The Performance Improvement Blog

Benefits of Strategic Leadership Tools

Leaders need tools (See: ASTD Workforce Development Blog). Just as a carpenter wouldn’t build a house without a blueprint, saw, hammer, and screwdriver, a leader shouldn’t try to build an organization without the methods and processes that facilitate organizational learning and change.

A useful strategic leadership tool could be an assessment instrument, a visioning process, a strategic planning map, decision-making steps, a feedback structure, or any aid that helps a leader facilitate improvement of individual, team, and organizational performance. Of course, it's not the tool but how it is used that makes the difference.

By using strategic leadership tools effectively, organizations benefit in at least seven ways:

1. Employee attention is focused on the same strategic task; their priorities become less scattered and diffused which increases the likelihood that you will get the best thinking
2. Everyone is clear about the beginning and end to the task as defined by the tool; they are not wasting energy on figuring out where to start and when to end
3. Participation and interaction increases as everyone’s Ideas and solutions are made visible through the structure
4. Stakeholders are all using the same language in doing the work; terms are defined within the context of the tool which promotes understanding
5. The task is no longer personal; it’s about following the tool’s process to achieve organizational success; it's not about any one person’s agenda
6. People who need a lot of structure in order to feel comfortable, have structure
7. People who need permission to be open and honest, have it; the structured process gives them that permission

It’s not that you can’t find tools in organizations. The problem is that usually they are owned by HR, or Training, or Quality Control, or some other department and are not used for learning and change by management. We need to get these tools into the hands of leaders so that the entire organization can benefit.  

Why Leaders Don't Use Strategic Tools

In the first of a series of blog posts that Ralph Jacobson and I wrote for the ASTD Workforce Development Blog, we argue that strategic leaders need strategic tools. However, we have found in our work that many organizational leaders are reluctant to use tools, such as: assessment instruments to observe current organizational performance; worksheets to facilitate decision-making; and structured processes to do long-range planning. (Examples of these kinds of tools, including Jacobson’s “The Leader’s Map”, can be found at www.Learning2BGreat.com .)

We write:

It seems that the higher one travels up the organization chart, the less likely it is that leaders use structured methods to help them address the critical issues before them. Instead, senior leaders are more likely to be influenced by broad ideas of strategy and general concepts rather than structured thinking and best practices to attack the challenges before them.

Unfortunately, it is here that the greatest value could be wrought from using structured methods. The issues higher up the hierarchy have larger ramifications, and they are less likely to have clear answers, require greater cooperation across internal silos and between external entities, and are fraught with greater risk. It is here that issues require input from many sources—and available information is scant and must be teased out. Ironically, it is here that the use of strategic leadership tools can provide the greatest power.

Yet leaders tend to refrain from applying structured, facilitated interventions to solve problems and plan for the future. We have some theories about why this is so. It might be an unwillingness of executives to admit that they don’t have the answers. It might be the human tendency, in Daniel Kahneman’s parlance, of “thinking fast”. Or it might be an organizational leader’s need to control the situation and not take the risk that is required when using strategic tools.

What are your ideas about this? Why do you think leaders are reluctant to use tools in their strategic problem-solving, decision-making, and planning? What do you think can be done to get over the psychological barrier they have to using strategic tools? 

Vision and Values Shaping New Organizational Structures

It seems to me that we are witnessing a profound shift in thinking about how companies should be organized and managed. It would be easy to trivialize this movement by attributing the change to stereotypical Millenials who want work to be fun and want to have a voice in decisions from the moment they are hired. But that would not explain what seems to actually be happening. Leaders in their 40s, 50s, and 60s, who have prior experience in many different kinds of organizations, are intentionally creating truly unique work environments that are structured differently and operate differently from mainstream, bureaucratic, business-textbook organizations.

These leaders are asking why a business has to be autocratic, hierarchical, and controlling. They are wondering how a traditional structure that was designed for consistency, predictability, and minimal risk can achieve creativity and innovation. They are raising doubts about workplace cultures that make people miserable and don’t allow them to achieve their full potential.

It used to be that the only businesses that didn’t operate from an org chart were small, family-run enterprises with a close-knit, caring atmosphere. But now we see large scale enterprises intentionally creating cultures that are aligned with what they want to accomplish rather than simply adopting the structures typical of organizations that have come before. For example:

• Menlo Innovations - In the Menlo culture the message to employees, both implicitly and explicitly, is that everyone is learning together how to best serve clients while creating a work environment of joy and meaning. CEO Richard Sheridan describes this culture in his new book Joy, Inc. He explains the “rituals and artifacts” the culture: from the hiring process when prospective employees learn how to fit into Menlo, to paired employees who learn how to work together on job tasks, to an open workspace with no offices, to constant conversations among employees during the workday, to lunch n’learns, to storytelling, to leaders setting an example for continuous learning, and to presenting “The Menlo Way” to other companies and to the public.
• Zingerman’s Community of Businesses – As described on their Web site, the ZCoB is a family of eight businesses all located in the Ann Arbor area and reflects the novel strategy for business growth created by Zingerman’s Deli founders Paul Saginaw and Ari Weinzweig. Rather than replicating their deli through the franchise model, Paul and Ari instead chose to develop new, independent businesses, all rooted in our local community that work together as one organization. Each business is operated by one or more managing partners who share ownership and put their particular expertise to work in the day to day running of their business. The idea for the ZCoB was laid out in Zingerman’s 2009 vision, written by Ari and Paul in 1994 and highlighted in Bo Burlingham’s 2003 article for Inc. Magazine, “The Coolest Small Company in America.”
• Zappos – From an article in The Washington Post: The Las Vegas-based retailer is now going even more radical, introducing a new approach to organizing the company. It will eliminate traditional managers, do away with the typical corporate hierarchy and get rid of job titles, at least internally. The company told employees of the change at a year-end meeting, Quartz first reported...The unusual approach is called a “holacracy.” Developed by a former software entrepreneur, the idea is to replace the traditional corporate chain of command with a series of overlapping, self-governing “circles.” In theory, this gives employees more of a voice in the way the company is run...According to Zappos executives, the move is an effort to keep the 1,500-person company from becoming too rigid, too unwieldy and too bureaucratic as it grows.

These companies are not only being innovative in their products and services, they are applying innovation to how they do their work. They are aligning form with function (and values) in order to continue their success. This is more than incremental improvements to their organizations. These companies are implementing radical changes to create cultures in which employees feel respected, take risks, are continuously learning, are helpful to each other, and are joyful at work every day. 

What Leaders Need to Do to Retain Talent

Taking a cultural point of view of leadership, Mike Hyatt lists the things you need to do to retain your best people. While reading his list, I would keep in mind that losing someone is not always a bad thing. First of all, even though the person is talented that doesn’t mean he or she is a good fit in your organizational culture or with the work that needs to be done. And secondly, some people need to move on to other organizations (or school or family responsibilities) in order to advance their careers.

However, if keeping talent is an issue for your organization, Hyatt provides guidance. He writes:

…if leaders spent less time trying to retain people, and more time trying to understand them, care for them, invest in them, and lead them well, the retention thing would take care of itself.

I’ve reworded Hyatt's items to say what you should do.

1. Unleash Their Passions

2. Challenge Their Intellect

3. Engage Their Creativity

4. Develop Their Skills

5. Give Them A Voice

6. Show Them You Care

7. Lead Them

8. Recognize Their Contributions

9. Increase Their Responsibility

10. Keep Your Commitments

Not only you, all managers should be doing these things. That will create a culture that will retain talent, as well as develop talent, be a joyful place to work, and achieve the goals of the organization. 

Year in Review - 2013

Throughout 2013, I used this blog to illuminate important leadership and management issues. The topics ranged from changing organizational culture to evaluating training programs to making managers responsible for employee learning to creating a learning culture.

As a way of review, I’ve selected five blog posts from the past year that seem to have had the most interest for readers. Here are the links with a short excerpt from each post:

Culture Change is More Than Skin Deep

People act on the basis of tacit knowledge but they are often not aware of how daily behavior is shaped by this knowledge. It’s simply “how we do things here.” Underlying beliefs, assumptions, and values become routines that, over time, go unchallenged. Those routines may or may not serve the best interests of the organization and its customers. Culture change must confront the link between the thinking that drives behavior and the effects of that behavior on organizational success.

Managers and Employee Learning 

Managers of employees have a critical role to play in employee learning. Managers are in the best position to help employees acquire the knowledge and skills they need to be successful. By asking questions, by assigning opportunities to apply knowledge and skills, by modeling expected behavior, by providing timely information, by coaching application of learning, and by giving performance feedback, they can facilitate learning and, therefore, performance improvement of their direct reports. 

Why Learning Is Not Applied

Learning and the retention of learning cannot be left to trainers alone. Organizations as a whole must create an environment that supports the learning process. Leaders must make learning a core value, managers must facilitate and support learning for their direct reports, trainers must provide learning interventions appropriate for the content, and learners must participate enthusiastically in the process. Retention of learning is a systems problem, not an individual employee or individual trainer problem.

Do You Have a Learning Culture? (Parts One & Two)

Culture used to be considered a byproduct of organizational life. Today, many companies are being quite intentional about culture. So, how do you know what kind of culture you have and, if you want GreatWallPicture1 to create a learning culture, how do you know when you have one? Dharmesh Shah, Founder and CTO at HubSpot, gives us a way to think about this. He writes, “The true nature of your company – and its culture – is determined by how you instinctively react.”

Joy to the World of Work

After reading Joy, Inc. and visiting [Menlo Innovations] on several occasions, I believe the key to Menlo’s success is its “learning culture”.  This is an intentional culture a la Edgar Schein's three levels: (1) the deep underlying beliefs and assumptions that are often difficult for insiders to articulate; (2) the values and principles that structure action; and (3) the symbols and artifacts that are visible on the surface for all to see. In the Menlo culture the message to employees, both implicitly and explicitly, is that we are learning together how to best serve our clients while creating an enjoyable and meaningful work environment.