Yet
again we’ve had another year with significant changes on many levels. How well are you adapting to them? How agile is your business and how well
organised is it? Are your people and
your systems flexible enough to make continuous changes while staying organised
enough to deliver quality products and services? Are you flexible enough in your thinking and
behaviour while
being organised and consistent enough to be an effective leader?
As
you think about your answers to these questions it is interesting to
consider how you and your business are
experiencing Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity (or VUCA) as
they become the buzz words for the pace and pressure of life in the 21st
Century. Leadership is now coming under
scrutiny like never before and there is a need for a more balanced approach to
the way we work.
One aspect of this balanced
approach is summed up in a nice proverb I recently saw that states:
“Orderliness creates efficiency and flexibility supports longevity. Nature is the perfect example of orderliness
in the context of constant change”.
Organisation Vs Flexibility
I have a number of clients
who operate in a highly regulated and audited environment which means that the
need for compliance is critical to success.
This requires a very detailed and organised approach to work and it
attracts a particular kind of person with particular preferences and
strengths. They enjoy being very
organised and are meticulous in everything they do. While this gets the job done to the standards
required by auditors, if their attitude is too ‘Rigidly Organised’ it can lead
to resisting change and a lack of willingness to adapt to new ways of doing
things.
It is interesting to note
that the people who sell and deliver the services have to deal with a number of
variables and constantly need to adapt their approach to get the results they
want. The agility and flexibility
required for success in these roles means that people with strengths in these
areas are often lacking in the precision and organisation needed for detailed
compliance, they don’t enjoy it and would rather be doing something else. The compliance elements of their jobs take up
so much brain power and effort that they always seem to find convenient excuses
and reasons why they can’t do it. This
can lead to them becoming scattered in their approach and a lot of details
getting missed.
The
key to success for these businesses is finding people with a happy balance
where there is enough overlap of both of these paradoxical traits to have a
good degree of each one. This means
having the trait of being ‘Flexibly Organised’.
Balanced Versatility
The
paradox of organisation is neatly illustrated in the Harrison Assessment Report
that looks at 12 different sets of key traits that may seem to be in opposition
but that complement each other when they are balanced. The tension between the two key traits needs
to be just right or you get an aggressive or passive imbalance. This can be seen in the illustration below.
If
we enjoy being organised but have low levels of flexibility we end up in the
‘Rigidly Organised’ quadrant. This is
called an ‘Aggressive Imbalance’ and in extreme cases it can lead to stubborn
resistance to change or over-concentrating on the details, and becoming rigid
or even compulsive about being organised.
The
people who enjoy being flexible but have low levels of organisation are very
adaptable and love the novelty and excitement of change and having a variety of
things on the go. They thrive in
environments where there is a need for trying different approaches. Many serial entrepreneurs have this trait,
especially in the early days of building their business and exploring new
markets. However, if they are not
organised enough to get some consistency and allow some structure it can
seriously limit growth because they have a ‘Passive Imbalance’ and are too
scattered in their thinking and behaviour.
The most successful entrepreneurs know themselves well enough and hand over
the running of the business to people who are more organised!
The
Flexible Organiser creates order and yet easily adapts to change. When circumstances change they adjust to meet
the new requirements and create a different order. They strive for the sweet-spot of efficiency
without too much structure or unnecessary bureaucracy so they are also
effective. They are great to work with
because their fluid orderliness enables others to work efficiently without feeling
confined or restricted.
The
direct opposite of the Flexible Organiser is the person who is Rigidly
Disorganised. People with this
unfortunate trait have a deficiency in both of the key traits and this means
they are neither organised nor adaptive to change.
Increasing self-awareness
What
is your personal tendency? What are the
different roles in your business and what traits do they require? Are the people currently in position a good
fit and what development do they need?
While you can use your intuition to select the right people for the job
it is now very easy to compile a ‘Job Success Formula’ that allows you to
identify the right balance of traits and characteristics for the role. This can
then be used in the development of current job holders and recruitment of new
people. There are also a number of
Leadership Competencies available that will give you an instant snapshot of the
strengths and areas for development in your senior team. To explore any of the above and to see where you stand on the Organisation
Paradox, as well as the eleven other Paradoxes in the assessment, just contact
Amanda at info@InspiredWorking.com.
If
you would like more structure and to become even more organised in 2016 you can
download the ‘2016 Annual Master Planner Spreadsheet’ which has the calendar
year in a number of different views. It
also includes a Planning Meeting Agenda and the key questions you need to ask
at a senior level every quarter. To get your copy Just click
here.
With best wishes for the festive season,
David Klaasen
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