In conversations whilst planning new ways of working for sales organisations, one of the team surfaced maxims from Myron Rogers, a leader in systems thinking. Reminded the team of how Self Managed Teams can and will thrive.
• People own what they help create
• Real change happens in real work
• Those who do the work, do the change
• Connect the system to more of itself
• Start anywhere, follow everywhere
• The process you use to get to the future is the future you get.
You are about to implement your company’s new strategy, and this will require you to shift people’s behaviour, change what they do and how they have been working to date. So what approach will you take? A ‘directive’ approach or a ‘collaborative’ approach?
Analysis from some of the largest consulting companies and academics have demonstrated that around 70% of all transformations fail to achieve their stated goals (McKinsey & Co 2013), usually due to human factors not being skilfully attended to. The biggest variable identified between success and failure came down to the kind of change approach selected.
The least successful being a ‘Directive’ approach, with instructions on what is to be done and how it is to be done set top down and tightly controlled and the more successful being a ‘Collaborative/Adaptive’ approach where within a common purpose and direction, the organisation is engaged to co-create the change together.
Question to you: I’m curious to hear from others involved in transformation programs, large or small, your opinions as to why organisations continue, to pursue approaches to change that have proven to fail 70% of the time? What approach do you prefer? What has been your experience?
It’s an open question to you the reader. Why are we attempting to motivate the 21st century knowledge worker, interacting in increasingly complex environments in the same way since the 19th century?
As business leaders we have more than four decades of scientific research on human motivation available to us, yet there has been very little innovation or connection between what science knows and what business does to motivate employees.
While carrots and sticks worked successfully in the 20th century when work was relatively less complex than today, with the increase in matrix organisations and with the ongoing decline in employee engagement and productivity, experts like Peter Drucker, Daniel Pink and Yves Morieux posit that motivation techniques that favour control are precisely the wrong way to motivate people for today’s challenges and we should move towards the three main drivers of true motivation; autonomy, mastery, and purpose.
What do you think? I’d love to hear from you if you’ve experimented with self managed teams or innovative ways to engage teams.
Its mid-January and on Lac Leman in Switzerland it’s a clear sunny morning and +1.5°. A great morning for a row with my mate Craig. Forty-five minutes later I find myself upside down in 5°water, my feet trapped in my form fitting rowing shoes, and the first thing that pops into my head is the sensation of being back at Bilgola beach and staying under a series of large waves and having to hold my breath. Stay calm and think about what you need to do next.
Under water I eventually get my feet out and come up for air. Then take a breath and asses what just happened. I can see Craig close by looking to see if I am okay. “I’m okay mate”. I know that I need to get back in the boat and get to shore and get dry and warm fast. Craig and I figure I’ve got about 15 minutes max before I’m in danger of my body shutting down due to the cold.
Heaving myself up onto the hull of the overturned skiff, it becomes clear what happened. The freezing temperatures had affected the locking mechanism on the gate that holds the oar securely in place. At the catch, the bow (left) oar simply popped out and I instantly had nothing in my hand and over I went.
Paddling the boat back to shore like a large Malibu surf board, it took about 8 minutes to get to a place where I could turn the boat over, empty out the water, secure the oar in place, get in and row to the nearest harbour. Easier said than done as my feet and hands were beginning to seize up. The cold was seeping in and taking hold. Craig was clear and kept talking to me, he also was alert to where to go. We eventually got to shore, 15-minutes had passed by the time Craig heaved me out of the boat and searched for somewhere to get dry. A member of the local sailing club was alerted. Craig got me under a hot shower and called in Jeroen, another member of the crew to bring down some dry clothes. Although I was clearly showing signs of hypothermia, exhausting the hot water supply extinguished the cold and steadied the shivering.
Today I was reminded again of how the “being” of a great team is so important. Both Craig and Jeroen went into action so fast and with clear intent, they no doubt saved me from going deeper into a dangerous hypothermic state. They stayed calm and just did what the knew had to be done.
A little while after all of this, we are all sitting down eating breakfast and drinking coffee, laughing, debriefing the situation and learning from what happened. There was a collective consciousness between us. Its simply amazing what can be done when you have the right crew and an abundance of trust.
