Quo Vadis – Where are you heading?
Do you want your company just to be big or to be great?
Do you want your company to just manage complexity or to fall in love with it?
Do you want your company to be just a market leader or a game-changer?
If your head nodded and your heart beat a little faster towards the end of these questions, you might want to read on.
Companies that have it in them to dare greatly and change the world for the better – in small or big ways – are companies that are highly energized. These are places, where the electrifying buzz of performance can be felt instead of having to be measured in KPIs. Where people are intrinsically inspired instead of having to be motivated with fruit baskets or latte machines. Where neither sticks nor carrots have any use. Places that aspire to be great instead of just being big. Places where stuff gets done.
How do you get there?
If you want a well energized company that thrives on complexity, your entire operations must be geared to this purpose. Energy is primarily carried from heart to heart and mind to mind by communication. Consequently, if you want an invigorating flow of energy, you got to make sure that information flows smoothly – on an individual and systemic level. Because if you do, everything else falls into place: information gets where it needs to be, when it needs to be there and with the necessary depth and quality. People will be able to digest it and act appropriately – no matter what. The quality and timing of decisions will improve exponentially. This will bring down your risk and increase your likelihood of making real impact. Of getting stuff done. And it will create a buzz that attracts the best and the brightest.
What could it look like?
No two companies are alike. Thus, a transformational rewiring of your place is a highly individual task. However, after proper analysis, you always start with removing the things that suck the energy out of your people and thus disrupt the flow of information (such as ill-designed processes or reporting lines, tools not fit for purpose, divisive or demotivating compensation systems, strangling controls, or other staples of corporate life). At the same time, you gently start building up what is needed to create the muscles and the space for “having fun with complexity”. You can start small: with a process, a team, an office or a department. Getting your toes wet and see how it feels. Or you can start big: If you still have a very linear top down-leadership structure – which is not really suitable for a complex world – you can move your C-Suite “et al.” from the top to the centre of the company. There, their main task will be to serve, i.e. to make sure that everything required to “complexity enable” the workforce is provided. In this day and age, this is the ultimate boss move.
Why would you want to do this?
Go back to the top of this page: Because your head nodded and your heart beat faster in the right places. Because you want your company to still be around in 10 years doing well. Because you want the people in your company to know exactly what they get up for every morning and look forward to it. You want to be surrounded by inspiration, decency, excellence and happiness. Because you enjoy growing as a person and seeing people grow all around you. Because you are ready to dare greatly. And boy, because it is so much fun to finally get great stuff done.