Leadership Update 19 of 2017 The Edge Your Business Needs (Organisational Health as Your Competitiv

shawnsher
Jun 18, 2017
4 min read

The Edge Your Business Needs

When we look back over the past forty years of business, we can see clear management ideas emerge every ten to twenty years.
In the 1980’s, the big differentiating idea was ‘strategy’. Think Tom Peters’ “In Search of Excellence” book as a representation of those days in the 80’s and early 90’s where a lot of Malaysian companies soon followed his call for ‘strategic thinking’ as a means of gaining a leg up on the competition.
Those that were the first to catch on to catch on to this idea soon gained a distinct competitive advantage.
In the 90’s, the ‘quality’ revolution took hold. Here, the mantra was ‘quality’ as the defining competitive advantage and companies that were able to badge themselves as ISO compliant as well as implement robust quality management systems found themselves conquering higher market share and international business. In Malaysia, we came to see that the first companies that embraced ‘quality’ as a key differentiation mechanism soon gained a dominant position within their markets and typically enjoyed a two to five year advantage over their rivals who were slower in embracing this idea.
Since the late 90’s till now, i.e. for much of the past two decades, it has been largely about technology. It began with companies adopting the latest IT infrastructure to serve their customers faster and better and the Internet has led to this continued revolution of using IT to gain a competitive foothold.
The thing about new ideas is that they eventually become so well-known and widely adopted that they become something of a standard, which reduces the opportunity for competitive advantage. Soon everyone gets the importance of strategy, quality and technology.
Consider that today even smaller, relatively unsophisticated companies have adopted state-of-the-art strategies, quality programs and technology solutions.
Hence, the competitive advantage that companies enjoyed over these ideas soon lose their power as everyone gets it…
So what’s left? Where is the next opportunity for serious, substantial advantage?
The best way to go about answering that question is to look for real pain points in the world of business that have been largely unaddressed. And wherever I go, whichever company we consult with, I get the same issues being raised by CEO’s and HR Leaders:
How do I get my managers to understand and embrace accountability when they work?
Why can’t my people think like leaders?
How do I get my employees to come into work motivated and excited to work?
How do I create a work environment that attracts the right type of people to want to work for our company?
The real underlying issue holding companies back today is the realisation that the workforce of 2017 is no longer satisfied with job security. They want more. They want work which creates meaning in their loves, i.e. meaningful work. They need to clearly see how what they do contributes to the bigger picture. They want to work for a boss that cares for them and understands their desires and need. And… they want to work for an organisation where there is implicit trust between key stakeholders.
In other words, people today will no longer tolerate ambiguity, indecisiveness, and distrust at their workplace.
But herein lies the problem. A majority of companies are currently unable to give them this. Most companies are riddled with politics and confusion that are driving their leaders and employees (and customers) equally mad. And yet, we’ve come to accept this as an inevitability in business, a form of corporate penance, if you will.
But what if there were a way to drastically reduce those problems, and raise productivity and morale at the same time? Wouldn’t that be worth doing? And wouldn’t any CEO or HR Leader want his or her company to be the first kids on the block to do it? That’s what organizational health (OH) is all about. What is Organisational Health
Organisation health is about having a stronger, more cohesive leadership team that is crystal clear on the road moving forward. In a healthy organisation, the senior leadership is really aligned and committed around a handful of critical questions (which they have collectively answered and agreed upon). These leaders also have a solid plan for communicating to their employees and they’ve established some simple but essential human systems to support what they are trying to do.
In a healthy organisation, employees come to work clear about what is ‘important’ for them to achieve each day and consequently feel a sense of empowerment and security in the knowledge of how their job contributes to the organisation’s mission. They implicitly trust their bosses and colleagues and feel comfortable sharing their strengths and weaknesses as everyone is rooting for one team, i.e. the organisation. There is little room for politics and silos as ‘we’ instead of ‘I’ rule the underlying values and culture permeating the organisation. Organisational Health Is Your Business’ Competitive Advantage
Just like strategy, quality and technology respectively became the defining competitive advantage of the 80’s, 90’s and last two decades, organisational health is your organisation’s competitive advantage for this coming decade. The first companies to realise this will reap the lion’s share of the competitive rewards.
Will your organisation be one of the first?...