLE AND ORGANISATION CAPITALS

Navigating the In-Beyond-Through Response through Framing-Anchoring-Resolving requires the protection and leverage of two critical Capitals: People and Organisation. These Capitals must infuse the In-Beyond-Through Response into its very being.

People Capital

The occurrence of a crisis implies an event outside of the normal range of expectations, duties and functioning of organisational members, invoking a real and perceived sense of losing control over their destiny. The typical people responses are Freeze, Flight, Fight or Face. Face as constructive response will capacitate organisational members to regain and maintain a sense of coping and being in charge.

To Face a crisis effectively, the People Capital of the organisation must be grown, nurtured and maintained by leadership in order to generate the required people energy to address the crisis. By implication, negative People Capital must be detected and countered.

The critical, major People Capital ingredients are (cf. Luthans, Youssef & Avolio, 2007): Efficacy (instead of Helplessness); Hope (instead of Despair); Optimism (instead of Pessimism); Confidence (instead of Self-doubt); Courage (instead of Cowardice); Passion (instead of Disinterestedness), Perseverance (instead of Half-heartedness) and Resilience (instead of Overwhelmedness).

Organisational Capital

During the In-Beyond-Through Response, leadership must protect and leverage core organisational capabilities to deal with the crisis. Core organisational capabilities are the ‘crown jewels’ of the organisation, which refers to what the organisation must be able to do exceedingly well in order to gain and retain an ongoing, competitive edge. These capabilities must not be compromised, thereby putting the sustainability of an organisation at risk.

The crown jewels to be protected and leveraged during the crisis therefore must be identified early on. At least the following core organisational capabilities are critical: Organisational Reputation; Stakeholder Goodwill; Leadership Reputation; Client Delivery (especially to strategic clients); Supply Chain (particularly strategic suppliers within the Chain).

CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS FOR AN EFFECTIVE IN-BEYOND-THROUGH LEADERSHIP RESPONSE TO A CRISIS

At least the following critical success factors are essential (e.g. Jordan-Meier, 2017):

Navigating Response

Know and communicate at any given time which crisis life cycle stage is active, and properly close out each stage: crisis acknowledgement, crisis assessment, crisis handling/containment/ recovery, and crisis close-out.

Model the way as leader by setting the example in all ways and in everything throughout the crisis, oozing confident calmness at all times.

‘In’ Response: Frame

Acknowledge the presence of the crisis with unconditional honesty, warts and all, in a realistic way from the start, and throughout.

Set up clear, robust crisis governance structures and processes that work effectively and efficiently.

Deal with the true crisis by accurately mapping the territory of the crisis with its situational crisis dynamics and associated mode of engagement.

Show and express concern for the people of the organisation in tangible ways at all times, in all places. Demonstrate that their troubles matter more than those of the organisation.

Reach out to, mobilise and engage all stakeholders, in this way engendering their trust and full support throughout the crisis.

Be at all times physically visible and accessible as leadership at the front line in the ‘moments of truth’ where and when things happen that matter genuinely, in resolving the crisis and where reactions to the crisis are manifested. Do not delegate and/or disappear.

Ensure substantive, quality communication. Say what you mean, and mean what you say. No waffling, posturing, dithering, and mixed messages.

Communicate, communicate, communicate. Keep all stakeholders informed at all times, in real time, accurately and timeously. Plan intended communication frequency, and then multiply it by a factor of 10 to arrive at the actual frequency.

Learn, relearn and unlearn from a crisis in order to enhance the future leadership’s In-Beyond-Through Response capability.

‘Beyond’ Response: Anchor

Ensure a distinct, widely shared, and deeply entrenched and understood Organisational Identity to serve as a secure reference point and fixed compass setting for all organisational members. Re-inforce the Organisation Identity constantly in all communication, thinking, decisions and actions.

Relative to the Organisational Identity, enable and empower as many organisational members as possible within their action domains to deal with the localised roll-out of the Crisis Resolution Solution, as well as dealing with knock-on effects, fall-outs and blow-backs of the crisis within their domains. Everyone must become a leader.

‘Through’ Response: Resolve

Give credible assurances; no pipe dreams or unrealistic expectations.

Courageously stand up and be accountable and responsible for events, decisions, actions, consequences and outcomes. No ducking and diving; the blaming of circumstances beyond own control; and/or seeking scapegoats.

Make the tough decisions required by die trade-offs inherent in resolving a crisis. Do not procrastinate in attempting to avoid making the tough decisions or attempting to please stakeholders. Timing is of the essence in successfully resolving a crisis.

Generate real time, in time, all the time, accurate, timeous crisis intelligence.

Apply big picture, innovative, out-of-the box thinking with no holy cows, using cross-functional, multi-disciplinary teams (especially critical in the case of Complex and Chaotic Crises).

Craft a real solution whatever the cost, and not a make-believe, public relations solution aimed at smoothing one’s own conscience and/or appeasing stakeholders.

Prepare for unexpected contingencies to rapidly counter unexpected blow-backs from the recovery actions.

People Capital

Positive People Capital (e.g., Efficacy, Hope, Resilience) must at all times be greater than any Negative People Capital in responding to the crisis. .

Organisational Capital

The organisation’s Crown jewels (e.g. Organisational Reputation) are well protected and effectively utilised in dealing with the crisis.

CRISIS LEADERSHIP CAPABILITIES FOR AN EFFECTIVE IN-BEYOND-THROUGH LEADERSHIP RESPONSE TO A CRISIS

The figure below depicts the minimum Core In-Beyond-Through Crisis Leadership Capabilities necessary to deal with a crisis successfully (e.g. Veldsman & Johnson 2016).

The chances of finding all of these Core Crisis Leadership Capabilities in a single leader is indeed slim: the futile search for the super-person leader. Instead, an organisation will have to switch to distributed (i.e. shared) leadership, where the total portfolio of Crisis Leadership Capabilities is distributed in its sum total throughout the leadership community of an organisation on an as-needs basis.

Another approach could be to categorise the portfolio of Capabilities by crisis – given the nature of each crisis – into ‘Essential’, ‘Desirable’ and ‘Nice to”. Those leaders who have the essential Capabilities would take the lead in a specific crisis. This implies a pro-active audit of Crisis Leadership Capabilities needed by an organisation, their development, and the rapid deployment of leaders according to the Capabilities needed as shown by the audit, as and when a crisis occurs. This Capability Inventory will form part of the Crisis Handling strategy and plan of the organisation.

TEN COMMANDMENTS OF CRISIS LEADERSHIP EXCELLENCE THROUGH AN IN-BEYOND-THROUGH LEADERSHIP RESPONSE TO A CRISIS

The shaded box contains the suggested Ten Commandments for Crisis Leadership Excellence (adapted and expanded from Jordan-Meier, 2017).

TRAVEL GUIDELINES

Crises will occur. This certainty is woven into the very fibre of life. The challenge to leadership is how to respond to crises when they occur.

The appropriate leadership response in dealing with a crisis is: navigating through an ‘In’ (=Frame)-‘Beyond’ (=Anchor)-‘Through’ (=Resolve) Response.

’In’ Response: leadership has to recognise that the organisation faces a crisis, and Frame the crisis correctly in order for leadership to engage appropriately with it.

‘Beyond’ Response: leadership has to Anchor the crisis by using the Identity of the organisation as a secure reference point and fixed compass setting during the chaos of engaging with the crisis.

Through’ Response: leadership has to Resolve the crisis by crafting and rolling out a fit-for-purpose solution – the intervention – to recover from the crisis.

Due attention must be paid to certain critical success factors when Framing-Anchoring-Resolving Responding to a crisis effectively.

An organisation must also ensure that it has a portfolio of certain minimum Core Crisis Leadership Capabilities readily available.

Crisis Leadership Excellence requires compliance with ten Commandments.

Source

The article is extracted from my chapter in an upcoming book, entitled Managing during the Coronavirus Vortex. The book will be published during the coming two weeks by Knowledge Resources. Go to www.kr.co.za

#Leadership Mastery Crisis leadership

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theoveldsman · 5 years ago

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DESIGNING FUTURE-PROOF, FIT-FOR-PURPOSE ORGANISATIONS (18) Organisational Design as a mission-critical organizational discipline

Organisational Design (OD) pertains to the Operating Model of the organisation. OD has always been a mission-critical organisational discipline, but will become even more of a burning platform into the future for at least five reasons:

Reason 1: OD has always been a key leadership task, growing in greater importance in the future for the four reasons listed below.

Reason 2: The world is changing, requiring a radical rethink of organisations’ design.

Reason 3: Many organisations are reconceiving their Identities – Who and what are we, stand for, and are aspiring to - because of the emerging new order, in turn significantly affecting their designs.

Reason 4: People have moved center stage in the success of organisations, which demands a better design-people fit. I.e., a more humane design.

Reason 5: OD significantly affects the ability of the organisation to compete.

The purpose of Article 18 - the last in my series of articles, entitled Designing Future-Proof, Fit-for-Purpose Organisations – is to explore what it will take to turn OD into a truly, mission-critical organisational discipline in an organisation. More specifically, what are the Critical Success Factors in making OD a value-adding, mission-critical organisational discipline? And by implication, the risks of OD failing to make this expected contribution.

THE CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS TURNING ORGANISATIONAL DESIGN INTO A MISSION-CRITICAL ORGANISATIONAL DISCIPLINE

The Critical Success Factors (CSFs) to turn OD into a mission-critical discipline can categorised in terms of the Where, Why, Whereto, When, Who, What, and How of OD. The respective contribution of these categories will be discussed – in the order listed above – for turning OD into a truly mission-critical organisational discipline. The article ends with a discussion of an OD Maturity Curve Model: the level of sophistication of OD in an organisation.

All of the CSFs need to be in place concurrently in order to increase the likelihood of Organisational Design becoming and being a truly, mission-critical organisational discipline. The figure depicts graphically what subcategories make up the different CSFs.

‘Where’ Critical Success Factors

‘Where’ CSFs entail adopting the right vantage point with respect to OD as organisational discipline. It is about positioning OD in the right way and place in an organisation. At least the following ‘Where’ CSFs can be considered (see above figure):

Acceptance of OD as a formal organisational discipline. As departure point, the myths regarding OD have to debunked in order to have a proper view of OD, e.g., OD equates to drawing organigrams. OD must be fully accepted as a formal organisational discipline with an extensive, evolving body of knowledge with well-established concepts, principles, approaches, processes and lessons learnt.

OD is a key leadership task. Leadership of the organisation must see OD as a key leadership task of equal standing of, and requiring similar attention to, the other leadership tasks, like the formulation of an Identity Model, or deciding on a Business/ Value Model.

Identity Actualisation. OD must be conceived as the primary means by which the Identity of the organisation- its Purpose, Vision, Strategic Intent, Core Values, and Legacy – and Business/ Value Model are turned into a concrete organisational reality in order to give the organisation a robust competitive edge though its design.

Future-centric OD mind set. If OD provides the organisation with a competitive edge, leadership has to adopt a future-centric, OD mind set. This mind set uses a Future-into-Present order in which a desired future, including a Design, is first imagined, and, then made real in the Present.

‘Why’ and ‘Whereto’ Critical Success Factors

The ‘Why’ and ‘Whereto’ CSFs relates to adopting the right rationale for doing OD (the ‘Why)’, framed by the right expectations of what it can delivered (the ‘Whereto’). What is the basic motivation for accepting OD as a formal organisational discipline in the organisation, and spending significant time, energy and resources on it? Also, what benefits must OD deliver?

At least the following ‘Why’ and ‘Whereto’ CSFs can be considered (see above figure):

Right focus: Operating Model. The scope of OD is the organisation’s Operating Model – its delivery logic. OD cannot deliver more or less. Or, serve as a remedy for something else, like an inappropriate organisational culture, or poor leadership.

Right scope: Delivery Logic. The delivery logic of OD must be scoped right from the outset, and by consequence have the right overall purpose. Such a delivery logic must be made up of three, interdependent modes, forming an indivisible, holistic whole, that have to be jointly optimised: technical; social and virtuous.

OD interventions are organisational initiatives. OD initiatives are not People Function initiatives, owned by the Function. OD interventions are owned by the organisation, intended to deliver organisational benefits, whether strategically, tactically and/or operationally.

Well-articulated business cases with clear, organisational benefits. For every intended OD intervention, a solid business case with clearly specified, expected organisational benefits must be formulated, informed by a strong justification.

‘When’ Critical Success Factors

The ‘When’ CSFs refers to detecting whether an ‘As-Is’ Design is still fit-for-purpose. Recognising - correctly and timeously - when an OD intervention has become unfit. Has the design reached its ‘sell-by-date’, and if yes: why?

At least the following ‘When’ CSFs must be considered (see above figure):

Timeous OD need recognition. Critical is the recognition of an OD need within the right window of opportunity. The organisation must install an OD Early Warning System in order to pick up the need for (re)design, timeously.

Ongoing design. The world of tomorrow infused by ongoing, radical and fundamental change, and the imperative for disruptive innovation, and learning faster than the rate of change makes it essential that the organisation - as a whole or in parts - self-design on an ongoing basis, in real time, all of the time. Design has become a continuous, dynamic, iterative, never-ending process.

Relative Organisational Stability. OD can only proceed if relative stability exists in the organisation to ensure healthy and constructive OD processes, able to produce timeous, fit-for-purpose designs. The timing for an OD is bad if, for example, an M&A is in the offing; a major leadership (re)shuffle is underway, or about to happen; or critical leadership positions - implicated by the OD intervention - are vacant.

Healthy, Constructive Organisational Dynamics. OD can only flourish if a well-functioning leadership community/ team with healthy dynamics exists in organisation in general, and/ or the to-be-redesigned area. An effective design process and robust design solution, need fierce, zero-based conversations with no protection of holy cows. Only if the former is in place, can the latter occur. Destructive organisational politics are detrimental to sound design processes.

‘Who’ Critical Success Factors

The ‘Who’ CSFs encompass the parties involved in OD. What parties, for what reasons, have a stake in OD in the organisation?

At least the following ‘Who’ CSFs must be considered (see above figure):

Leadership sponsorship and commitment. The status of OD as mission-critical organisational discipline in general - and its contribution through specific OD interventions - must be endorsed by visible, ongoing leadership sponsorship and commitment shared from the ‘highest’ level across the whole organisation at all times.

Pro-active, deep stakeholder engagement. An overall, organisational stakeholder engagement strategy and plan for OD in general must be crafted pro-actively. In this way the organisation will ensure that the right voices are heard at the right time and place in the organisation as and when a specific OD intervention is launched. (Naturally, the general strategy and plan must be made specific to each particular OD intervention).

Necessary OD Roles and Expertise at the requisite complexity level. The necessary OD roles – positioned at the right organisational level - must be in place to direct, guide and craft fit-for-purpose, OD solutions. The OD Expert(s) – whether internal or external – must have the proper OD expertise at the requisite level of design complexity, as necessitated by the identified, strategic-tactical-operational OD need(s) of the organisation relative to its contextual complexity.

‘What’ Critical Success Factors

The ‘What’ CSFs refer to the content of OD - the make-up, or ‘Google map’ – of the territory called ‘OD’ relative to the design implications of a VICCAS world. It entails the conceptual OD tools the organisation must have at its disposal to think about design.

At least the following ‘What’ CSFs must be considered (see above figure):

OD as core organisational capacity and culture. If OD is key leadership task; provides a competitive edge; and has become an ongoing, everyday activity (see above), then it is only logical to take the next step and conclude that OD needs to be a core organisational capability. Especially if the growing trend is considered regarding Outside-In, Design Thinking as essential in focusing on architecting inimitable, memorable experiences for customers and/ or employees.

Right thinking mode. OD requires the synchronously balancing of different modes of thinking, such as (i) Convergent/ Synthetic Thinking (= Big Picture thinking) and Divergent Thinking (= Analytical, detailed thinking); (ii) Single Loop Thinking (= Problem solving) and Double Loop Thinking (= questioning values, beliefs, assumptions); (iii) Critical, Creative Thinking (= Thinking outside the Box).

Right mind-set regarding the organisation as a phenomenon. OD must be informed by the appropriate way of thinking about the organisation itself, its ontology. For example, the organisation does not merely equate to an organigram. Or, is the sum total of its separate parts. It is rather a living, social ecosystem.

A shared, contextual, radar screen continuously scanning the context of the organisation – its Operating Arena. The radar screen must give the ‘width’ and ‘depth’ of the organisation’s context – in terms of make-up, dynamics, and trends - comprehensively and truthfully, in the present and going into the future. The right radar screen ensures that the design process and design solutions relate to and fit the context in which the organisation is operating.

Complete OD framework. The organisation must have a commonly shared OD vocabulary and language. A complete OD framework would include all Design Levels - Strategic, Tactical and Operational - and all Design Dimensions with respect to each Design Level – Horizontal, Vertical and Lateral. This framework needs to populated with the latest thought leadership regarding OD; be updated on an ongoing basis; and be enriched with the organisation’s own OD lessons learnt.

Comprehensive, competency framework. This framework is necessary to determine the ‘hard’ and ‘soft’, visible/ tangible and deep/ intangible, people requirements of design solutions. People make designs work. The right design must be populated with the right people.

Intelligent design. A comprehensive Measurement Model must be constructed – preferably in a balanced scorecard format - in order to monitor and track ‘intelligently’ in real time the design process itself; the institutionalization of the “To Be’ design; and the realisation of the intended benefits. .

‘How’ Critical Success Factors

The ‘How’ CSFs refer to the process of architecting fit-for-purpose OD solutions, the action tools of OD: what is essential to make OD work in the organisation?

At least the following ‘How’ CSFs must be considered (see above figure):

Agile design process. The design process must allow for many possible, design process execution options: from Assurance through to Co-design. This will make the process adaptable to fit varying circumstances and different process requirements, as well as allow for greater Design Autonomy.

Complete, integrated Portfolio of Design Processes. A complete portfolio of clearly mapped, comprehensive, and integrated Design Route Maps must be available in the organisation. In the end, all of these Route Maps must be moulded into an aligned, comprehensive, integrated design route map. The processes must updated, improved, and even re-invented, continuously.

Clear boundaries around OD interventions. The scope of OD interventions must be well demarcated: what is in and what is out. Otherwise a design solution may be over- or under-architected.

Living, aligned Design Criteria and Vision. Throughout the process of architecting and implementing design solutions, the Design Criteria and Vision must at all times, be kept as a real time, ongoing reference point. If the Design Criteria and Vision are absent or its criticality underplayed, the likelihood are high that destructive organisational politics such as power plays, the pulling of rank, lobbying, and personal agendas will corrupt or even totally derail the design process.

Balanced Design Autonomy. Given ongoing OD, and the need for agility, an optimum Design Autonomy balance must be found between Once-off, Top Down Design and Ongoing, Bottom-up Designing w.r.t. each Design Solution.

Organisational Landscape Alignment. Alignment must be a non-negotiable to enhance significantly, the likelihood of the successful, and permanent embedding of design solutions. First, Design Solutions must be internally aligned. Second, Design makes up only one components of the Organisational Landscape. Given the reciprocal interdependence of all of these components, the alignment of a Design Solution - a new Design - with the other components of the Organisational Landscape is critical to create overall organisational synergy.

Execution capability. It is essential that the crafting and delivery of design solutions are enabled by strong programme management and change navigation to enhance the chances of successful OD interventions significantly. OD interventions also must be adequately resourced, such as sufficient time, people, and funds. All of the above must be supported by a thorough risk mitigation plan.

Brutal honesty and tough decisions. The strength and weaknesses of the current design must be assessed with uncompromising honesty, warts and all. No holy cows must be protected. Frequently the right Design Solutions require taking tough mindedness, difficult decisions, and hard trade-offs. Leadership must not shy away from making these decisions, or their timeous implementation.

Customisation and evolution of design solutions. During implementation, freedom must be given for the ongoing adjustment and refinement of a signed-off, Design Solution on condition that the set Design Criteria and Vision are adhered to. It is near impossible to take full account in a Design Solution of all possible local circumstances, variations and eventualities.

OD MATURITY CURVE

The maturity (or sophistication) of OD as mission-critical discipline in any organisation can be plotted against a Maturity Curve. The Stage of OD Maturity can be assessed on two dimensions, giving the nature and quality of the Design Solutions architected and rolled out in an organisation:

Integration: the level at which the Solution is pitched to make a difference – ‘Height’ of Solution, varying between Low and High; and

Delivery Logic: the extensiveness of delivery covered by the Solution – ‘Breath’ of Solution, varying between Narrow and Broad.

Such a Maturity Curve is given in the figure below.

According to the figure, four Stages of OD Maturity can be distinguished in any organisation:

Stage 1: Fragmented, hit-and-run, band aid, Design Solutions. Design Solutions – at any organisational level and in any area - are stand-alone (no integration at all) and address short term, operational delivery problems/ issues (a very restricted delivery logic). The organisation has a design pain that must be quickly fixed. Often, these Solutions entail merely the redesign the organisation by redrawing the organigram. The typical leadership talk is: ‘Let us do a quick fix to let the pain go away as quickly as possible’.

Stage 2: Silver bullet, functional Design Solutions, maximising functional performance. These Design Solutions equate organizational design to the ‘saving’ effectiveness of a particular organisational functionality (intra-integration) focusing on medium term, tactical, delivery logic (functionally restricted, delivery logic). This is the ‘Burning Platform’ situation. For example, redesigning the organisation’s Supply Chain, or Operations. The typical leadership talk is: ‘Addressing the design of this crucial organisational functionality, will save the day for our organisation overall’.

Stage 3: Integrated OD Solutions, but Identity disconnected. These Design Solutions address organisation-wide design needs (long term, strategic delivery logic) but are uninformed by the organisation’s Identity (disconnected integration). This is the organisation that suffers from the blind spot of not having the insight that design is the Operating Model of the organisation, and the mission-critical means through which to actualise its Identity.In this case leadership has not realized that OD can give their organization a competitive edge. The typical leadership talk is: ‘Let us get our organisation to operate more efficiently by doing things right’.

Stage 4: Integrated OD Solutions for competiveness. These Design Solutions are architected for the organisation as an integrated entity (full integration) as a strategic means to gain and sustain a competitive edge (long term, strategic delivery logic). The typical leadership talk is: ‘Let us get our organization to operate effectively and efficiently - doing the right things, right’ – in order to give us a competitive edge. Stage 4 represent the stage at which OD Design has become a truly, mission-critical organisational discipline.

The level maturity of OD in the organisation is a direct function of the state of the above-discussed CSFs. A higher CSF state will move the OD Maturity level positively, upward. Or vice versa, a deterioration in CSFs can lower an organisation’s OD Maturity level. An upward movement in Maturity will require a deliberate organisational intervention with respect to the portfolio of CSFs discussed above.

A base-line diagnosis of the CSFs is essential to establish the Maturity Stage an organisation is at. The wise selection of ‘quick win’ CSF intervention would expedite a quicker movement up the Maturity Curve. It is recommended also that the assessment of the state of CSFs needs to take place formally at least once a year at an organisational level. An achieved Maturity Stage is never a fixed given for all time, but fluctuates dynamically over time as the state of CSFs changes.

TAKE-AWAYS

Specific CSFs have to be addressed on an ongoing basis to turn Organisational Design into a value-adding, mission-critical organisational discipline, now and going into the future.

The CSFs can be categorised into the Where, Why, Whereto, When, Who, What, and How of Organisational Design as a mission-critical organisational discipline.

The respective states of these CSFs place an organisation in a certain OD Maturity Curve Stage, reflecting the degree to which OD is a mission-critical organisational discipline in an organisation.

The assessment of the state of CSFs needs to take place at formally least once a year at an organisational level. An achieved Maturity Stage is never a fixed given for all time but fluctuates dynamically over time as the state of CSFs change.

Source

The article is extracted from my book, entitled Designing Fit-for-Purpose Organisations. A comprehensive, integrated route map. The book was published during June 2019 by Knowledge Resources. Go to www.kr.co.za

#organisational design

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theoveldsman · 5 years ago

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DESIGNING FUTURE-PROOF, FIT-FOR-PURPOSE ORGANISATIONS (17) Key Questions to interrogate the fitness-of-purpose of an Organisational Design

Organisational Design (OD) (or Organisational Architecture) refers to the Operating Model of the organisation. It pertains to the delivery logic required by an organisation to define, unlock and deliver ongoing value for stakeholders within the organisation’s strategically chosen, Operating Arena.

As delivery logic of the organisation, OD is about ensuring that the right things get done in the right places at the right times by the right persons, teams and units with the right accountability, responsibility and authority with the commensurate, necessary checks and balances.

It is widely recognised that the way an organisation is designed has a profound effect not only on its ability to execute its strategy successfully, but operate effectively (=Doing the right things) and efficiently (= Doing things right). Design affects the overall performance of the organisation, and ultimately its continued competitive edge and success. An organisation can indeed compete by Design.

The purpose of Article 17 in my series of articles - entitled Designing Future-Proof, Fit-for-Purpose Organisations – is to explore the ‘Ten commandments’ of a good Design. When is a Design fit-for-purpose? Put slightly different: what are the features of an effective and efficient Operating Model?

A number of questions, twenty in total – forming an overall ‘stress test’ - can assist one in assessing how fit-for-purpose one’s Design is in providing the necessary leverage for a sustainable competitive edge to the organisation. The questions can be grouped into six reciprocally, interdependent assessment categories: Alignment, Foundation, Design, Congruence, Feasibility and Impact.

In a sense, the twenty questions, across the five categories, provide a truncated, high level view of the overall organisational design route map.

ALIGNMENT

Alignment - as stress test of the Design - refers to the match of the Design to the context of the organisation, both externally and internally.

External Alignment with the organisation’s Operating Arena

The organisation is embedded in a strategically chosen Operating Arena. A fit-for-purpose Design must match the critical features of its Operating Arena. The challenge is how to make the organisation contextually fit-for-purpose in term of the requirements that the context imposes on the Design, such as:

the contextual qualities of the Arena: stable, predictable, simple (= a Mechanistic Design) vs. rapidly changing, unpredictable, complex ( = an Organic or Agile Design);

the specific, locational features of the organisation’s Operating Arena, e.g., developed vs. emerging economies;

the contextual complexity of the Arena, e.g. the organisation’s physical/ virtual footprint; its requisite thinking time horizon; the scope of and variety with organisation; and

life cycle stage of organisation.

Test 1: Is our Design aligned to our organisation’s Operating Arena?

Internal Alignment with the Identity and Business/ Value Models of the organisation

To be fit-for-purpose, the Design must match the organisation’s Identity and Business/ Value Models. The Identity Model refers to who and what the organisation is, what it stands for, and aspires to. It is made up of the organisation’s Purpose (Profit Maximisation and/ or Social Benefit), Vision, Core Values, Strategic Intent (e.g. Customer centricity), and intended Legacy. The Business/ Value Model pertains to how are the organisation wishes to make money and/ or create value/ wealth for its stakeholders.

The Design as Operating Model gives ‘hands’ and ‘feet’ to these Models. I.e., it is the primary means through which these Models are implemented into the organisation.

Test 2: Is our Design aligned to our organisation’s Identity and Business/ Value Models?

FOUNDATION

The fitness-of-purpose of the Design is a function of the quality of the building materials used to architect the Design. The strength of the foundation upon which the Design has been built thus must be stress tested. At least the following building materials are essential: work process map; core operating technology with its technological enablers; design givens; as well as design criteria and vision with its design metaphor.

WORK PROCESS MAP

The scope of the organisation’s work to define, deliver and satisfy stakeholder needs is contained in its needed work processes. Three types of work processes can be distinguished: core, enabling and support:

the core work processes deliver the product/ services of the organisation, e.g., Operations/ Manufacturing;

the enabling processes make the core processes happen, e.g., Maintenance, Supply Chain, People; and

the support processes support the functioning of the organisation overall, e.g., Corporate Affairs, Corporate Governance, Finance.

Essential for a fit-for-purpose Design is to have a high level, work process map available providing a complete overview of all of the required organisational work relative to its Identity and Business/ Value Models. Apart from being complete, the map must show all of the interdependencies between all of the work processes.

A generic work process map is given in the figure below. This map has to be made organisation-specific.

Test 3: Does our Design cover all of the core, enabling and support work processes making up the work of our organisation in defining, delivering and satisfying stakeholder needs?

Core Operating Technology with its Technological Enablers

The work processes of the organisation are configured in terms of a certain Core Operating Technology. The Core Operating Technology is at the heart of the organisation’s delivery logic. It entails the manner in which the organisation produces its products/services. The critical success factors of a Core Operating Technologies imposes certain Design requirements, the so-called ‘Technological Imperative’ on the Design. The table below gives three examples of Core Operating Technologies.

In its execution, the Core Operating Technology is leveraged through chosen Technology Enablers. The organisation must choose the most appropriate Enablers to apply to its Core Operating Technology, and consequently determine the design requirements arising out of their choice. E.g., the Technological Enablers provided by the Fourth Industrial Revolution that can be characterised in the acronym, DIVAS:

Digitisation: making everything, anything and anywhere computer readable and processable

Interconnectivity: everyone/everything talking to everyone/everything

Virtualisation: being present and delivering on an ongoing basis in cyberspace anything, anywhere, anytime, anyhow, for anyone

Automation: performing a process or practice, and taking decisions and actions, through technological means with no/minimal human mediation

Smart: generating data from everything/anyone, with ongoing machine learning through feedback and/or turning data into intelligence through decision-making algorithms, taking focused real time, in time, validated, predictive actions

Test 4: Does our Design optimally accommodate the Technological Imperative imposed by our chosen Core Operating Technology, and is it enabled by the most competitively advanced Technological Enablers?

Design Givens

Design Givens impose constraints on, and/or set parameters for the organisation’s Design, such as regulatory requirements; ownership; contextual complexity; geography; resource access; and technology (discussed above). They are design requirements that are impossible or very difficult to change, and hence must be architected into the Design.

Test 5: Have the critical Design Givens been incorporated into our Design?

Design Criteria and Vision with Design Metaphor

A design criterion is the specification of a condition that the organisation’s Design must facilitate, enable, encourage and provide for. E.g., customer centricity, innovation, agility, teaming, focused competencies. From a one perspective, design criteria represent the core organisational capabilities that the organisation wishes to build in order to gain a competitive edge through its delivery logic.

Sound design criteria must be comprehensive, specific, clear, aspirational/ inspirational, actionable, positive, and future orientated. Usually not more than ten, preferably prioritised, criteria are set, grouped into: (i) non-negotiable; (ii) desirable; and (iii) nice-to-be.

Although the design criteria specify the key features of the ‘To-be’ Design, they are still unintegrated as stand alone criteria. The crafting of a design vision – a one pager, ‘A day in the life of…’ – can assist significantly in concretising the ‘To-be’ Design in the minds of everyone, and provide an even more tangible illustration of the new Design in reality. The design vision describes in an integrated, narrative form how the organisation will look and function in terms of its delivery logic when it operates in accordance with the set design criteria.

What can assist even more in concretising the design criteria is to choose a metaphor (or mental model) to visualise more tangibly the new mode of organisational working as reflective of its delivery logic. For example: ‘We want to operate like a fleet of specialised, autonomous but complementary ships under the command of their own captains moving in the same direction towards a common, agreed upon destination.’

Test 6: Has our Design been architected in terms of clear, relevant design criteria, moulded into an aspirational design vision, expressed in an appropriate design metaphor?

DESIGN

This assessment category deals with the fitness-of-purpose of the actual Design architected as manifested in: (i) the configuration of distinct Work Units into an Organisational Shape (=Horizontal Design); (ii) the allocation of the requisite Levels of Work across the Organisational Shape (=Vertical Design); (iii) the assurance of maximum organisational synergy through effective integration and sound governance (=Lateral Design); and (iv) the secure protection of core organisational capabilities, the organisation’s crown jewels. As Operating Model, the delivery logic of the Design must be explicated in a written Organisational Charter.

Horizontal Design

The first step in the Horizontal Design is to group all of the work processes contained in the Work Process Map into distinct Work Units – Operating, Enabling and Support Units, Corporate Centre, and Board - in accordance with the design criteria and vision as decision-making guidelines. A Work Unit represents a distinct area of accountability around a focused, organisational capability.

The second step in the Horizontal Design is configuring the Work Units into a Basic Organisational Shape that is reflective of the desired delivery logic for the organisation, e.g. functional, process, OR hub-and-spoke.

Test 7: Is our Design made up in distinct Work Units, configured into an appropriate overall Organisational Shape, meeting the design criteria, vision and metaphor?

Vertical Design

The organisation’s work must be performed at the requisite level of complexity as expressed in the requisite Levels of Work, ranging from Level 5: Strategic Intent to Level 1: Operational Delivery. Requisite Levels of Work have to be assigned to the Organisation overall, Work Units, and Work Roles.

Test 8: Have the needed requisite Levels of Work been assigned to our Organisation overall, Work Units, and Work Roles?

Lateral Design

The Horizontal and Vertical Designs differentiate the organisation’s work into distinct domains of work, respectively horizontally into distinct Work Units and vertically into requisite Levels of Work. In turn, the Lateral Design integrates these domains of work into a systemic whole in order to create an integrated organisational thrust and synergy across Work Units, Levels of Work, and Work Roles.

Overall the purpose of the Lateral Design is to ensure that the right Work Units/Roles do the right things, for the right reasons, in the right ways, at the right times, with the right autonomy and style. ‘Right’ equates to meeting the design requirements set by the design criteria and vision.

The Lateral Design cover two Design dimensions: (i) architecting the integration mechanisms for the organisation to accommodate the interdependencies amongst and between Work Units, e.g. a joint planning meeting; and (ii) architecting the organisation’s governance model: who has what decision-making rights - e.g., veto, accountable, or responsible – and with what decision-making style - e.g., tell, consult, or self-manage - may the rights be exercised.

Test 9: Have effective integration mechanisms been architected covering the key interdependencies within our organisation: the right persons talking to one-another about the right things at the right time?

Test 10: Does our Design have a sound governance model encompassing the clear distribution of responsibilities, accountabilities and authority with unambiguous decision-making rights and style(s) – a Decision-making Matrix – ensuring effective checks and balances?

Crown Jewels

A crown jewel is a core organisational capability that gives the organisation a competitive edge or a head start in creating and delivering value. E.g., core organisational competencies, like supply chain; key talent; critical resources; key technologies; brand(s); strategic markets/clients; and/or strategic products/services. Clear, accountable ownership by Work Unit and Role must be established for every crown jewels in the Design.

Test 11: Does our Design award unambiguous accountability for the protection and enhancement of our organisation’s crown jewels?

Design Charter

A concrete expression of the ground rules informing the Operating Model of the ‘To-Be’ Organisation – its delivery logic – must be generated in the form of an Organisational Charter. A Charter forms the ‘constitution’ of how the organisation wishes to operate in terms of its delivery logic. It can also be called the organisation’s ‘Operating Philosophy’. The Charter aims to direct, guide and monitor everyone’s thinking, decisions, and actions w.r.t. the organisation’s delivery logic in real time, all of the time.

Test 12: Does an explicit Design Charter exist for our organisation clearly specifying our delivery logic, and is owned by everyone in our organisation?

CONGRUENCE

In order for the Design to be fit-for-purpose, it has to hang together in two crucial ways: (i) as an integrated Design in itself; and (ii) be supported and re-inforced by the overall Organisational Landscape of which it forms an inherent part.

Internal congruence

Relative to the set design criteria, vision and metaphor, the different design levels – strategic, tactical and operational - and design dimensions – horizontal, vertical and lateral - of the Design must be congruent. Within the Design, they must hang together well as an integrated, systemic whole.

Test 13: Is our Design internally congruent?

External congruence

The Design is part of the Organisational Landscape that forms a dynamic, systemic interconnected whole of reciprocally influencing, interacting components. It is a living social ecosystem. The figure below provides a graphic example of the Organisational Landscape.

The Design must be supported and re-inforced by the other components of the Organisational Landscape (see the figure above), ensuring a congruent Organisational Landscape. E.g., the congruence of leadership, people, organisational culture, and organisational systems with the Design. In a sense, a truly fit-for-purpose Design is only fit in the final instance when the total Organisational Landscape is congruent with the Design. It has been found that such congruence correlates with significantly higher organisational performance and success.

Test 14: Does overall congruence exist in the total Organisational Landscape of our organisation because the Landscape’s components coherently support and re-inforce our chosen Design?

FEASIBILITY

Feasibility pertains to the likelihood that the Design can do the job it is suppose to do: deliver effectively and efficiently. Is the Design operatable in defining, unlocking and delivering ongoing value competitively for stakeholders within the organisation’s strategically chosen, Operating Arena? Feasibility covers customisation, requisite complexity, implementability, and affordability.

Customisation

To be fit-for-purpose, a Design must be ambidextrous. It must be adaptable to fit unique, local circumstances for different parts of the organisation. A Design must not be rigidly applied in a ‘one size fits all’ manner across the organisation.

Test 15: Is our Design not over-specified but allows for customisation in order to allow for local circumstances in our organisation?

Requisite Complexity

The Design must be as simple as possible but not simpler (adapted from Albert Einstein) in order to make it easy to lead, manage and operate. Hence, it must be of the requisite complexity. For example, having a Network Design instead of a more complex, leadership demanding Mirror Image/ Matrix Design.

Test 16: All and all, is our Design of the requisite complexity: not oversimplified or overcomplexified?

Implementability

A fit-for-purpose Design must give the organisation a competitive edge within a certain strategic window of opportunity. If it is a new Design, it therefore must be implementable to the fullest extent within that window of opportunity.

Test 17: Is our proposed Design implementable within the available window of opportunity?

Affordability

The benefits of a chosen Design in terms of effectiveness and efficiency must outweigh by a significant margin the costs of running the Design. I would argue by at least 50% plus.

Test 18: Is our Design affordable in terms of its benefits relative to its running costs?

IMPACT

A fit-for-purpose Design has an intended impact in terms of outcomes. At least two outcomes are critical as stress test: inimitable memorable experiences, and a worthy, lasting legacy.

Inimitable Memorable Experiences

Within the experiential economy, the creation of compelling, memorable experiences to attract and retain customers and employees has moved centre stage. ‘Business by Design’ – the creation and maintenance of compelling, inimitable memorable customer and employee experiences by adopting an outside-in Design approach, triggered by re-imaging how customers and employees can be delighted beyond their expectations – has become a core, strategic capability of organisations.

Test 19: Does our Design create and maintain compelling, inimitable memorable experiences, able to attract and retain customers and employees?

Worthy, Lasting Legacy

The growing, pressing demand amongst stakeholders is that organisations demonstrating true, genuine social citizenship as expressed and manifested in the core value orientation of sustainability through stewardship: leaving the world a better place for upcoming generations.

From an organisational vantage point, sustainability can be expressed in five, interdependent Ps (an extension of the triple bottom-line of Profit, People, and Planet):

Productivity – the effective and efficient use of resources;

Prosperity – wealth creation by all, fairly and equitably distributed to all;

People – engendering the well-being of and care for people;

Peace – promoting harmony and co-operation between and within diverse communities and society; and

Planet - the nurturing and protecting the ecological well-being of the universe, the environmental footprint of the organisation.

Test 20: Does our Design enable the delivery of a worthy, lasting legacy of sustainability expressive of true, genuine social citizenship by our organisation?

TAKE-AWAYS

Organisational Design encompasses the Operating Model of the organisation. It embraces the delivery logic required by an organisation to define, unlock and deliver ongoing value for stakeholders within the organisation’s strategically chosen, Operating Arena.

Design affects the overall performance of the organisation, and ultimately its continued competitive edge and success. An organisation can compete by Design.

The need to assess the fitness-of-purpose of the organisation’s Design - an overall ‘stress test’ - is thus imperative to ensure that the Design is providing the necessary leverage to give the organisation a sustainable competitive edge.

Twenty questions to stress test an organisation’s Design were proposed. These questions can be grouped into six reciprocally, interdependent categories: Alignment, Foundation, Design, Congruence, Feasibility and Impact.

NEXT TOPIC: Organisational Design as mission-critical organizational discipline

Source

#organisational design

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theoveldsman · 5 years ago

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DESIGNING FUTURE-PROOF, FIT-FOR-PURPOSE ORGANISATIONS (16): Future-fit Organisational Shapes

I have suggested before that the Design Vision for the organisation-of-the-future-for-the-future - based on the required future-fit Design Criteria - could be:

A Purpose-driven organisation, creating out-of-this-world, memorable experiences for customers and employees, effectively leveraged from an optimal People-Technology integration, well-entrenched organisational capabilities and deep collaboration, concurrently being infused by the pervasive, delivery qualities of agility, resilience, innovation, autonomy, and stability, whilst acting at all times and under all circumstances as a genuine citizen by serving the greater and common good.

This future-fit Design Vision necessitates a move from a Command-and-Control Organisational Design to a High Networking/High Engagement/High Responsible Organisational Design: the constantly, in real time, re-inventing, collaborative network. This Design essentially is a multi-teaming system: a relatively tightly coupled, relational network of highly empowered, agile, interconnected, self-designing teams at all levels in the organisation - from the C-suite down to its operational levels. Teaming and teams form the critical building blocks of the future organisation.

However, the big challenge of the future-fit, Teaming Organisation - if it is not to implode in an unruly anarchy of chaotic teaming and teams, running uncontrollably wild - is the choice of an overall, fit-for-purpose Organisational Shape into which the teaming and teams can be deliberately configured in order to ensure disciplined, focused and synergetic collaboration.

The purpose of Article 16 in my series of articles - entitled Designing Future-Proof, Fit-for-Purpose Organisations – is to explore what could be possible, fit-for-purpose Organisational Shapes into which to configure the future-fit, Teaming Organisation.

GENERIC ORGANISATIONAL SHAPES

The figure below depicts a Periodic Table of Generic Organisational Shapes with the conditions under which Shapes can be considered regarding their fitness of purpose. Particularly relevant for the discussion at hand, are the two conditions of Scope of and Variety within the Business as moderated by the Contingency Factors (top left corner of figure). Lateral Integration, and Direction/Control from the Corporate Center are not under consideration at this point in the design process.

Given the Design Vision for the organisation-of-the-future-for-the-future as set out in the Introduction, the following Generic Organisational Shapes given in the Periodic Table appear particularly suitable in considering the configuring of the Teaming Organisation:

Single Scope/ Uniform Variety - Activity based: Process or Project

Single Scope/ Diverse, Similar Variety - Mirror Image/ Matrix

Multiple, Related Scope/ Uniform Variety - Hub and Spoke

Multiple, Related Scope/ Diverse, Similar and Dissimilar Variety - Front/ Back

Multiple, Related Scope/ Diverse, Similar and Dissimilar Variety - Network

Some of the above generic Oragnisational Shapes have been in existence for extended periods of time, but now have to be re-invented to make teaming and teams their basic building blocks, and centering around real time, collaborative networking. In this way, these Shapes can be made future-fit. In the discussion below, these re-inventions of the ‘evergreen’ Shapes will be pointed out where relevant.

Each of the above Organisational Shape is elucidated below.

SINGLE SCOPE/ UNIFORM VARIETY - ACTIVITY BASED SHAPE: PROCESS

In the Process Organisational Shape, the organisation is configured around the client delivery process - the core work process of the organisation - made up of a multi-tasked, multi-skilled team(s) delivering against a single a Client Value Proposition(s) the respective portions (=sub-teams) of the work process. This team(s) represents the Operating Work Unit of the organisation.

Each of the Delivery Enabling and Business Support Work Units are also configured in terms of their respective work processes. In the originally proposed Process Organisational Shape, these process-based Work Units functioned relatively independently and in parallel to each other, creating process silos.

In the case of this Organisational Shape, the Teaming Organisation is represented by Process Teams, whether a single Client Value Proposition Team, alongside Delivery Enabling or Business Support Teams. In the Teaming Organisation, the front-line skills and expertise of Delivery Enabling and Business Support Work Units are located in multi-skilled teams making up the Operating Work Units, in this way enabling and empowering them to take quick action. The Organisational Map of this Shape given in the figure below.

The Process Organisational Shape is specifically applicable where seamless, high internal co-ordination is required to tailor Client Value Proposition responses in real time, all the time, to fit customer needs in a flexible and rapid manner. Its major strength is real time, in time, high customer responsiveness. A direct line of sight exists to customer expectations and needs.

Its major weakness is that the interface between core, enabling and support processes can become problematic because ‘Process Silo’s’ can be created. The multi-skilling of the Client Value Proposition Teams is thus critical.

SINGLE SCOPE/ UNIFORM VARIETY - ACTIVITY BASED SHAPE: PROJECTS

In the Projects Organisational Shape, the organisation is designed predominantly around distinct, autonomous, self-designing, multi-disciplinary projects aimed at developing and rolling out innovative products/services within fixed time periods for defined customers. Related projects are grouped into programmes aimed at achieving set strategic objectives that cannot be fulfilled by a single project. Delivery Enablement capabilities and processes are to a greater or lesser extent incorporated into projects and programmes.

Projects and programmes represent the temporary organisation. Collectively programmes are managed by the organisation as a portfolio of programmes which represents the permanent organisation, aligned to and in support of the organisation’s Strategic Intent. In the case of this Organisational Shape, the Teaming Organisation is represented by multi-disciplinary Project and Programme Teams. A Portfolio represents a Team of Teams. The Organisational Map of this Shape given in the figure below.

The Projects Organisational Shape is particular applicable where unique, time-locked-in Client Value Propositions have to be delivered, e.g., infra-structure construction like a bridge or dam; the production of a movie; the discovery of a cure for a disease. Its major strength is the agility to respond rapidly to changing contextual and customer demands, expectations and needs in a unique, situation-specific manner.

Its major weakness is the risk of misunderstood deliverables, especially on creative projects; the mutual satisfactory, meeting of output specifications where it is hard to concretize deliverables; and the high likelihood of overruns in terms of timelines and costs, especially on complex, unpredictable projects/ programmes.

SINGLE SCOPE/ DIVERSE, SIMILAR VARIETY - MIRROR IMAGE/ MATRIX

The Mirror Image/ Matrix Organisational Shape is configured into simultaneously vertical and horizontal, over-layered Groupings. One Grouping represents specialist Organisational Capability Domains related to the core work process. The other Grouping represents Products/Services or Clients for which each core work process capability is performed ‘vertically’ - e.g., Client Needs - with respect to each Product/Service Work Unit that runs horizontally in parallel.

In the classic form of this Shape, each Grouping is made up of dedicated, separate, permanent groups of organisational members. In the Teaming Organisation, organisational members’ permanent home is one of the Core Organisational Capability Domains in the form of Communities of Practice– e.g., Client Solutions - from where they are assigned/ decide to form part of a multi-capability, specific Client Value Proposition delivery team for a set period of time. However, they remain members of both. The Organisational Map of this Shape given in the figure below.

The Mirror Image/ Matrix Organisational Shape is particular applicable where deep organisational abilities have to be met simultaneously in terms of dual demands: (i) by the Activity Domains of the core value chain, representing Core Organisational Capability and by (ii) Client Value Propositions in terms of products/ services (or clients).

Its major strength is the real time integration of multi-organisational abilities. Its major weakness is the time required in balancing accountability, authority, loyalty, resources and time between the respective work domains making up the two Groupings: Core Organisational Capabilities and Client Value Propositions.

MULTIPLE, RELATED/ UNIFORM VARIETY - HUB AND SPOKE

The Hub and Spoke Organisational Shape is configured into a Central Hub with Spokes of made up of Regional Hubs with associated, linked Regional Operating Entities. The Central Hub (=Corporate Centre) provides overall organisational strategic direction, policies, and standards as well as centralised specialist services.

Regional Hubs exist with the mandate to localise in a Region, inter alia, all of the afore-mentioned in the Region concerned. They also centralise specialised and administrative services at the regional level, which are provided to the Operating Units within the Region, in order to attain economies of scale. From the Regional Hub, resources can also be flexed between the regional Operating Units as and when needs arise. Or, between even between Regional Hubs.

In the case of this Organisational Shape, the Teaming Organisation is represented by the Team of Teams in: (i) the Central and autonomous Regional Hubs; (ii) as well as the Regional Operating Units as autonomous teams serving a region around an localised regional Client Value Proposition.

The real time, flexible movement of people and resources between the Central and Regional Hubs; between Regional Hubs; and between Operating Units within Regional Hubs are indicative of the network collaboration that is at the heart of the Teaming Organisation. Otherwise, this Organisational Shape becomes but merely the classic decentralised, regionalised organisation, locked into rigid regional silo’s. The Organisational Map of this Shape is given in the figure below.

The Hub and Spoke Organisational Shape is particular applicable to an organisation with a national or global reach in terms of clients, markets and/ or products/ services with significant differences between regions in terms of clients, markets and/ or products/ services, and delivery requirements. Its major strength is a closeness to clients and markets, giving the organisation a local flavor, and a quick response time to changing circumstances and client expectations/needs.

The major weaknesses are the real risk of differing processes, procedures and standards developing across across regions; as well as the duplication of activities, and the re-invention of the “wheel” across regions. The institutionalization of a strong, shared organisational culture is also a challenge.

MULTIPLE, RELATED SCOPE/ DIVERSE, SIMILAR AND DISSIMILAR VARIETY - FRONT/BACK

The Front/ Back Organisational Shape is configured on the client-facing side of organisation (the ‘Front’ of organisation) into Groupings of distinctly focused, client and/or markets segments that could be spread over a number of countries, making up a region. The Front Segments source their offering from the global, dedicated product/services Groupings (the ‘Back’ of the organisation) which either produce the products/services themselves or insource them from external providers.

In the case of this Organisational Shape, the Teaming Organisation is represented on the Front of the organisation by the respective client-facing, localised Client/ Market Segments. And on the Back of the organisation by Product/ Services Teams, servicing the Front (represented by arrows in the figure below). The Organisational Map of this Shape is given in the figure below.

The Front/ Back Organisational Shape is particular applicable where the need exists for the simultaneous matching of distinct portfolios of diverse clients/ markets by region with diverse portfolio of products/ services consolidated globally for economies of scale.

Its major strength is a simultaneous localized client/ market and globalized, product/ service foci. The major weakness is the dynamic tension between what takes priority: the Front or Back of the organisation.

MULTIPLE, RELATED SCOPE/ DIVERSE, SIMILAR AND DISSIMILAR VARIETY - NETWORK

This Organisational Shape centers around partnering: a set of independent organisations, teams and/ or individuals who form relationships in a common space in order to jointly unlock value and create wealth according to their respective strengths for mutual benefit, whether organisationally or publically. The Network Organisational Shape has also been also called the “meta-organisation”, “multi-firm network”, or “multi-team system”.

Meta-organisations are like a biological super-organism: a multitude of individual organisms that coexist, collaborate, and co-evolve by means of a complex set of symbiotic and reciprocal relationships, forming together a larger organism. Following this analogy, the Network Organisational Shape can also referred to as an ecosystem. The Network Organisation is probably the purest manifestation of the Team Organisation. The Organisational Map of this Shape is given in the figure below.

Different types of Network Organisations are given in the table below, again highlighting the essence of this Shape’s teaming delivery logic.

The Network Organisational Shape is particular applicable where the rapid mobilisation of different capabilities and resources are necessary in order to address complex and/ or rapidly changing client needs in innovative ways.

Its major strength is the flexible and agile responses to dynamically changing client needs. Its major weaknesses are high planning, co-ordination and relationship building and maintenance investments.

TAKE-AWAYS

The future-fit Design can be entitled as the High Networking/High Engagement/High Responsible Organisational Design: the constantly, in real time, re-inventing, collaborative network.

This Design essentially is a multi-teaming system with teaming and teams at all organisation al levels. Teaming and teams thus form the critical building blocks of the future organisation.

The big challenge of the future-fit, Teaming Organisation - if it is not to implode in an unruly anarchy of chaotic teaming and teams, running uncontrollably wild - is the choice of an overall, fit-for-purpose Organisational Shape into which the teaming and teams can be deliberately configured in order to ensure disciplined, focused and synergetic collaboration.

Seven Generic Organisational Shapes appear particularly suitable in considering the configuring of the Teaming Organisation, but then using teaming and teams throughout as their basic building blocks:

- Process

- Project

- Mirror Image/ Matrix

- Hub and Spoke

- Front/ Back

- Network

NEXT TOPIC: Key questions to interrogate the fitness-of-purpose of an Organisational Design

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theoveldsman · 5 years ago

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DESIGNING FUTURE-PROOF, FIT-FOR-PURPOSE ORGANISATIONS (15) Organisation of the future for the future

Currently a fundamental, radical transformation is occurring in the very being of the world as we know it. This transformation represents an emerging, new order that is reshaping the world as we understand it at present, in its totality and essence.

At a minimum, this transformation is driven by at least five, reciprocally interacting, snowballing Forces of Change that have significant implications, individually and severally, for the organisation of the future:

qualitatively, a VICCAS (an extension of VUCA) world of increasing Variety, Interdependency, Complexity, Change, Ambiguity, and Seamlessness (i.e., boundaryless). The world is moving towards Complicated Contexts of Unknown Knowns to Complex Contexts of Unknown Unknowns, and even Chaotic Contexts of Unknowables (Kurtz & Snowden, 2003).

exponentially, accelerating technological innovation, encapsulated in the term ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’. This revolution can be captured in the acronym, DIVAS: Digitisation; Interconnectivity; Virtualisation; Automation; and Smart (=Intelligence).

the growing adoption - sometimes enforced - of the core value orientation of sustainability through stewardship pressuring organisations to become genuine social citizens: serving the common good, and leaving the world a better place for current/upcoming generations.

an ever-extending, increasingly diverse range of activist stakeholders with fluid interest, demands and expectations that are frequently in conflict, requiring trade-offs. Their growingly strident voices are amplified significantly by the social media that enable rapid mobilisation around issues, nationally and globally.

the growing dominance of Intangible Assets relative to Tangible Assets – moving upwards from the currently estimated 85% of all assets. Concurrently, people’s shared of about 70% plus of Intangible Assets will become even greater as manifested in the unquenchable demand for people’s unbounded creativity, innovation, expertise, knowledge, skills, and experience. Future organisations will be Ideas factories. Going into the future, people will become even more the predominant value unlockers of the potential contained in the assets of their organisations by which sustainable wealth is created.

Given the above accelerating Forces of Change, the following key question comes to the fore: What would a fit-for-purpose, future Organisational Design (OD) look like, resonating with the emerging, new order? The purpose of the Article 15 in my series of articles - entitled Designing Future-Proof, Fit-for-Purpose Organisations – is to explore a potential answer to this question with all of the risks invoked by future, crystal ball gazing.

FUTURE-FIT ORGANISATIONAL DESIGN IMPLICATIONS OF THE FORCES FOR CHANGE

The future-fit OD implications flowing from the above-described, accelerating five Forces of Change can be distilled into a number of OD imperatives, deliberately given as verbs, demanded by the fundamentally and radically transforming context explicated above:

sustaining, purpose/ meaning giving

deep, morally based, relating

pro-active, futuring

inimitable, memory-creating experiencing

outside-in positioning

seamless connecting

collaborative global networking

re-inventitive reconfiguring

learning, experimenting, innovating

humane need fulfilling

Design Criteria and Vision for the future-fit organisation

Design Criteria form the DNA of the organisation, its genetic code. Design Criteria specify what the design must facilitate, enable, encourage and provide for in order to make the organisation fit-for-purpose. Design criteria give the ‘building’ specifications for a fit-for-purpose OD, in this instance a future-fit organisation.

Derived from the above-discussed, future-fit, organisational design implications - arising out of the Forces of Change - what then are the suggested set of Criteria according to which a future-fit organisation has to be architected, enabling it to thrive sustainably in the emerging, new order? Such a set of suggested Design Criteria are listed, described, and justified in the subsequent table below. The Criteria are grouped into five categories, enclosed in circles: Identity; Outcome; Organisational Hardware; Organisational Software; and Sustainability.

According to the above figure, the Criteria are graphically categorised in in the form of embedded circles. Metaphorically, a circle as a turning wheel represents undivided completeness in motion in a never-ending, open-ended journey towards perfection through time. Thus, the ‘circularised’ Criteria imply that the infusion of the Criteria into the very DNA of the future-fit organisational design is a constant, reflective journey of iterative refinement whilst moving into the unknown future of the emerging, new order. The importance cannot be over-stressed of looking at, and applying the Criteria in tandem as a reciprocally, interdependent set to bring about a future-fit organisation.

The relative placement of Criteria also is critical. The circle at the center of the figure contains the specification of ‘Purposeful’- central to the organisation’s Identity - acting as all pervasive, directing and guiding Criterion infusing all of the other Criteria, and consequently the organisation’s delivery logic in its totality. Nurturing ‘Memorable Experiences’ for all stakeholders - the inimitable value to be created by the organisation - serve as specification of the ultimate Outcome to be delivered by the organisation, the second circle from the center.

The third circle contains the three ‘hardware’ specifications for the future-fit organisation, the platform from which the delivery, performance and success of the future-fit organisation must be leveraged: Optimising People-Technology Integration; Building deep Core Capabilities; and Fostering Collaboration. In the fourth circle from the center, are the ‘software’ qualities the design must promote: Agility, Resilience, Innovation, Autonomy, and Stability. The all-embracing, outer circle, contains Sustainability, the design specification of citizenship.

Based on the above suggested Design Criteria - given in the above figure and table - the Design Vision for a future-fit OD could be:

General shift towards a future-fit Organisational Design: From a Command-and-Control Organisational Design to a High Networking/ High Engagement/ High Responsible Organisational Design

The above, future-fit Design Criteria and Vision have necessitated a move from the Command-and-Control Organisational Design - the pyramid - to a High Networking/ High Engagement/ High Responsible Organisational Design – the network. This move is depicted graphically in the figure below.

The future-fit, High Networking/ High Engagement/ High Responsible Organisational Design depicted in the above figure, is built around patterns of deep relationships, reconfiguring themselves on an ongoing basis, as and when the context changes; changes in customer or employee value propositions are introduced; and/ or innovation takes place. No static, given Organisational Design exits. Rather a transient Design that is in a constant state of self-reconfiguration and –reinvention. Thus it would be more appropriate to see the future-fit organisation as a verb, and not as a noun.

As can be seen furthermore from this figure, the High Networking/ High Engagement/ High Responsible Organisational Design is a multi-teaming system: a relatively tightly coupled, relational network of highly empowered, agile, interconnected teams at all levels in the organisation - from the C-suite down to the operational levels of the organization. Thus teaming and teams are the critical building block of future-fit organisational designs.

Again, given the constant self-designing of teams by themselves in real time, all the time, it would be more appropriate to talk about a ‘Teaming’ Organisation rather than Team-based Oorganisation because of the constant, fluid, organic re-configuration of relational webs and organisational patterns. The shift is from the ‘I’ to the ‘We’.

Relationship Intelligence becomes critical: knowing when and where to collaborate with whom, why and for how long. But even more so, high Collective intelligence: shared intelligence that emerges from collaborative efforts and sharing by hearing and listening to all of the voices in the organisation and beyond, in pursuit of a shared Purpose.

Specific Design Criteria for a High Networking/ High Engagement/ High Responsible, Teaming Organisational Design

The need for a Teaming Organisational Design therefore is undisputable in engaging with the emerging, new order. At least the following additional, more specific Design Criteria for teaming and teams have to be considered, as viewed against the backdrop of the above discussed, generic Design Criteria of the future-fit organisation:

a clear, robust Identity (=Purpose, Vision, Strategic Intent, Core Values, Legacy), translated into well-defined Client Value Propositions, re-invented on an ongoing basis in real time

the performance of a whole piece of work relative to a Client Value Proposition for a well-defined set of clients

autonomous – high self-governance and –management - regarding its area of accountability, its design, task execution, and relationship management with its stakeholders

constant, real time, self-designing with respect to its mode of working with well demarcated, meaningful and significant work roles, constantly being redefined

multi-tasking and -skilling

smart, intelligent: in time, real time, self-generated information with complete transparency in information generation and sharing

high participation by all at all times

high contextual connectivity through many, rich and deep network connections

Differentiation Design Dimension of the Future-fit, Teaming Organisation: A Constellation of Teams

The Differentiation Design Dimension relates to how the work of the organisation is demarcated and configured. This Dimension of the future-fit, Teaming Organisation consists of a constellation of teams: (i) three interdependent, basic forms of teaming, namely Capability Building, Client Delivery, Delivery Enablement, (ii) embedded in three Work Streams (WS), and (iii) brought together in different Forums at different Levels of Work (LOWs). The figure below illustrates this constellation of teams graphically.

Work Streams

In general, the design configuration of a Work Stream is fluid, emerging, and reconfiguring in real time, all the time, on an as-needs basis. Work Stream boundaries are highly permeable. However, Work Streams are relatively fixed in terms of their respective mandates that demarcate their designated theatre of action - as derived from the organisation’s Identity - in order to provide stability to the organization.

According to the above figure, horizontally teaming occurs within three Work Streams within the organisation:

Work Stream 1: Strategic Organisational Capabilities: Capability Building Teaming. Cross-functional/ Multi-disciplinary Teaming within this Work Stream establish, nurture, grow, and re-invent the strategic core organisational capabilities informing the Client Value Chain, like Client Needs or Client Solutions. Work Domain Teams specialise in one of the Work Domains of the Client Value Chain. These teams equip the organisation with the in-depth ability to compete in unique, uninimitable ways. A Capacity Building Team has deep knowledge, expertise and experience about its Work Domain, which they provide to Work Stream 2: Client Value Propositions who is their client.

Capability Teaming also form the home base of organisational members working as team members within an action area of the Client Value Chain in Work Stream 2. From their home base, organisational members decide which Client Value Proposition Team in Work Stream 2 they want to be involved in.

Work Stream 2: Client Value Propositions: Wealth Creation Teaming. This Work Stream is made up of sets of cross-functional/ multi-disciplinary Wealth Creation Teams, each focusing on a different Client Value Proposition. Their aim is to deliver memorable client experiences through the Outside-In, integrated execution of the Client Value Chain for a given segment of Clients/ Market, owned by a specific, set of teams. Thus multiple sets of Wealth Creation Teams exist in the organisation, delivering in parallel on different Client Value Propositions. Wealth Creation Teams integrate seamlessly the strategic capabilities provided by the Capability Teams of Work Stream 1.

Whilst the Capability Teams in Work Stream 1 are relatively permanent, a set of Wealth Creation Teams in Work Stream 2 relative to their Client Value Proposition would reconfigure constantly and autonomously with agility in real time from an Outside-In (=Client) perspective in their relentless search to enhance the client experience and delight relative to the Client Value Proposition they own and are delivering on.

Work Stream 3: Organisational Delivery Enablement: Delivery Enablement Teaming. This Work Stream consists of separate groupings of Specialist Teams like Finance, People, Procurement, and IT. These teams provide the enabling policies, standards, technology, methodologies, and practices – the ‘tool box’ with respect to their specialist area, typically delivered through projects/ programmes – to be used by teams in the other two Work Streams to enable their work.

Levels of Work

According to the above figure, vertically Work Streams are structured in terms of different Levels of Work:

Micro: Individual teams (LOW 2-1). At this level, daily delivery occurs through teaming within a Work Stream.

Meso: Communities of Practices (LOW 3). At this level, all the teams within a Work Stream come together - at times and with a frequency mutually agreed upon - in shared forums to deliberate Operational Execution in their specific Work Stream. I.e., they form a Community of Practice. A Community of Practice integrates a Work Stream. Its overall mandate is Work Stream operational delivery, alignment, and performance.

Meso: Organisational Alignment (LOW4) - Execution Forum. This Forum focuses on organisational delivery alignment across the three Work Streams of the organisation on an ongoing basis. Is all about reviewing overall organisational performance: ‘How well are we doing as an organisation?’ It acts as the organization’s overarching Innovation Hub, seeking new/ different delivery synergies in delighting clients.

Macro: Organisational Identity (LOW 5) - Leadership Council. At this level the Leadership Council acts as conceiver, champion, and custodian of the Organisation’s Identity – its Purpose, Vision, Values, Strategy and Legacy – and its appropriate translation into aligned Client Value Propositions. It consists of a broad range of representatives from the three Work Streams, forming a a team of teams.

Work Roles

In the future-fit, Teaming Organisation, Work Roles are embedded in teams. Work Roles belong to teams, not to team members. Even so, Roles are not fixed but crafted and re-configured on an as-needs basis, relative to the value they have to create in terms of Client Value Propositions. Based on the work to be done, and as the work unfolds, Work Roles are identified, constructed and disbanded, including Leadership Roles, continuously.

Integration Dimension of the Future-fit, Teaming Organisation: Real time, interdependent, integration processes

The Integration Design Dimension relates to architecting the means through which overall organisational synergy will be engendered. This Dimension is in particularly critical in the Teaming Organisation because it runs a high risk of falling apart because of the multitude of constantly re-designing and –configuring, autonomous teams.

At the heart of this Dimension of the Teaming Organisation are two principles:

attaining overall organisational synergy through real time, interdependent, integration processes, and not fixed, tangible structural mechanisms such as the hierarchy.

ambidexterity: finding the optimum, real time, dynamic balance between stability – the discipline of ensuring continuity and certainty through time: order – and ongoing, re-invention, re-configuration and self-designing – stretching to deal with continual, fast, (radical) change triggered by the imperative of disruptive innovation: chaos. Hence the organisation is in a state of dynamic stability.

It has been found that organisations that are stable and fast at the same time are three times more likely to be high performing than those that are fast but lack stability.

The Integration Dimension of the Teaming Organisational Design is manifested in a set of interdependent, integration processes that are real time, interdependent, and reciprocally interacting. These integration processes are given in the figure below.

The table below provides an explication of the Integration Processes as depicted in the above figure. Each of the processes – individually and severally – has to be operationalised differentially in different organisations.

Organisational Landscape Alignments required by the future-fit, Teaming Organisational Design

In the final instance, the Teaming Organisational Design is embedded in the Organisational Landscape. The other building blocks making up the Landscape, such as Leadership, Culture, People, and Resources must support and re-inforce the Teaming Organisational Design. The Organisational Landscape must be aligned overall.

TAKE-AWAYS

The ultimate fit-for-purpose organisation is one whose design is future-fit.

Evaluated against a set of future-fit Design Criteria such as Purpose, Memorable Experiences, and Agility, it was proposed in the emerging, new order that the Teaming Organisational Design appears to be the strongest contender for being future-fit.

The crux of the Teaming Organisation is to be found in autonomous, self-designing teaming through collaborative networking in different forms and shapes around never-ending, re-invented Client Value Propositions, moulded into an overall organisational synergistic thrust through strong, dynamic integrating processes such as a Shared Consciousness and Collective Intelligence.

However, to reap the full benefits of the Teaming Organisational Design, alignment across the Organisational Landscape is crucial.

To make the Teaming Organisational Design a concrete reality, one has to architect it formally by putting the proposed, future-fit solution through the comprehensive, integrated design route map elucidated in detail in the previous articles.

NEXT TOPIC: Future-fit Organisational Shapes

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theoveldsman · 5 years ago

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DESIGNING FUTURE-PROOF, FIT-FOR-PURPOSE ORGANISATIONS (14) Operational Design – Architecting Work Roles

Operational Design’s objective is to architect the Work Teams and Work Roles of the organisation – its ‘furniture’ - within an overarching, Integrated Operational Design Framework. Operational Design sets on a daily basis the coal face delivery by the organisation.

The Operational Design Framework specifies the ‘style of living’ as manifested in the required Work Teams and Work Roles in the House (Strategic Design) with its Rooms (Tactical Design). It represents the organisation’s Operating Charter according to which its wishes to operate. The overarching Operational Design Framework ensures that the design of specific Work Teams and Work Roles are consistent across the organisation because their designs must all comply with the same operational design principles.

Again it must be stressed, that Work Teams and Work Roles must be architected all the way from the Board (Level of Work 6) (LOW6) down to Daily Delivery (LOW1) levels. In this sense the term ‘Operational’ is misleading. It does not refer to ‘Operations’ as in the lower LOWs but to the Design elements – in this case, Work Teams and Work Roles – through which the daily work of the organisation gets done at all levels and in all areas.

The purpose of Article 14 in my series of articles - entitled Designing Future-Proof, Fit-for-Purpose Organisations – is to elucidate the more detailed operational design of Work Roles.

Recapping on the Operational Design Framework

Given the critical importance the Operational Design Framework - and to set the scene for the explication of the design of Work Teams and Work Roles – the design building blocks of this Framework again are depicted in the figure below to refresh readers’ memory.

The individual design elements given in the above figure represent the first five steps in the Operational Design Route Map, and must be moulded into an integrated Operational Design Framework to direct and guide the detail design of all Work Teams and Work Roles in the subsequent next design steps. The box gives a hypothetical example of what such an Operational Design Framework could look like.

Work Role Design

Instead of ‘Job’ like in ‘Job Design’, the term ‘Work Role’ is used w.r.t. Operational Design. This preference is based on the understanding that whereas a Job is a made up of a given set of tasks, a Role refers to the set of enacted and crafted tasks, responsibilities and conduct to be performed by an organisational member: both formally assigned and informally taken up or emergent. In the new world of work, I believe Operational Design entails architecting Work Roles, not merely the compilation of tasks equating to Jobs.

A Work Role can be defined as an enacted, coherent set of tasks, duties, relationships, and conduct for which the incumbent is accountable/responsible, performed to certain performance standards.

The ‘furniture’ of a Work Unit can consist of more than one Work Team with its associated Work Roles. Or, a Work Unit may in its totality equate to a Work Team, and hence only consist of a set of Work Roles. The figure below depicts the steps to be followed with respect to Work Role Design. For the sake of showing the link to what has proceeded before in terms of the Operational Design Process, Steps C.1: Design Givens and C.2: Operational Design Framework are also shown in the figure.

If a Work Unit consists of a Work Team(s), then the left-hand and right-hand sides of the Operational Design Route Map given in the above figures are applicable: the Work Team Design would lead to the identified Work Roles. If the Work Unit Design equates only to Work Roles, then only the right-hand side of the figure of the Operational Design Route Map is applicable. For the sake of discussing a complete, stand-alone Work Role Design Route Map, it is going to be assumed that the right-hand side of the above figure of the Operational Design Process only is applicable in what follows. Hence, metaphorically, the furniture of the Work Unit equates to Work Roles only.

Operational Design Steps C.6 to C.13 (see the Operational Design Route Map above) – common to both Work Team and Work Role Design – will be explicated later in this article after the Work Role Design has been discussed.

Formulate Work Role Design Criteria and Vision (Step C.5.1)

Similar to Work Team Design, the first Design Criterion to set is the Level of Work (LOW) of the Work Role to be designed. Is this a LOW5, LOW4, LOW3, LOW2 or LOW1 Work Role in combination with its Contextual Complexity? The ‘ceiling’ Total Complexity of the Work Role will be set by the LOW x Contextual Complexity = Total Complexity of the Work Unit to which Work Role belongs.

The second source of Work Role Design Criteria is provided by the Operational Design Framework - whether more Mechanistic or Organic – as discussed above.

Thirdly, the generic characteristics of high performance/ high engagement Work Roles provide a handy complementary source from which further Work Role Design Criteria can be derived. The table below gives a list of Work Engagement Indicators. The challenge of Work Role Design is how to set Work Role Design Criteria that will deliver on these Indicators.

Fourthly, the Work Unit concerned’s Design Criteria and Vision - with the consequential Mode of Working selected for the Work Unit - also play an important role in the selection of Work Role Design criteria. By way of illustration, using a sport metaphor again: Does the Work Unit aspire to work like an athletics; relay, soccer; or volley ball team? As one moves from an athletics to a volley ball team mode of working, the interdependence of team members; their degree of multi-tasking and multi-skilling; the need for real time interaction; and degree of shared goals would increase. The selected Work Role Design Criteria and Vision must incorporate these features.

The normal conventions laid down for Design Criteria apply: up to ten criteria, prioritised; defining the criteria; using the criteria to choose between Work Role design options; and concretising the criteria through their translation into a Role Design Vision: a ‘Day in the life’ of performing the Work Role. Also, in finding an appropriate Work Role Design Metaphor.

Determine the set of Work Roles within the Work Unit (Step C.5.2)

The aim of this design step is to identify the range of Work Roles required by the Work Unit under consideration, given its Mode of Operation. I.e., grouping the Work Unit’s Core, Delivery Enabling and Support Processes into Work Roles. The set of Work Roles must cover in its totality all of the work to be performed within the Work Unit as contained in the work processes of the Work Unit.

In the identification of the range of Work Roles within a Work Unit, a Professional Maturity Growth Curve Design, also called the ‘Dual Hierarchy Design, can be adopted. This Design is especially applicable to Professional Work Units, like Engineering, Legal, Finance, or People. This Design accommodates: (i) the desire for professionals to progressively being able to handle increasingly complex assignments, and to be given due recognition; and (ii) not moving up the hierarchy only by moving into Managerial Work Roles in this way ‘deserting’ their professional role.

Within a job family, the Work Role (=Competence Level) of a person is determined in terms of a professional maturity curve based on the increasing complexity level of work a person can competently handle, consistently and predictably. The professional maturity growth curve plots - from low to high - the different Professional Work Roles (= levels of competence) of increasing complexity that an individual can perform at on the curve. A person attains a position on the curve based on concrete evidence of his/her demonstrable competence in a Work Role located on the curve. The figure below depicts graphically the above discussion.

A next step in the Professional Maturity Growth Curve Design is to architect a dual career hierarchy. The professional maturity growth curve accommodates an initial, single career professional path up to the point where-after it splits into two further career paths:

Path 1 - A leadership/ management career path for those aspiring and able to move into management; and

Path 2 - A professional path for those aspiring to become a more advanced professional guru.

The figure below depicts graphically the dual career hierarchy design.

Design Work Role Profile for each Work Role identified, and align (Step C.5.3)

The objective of this step is to architect for each Work Role identified, a Work Role Profile. In other words, design the Work Role in terms of the set Work Role Design Criteria and Vision, aligned to the Operational Design Framework.

The table below provides guidelines for the designing of distinct, meaningful Work Roles.

The elements making up a Work Role Profile with their descriptions, are given in the table below.

Construct the Work Portfolios/Stations of the Key Performance Areas of the Work Role (Step C.5.4)

The Key Performance Areas (=Work Role Themes) of a Work Role – Element 5 of the Work Role Profile (see the above table) - can consist of several Work Portfolios/Stations. A Work Portfolio/Station is a coherent and congruent set (or grouping) of Tasks which have to be performed by a Role Incumbent with respect to a Key Performance Area.

The figure below depicts the above discussion graphically, and shows its relation to the Work Role Design Process flow (see the Design Route Map given above). In the figure, Work Portfolio, also means Work Station.

The shaded box below provides guidelines for designing distinct, meaningful Work Portfolio’s/Stations. Of course, the level of requisite work of a Work Portfolio/Station must match the Work Role’s requisite LOW.

Lateral Work Role Design (Step C.5.6)

In the case of a Work Unit populated by only Work Roles, the Lateral Design of the Work Unit in terms of an Interdependence Matrix; Integrating Mechanisms; and Governance Model of the Work Unit have to be architected. Where Work Roles are embedded in Work Teams, making up the Work Unit, the Lateral Design of the Work Team concerned will be applicable.

Generate Competency Profiles (Step C.6)

The Work Team(s) and Work Roles have been architected. Next, the competency profiles for the Work Team(s) and Work Roles have to be generated. To this end a generic Competency Model must be used, reflective of the Competency Domains making up a Work Role, and not being merely being a Task Classification like for a Job. The figure below shows such a Model, showing the reciprocal interdependence between Competency Domains.

Construct Evolving Phases of increasing Work Team/ Work Role autonomy (Step C.7)

The final design decision is whether to build into the Work Team/ Work Role the increasing freedom to take independent action from the leadership/ management of a Work Unit/ Team: will a Team/ Work Role incumbent have increasing autonomy over the tasks they are responsible for? I.e., will the level of involvement - expressed in autonomy – of the Work Team or Work Role evolve?

In the VICCAS world, increasing levels of agility, responsiveness and flexibility at the coal face where delivery takes, have become critical. In the discussion below for simplicity sake, the focus is on increasing Work Team autonomy. The same principles apply to increasing Work Role autonomy, not discussed here.

Five levels of autonomy, from the vantage point of involvement by the Work Team, and its members, can be distinguished:

Involvement through Tell/ Sell - no autonomy to Work Team. Work Unit/ Team Leader has complete responsibility for the Work Domain, makes all decisions, and merely informs team members accordingly. The Team acts only when directed.

Involvement through Consultation - 25% autonomy to Work Team. Work Unit/ Team Leader makes the decisions, but invites comments from team members on such decisions. Or, team members have the opportunity to offer suggestions on matters of concern to them but the Work Unit/ Team Leader retains the discretion of accept or reject such suggestions. The Team only acts after having been consulted on the course of action to take.

Involvement through co-determination - equal levels of autonomy: 50%: 50%. Work Unit/ Team Leader and team members make decisions jointly on important matters/ tasks. The Team only acts once a course of action decision has been agreed on jointly.

Involvement through self-management (= upward Consultation) - 75% level of autonomy to Work Team. The Team has a full say in matters within their Work Domain within laid down policy/ procedural guidelines but consults with Work Unit Leader on intended decisions/ actions. The leadership tasks within the Team are progressively taken over by the team. However, the Work Unit Leader still remains accountable. The Team acts only after having consulted with all relevant parties.

Involvement through self-government (=upward Tell/ Sell) - 100% autonomy to Work Team. Team has a full say in all respects within their Work Domain as well as the context of the Domain. The Team is free to make decisions in whatever way it wishes within policy guidelines. The leadership tasks within the Team have been fully taken over by the team. No formal Work Unit/ Team Leader Role exists. The team acts, and then informs.

The figure below illustrates the above discussion.

Map Integrated Operational Design to Do Operational Design Implementation (Steps C.8 to C.13)

Resulting from the preceding steps, the final steps of the Operational Design can now be executed as per the Operational Design Route Map given above.

TAKE-AWAYS

Work Teams and Roles, populated by the right people, operationalise on a daily basis, the coal face delivery by the Strategic and Tactical Designs. Operational Design architect the style of living in the House with its Rooms through the design of Work Teams and Work Roles.

The departure point of a well-founded Operational Design is an Operational Design Framework forming the reference point of the specific Work Teams and Work Roles.

The outcome of a Work Role Design is a Work Role Profile covering Work Context; Core Purpose; Requisite Level of Work; Scope of Work with boundaries; Key Performance Areas (with their associated Work Portfolio’s/ Stations); Critical Outcomes; and Organisational Location

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#Organisational Design

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