Today‘s organizations and projects are confronted by ambitious timelines, limited budgets, and high demand for innovation.
That means that the way ahead will be paved with problems and hurdles. Conflicts and breakdowns are an unavoidable consequence.
To master such a journey, you need to be a strong group of people who is willing to fight to make it happen.
What is your situation?
- Do you and the people of your organization form a powerful community? Are you as a larger group determined to take up the challenge and is this noticeable?
- Or do you see signs of disunity, disorientation, skepticism or silo thinking?
Companies / Departments
How reality often looks like
Strategy
- Unknown or unclear
- Is questioned
- Does not appeal emotionally
- Not customer oriented and innovative
CONSEQUENCE:
Unclear how to contribute to strategy
Structure and responsibilities
- Silo mentality
- Unclear interplay between units
- Weak customer and market orientation
- Hiding behind structures and processes
CONSEQUENCE:
No collective power
Identity
- The source of the identity has been lost
- Fragmentation
- Unclear what one stands for
- Disconnect with outside view
CONSEQUENCE:
Diffuse appearance to the inside and outside
Dealing with critical topics
- Problems stay unsolved
- No one feels responsible
- Narrow search for solutions
- Decisions are questioned
CONSEQUENCE:
Problems become crises
Programs / Projects
How reality often looks like
Project plan and approach
- Unknown
- Not understood
- Seen as being unrealistic
- Too complex
Demotivation and unfocused action
Project set-up
- Strong tensions between project and line management
- Unclear roles and responsibilities (project manager, chief engineer etc.)
- Complains about unproductive meetings
High loss of energy
Mind-set
- Drift towards overengineering
- More passive than proactive attitude
- Lack of architectural thinking
- Belief in “ideal” approaches (e.g. waterfall)
Bureaucratic processes and overengineering
Dealing with critical topics
- Problems stay unsolved
- No one feels responsible
- Narrow search for solutions
- Decisions are questioned
Fire fighting and cost-overrun
Involvement as a key to success
How to tackle the issues listed above?
It is crucial that a larger group of people rallies behind the joint goals. This is the focus of our method Leadership Incorporation: Achieving implementation strength by a cascading series of involvement steps.
At first, the core team needs to have a clear view on key topics. Surprinsingly this is very often not the case. Disagreement and lack of clarity on this layer will be recognized by all others in the organization.
Then, on every layer down people need to be involved seriously. By contrast, one-way communication or mini participation is what we see again and again. Real involvement requires high level of exchange and enough time for sense-making.
The investment into real involvement by using the Leadership Incorporation approach is clearly worthwhile. It leads to a much higher quality of conversation which allows larger groups to develop power and determination.