Additional tips re: Going for everything can get you nothing

When systems and people are overloaded, results are dismal at best. Here are some specific tips on how to make the actions, you as a leader need to have happen, actually occur. As mentioned in our recent newsletter two actions leaders can take are:

1. Get clear. Help everyone in the organization really understands success. Pick the top 3 things that need to happen. Make sure they are measurable and doable. Write them on a wall, and stick to them. Bonus points if you see or hear other people using those objectives to figure out together what they should do next.
2. Unite departments. Help teams understand they should focus on organizational success first, and their success second. Look for a goal that will require their cooperation to achieve, and make it the goal for all teams involved. Bonus points if the teams come back with a better goal than the one you picked.

Here are a couple of specific ways to make the above actions happen in your organization.

• ·         Over communicate. Help everyone focus on key results by over-communicating what the results are for the organization. Once you have the top 3 things, share then continuously. Post them on the wall (or discuss them) at the beginning of each meeting. Ask “So how does what we’re working on right now connect with our top 3 goals?” During discussions ask people how well we’re doing at reaching our goals. You get the idea.
• ·          Listen actively. Help teams by listening first to concerns to understand issues from their perspectives. Whenever you think you need to drive home a point – stop. This is the exact place to ask a question since you are probably assuming something that’s making you want to push harder. Think about what you’re assuming, and then ask a question to find out what other people’s perspectives are on the issue. You might just get surprised – and you get bonus points because people know that you care about what they think more than pushing your own agenda.

A quick question for you:

What have you done (or seen done by others) that helped an organization get clear and unite around the most important goals?

Let us, and everyone else reading this blog, benefit from your experience – comment below! (And yes, it’s ok to obscure the participants to protect the guilty ;o)

Comments

[ava diamond]

Often in organizations, I share with them that "sometimes you have to suboptimize to optimize." In other words, sometimes you have to suboptimize one department to optimize the entire organization. Keeping the organization's vision, mission, and key strategies top of mind enables collaborative relationships that work!

Great post, Ruth!

[Chris Hutchinson]

Many of the organizations I've worked with are in a sort of complacency - they earnestly believe they are doing all they can to be successful. As long as they believe this, they are right. As a friend of mine is fond of saying "Every organization is perfectly designed to get the results it is getting."

So usually it takes a crisis to wake people up - a competitor grabs market share with a breakthrough service or product innovation, previously healthy cashflows suddenly dip, or a significant contributor in the organization leaves abruptly. The business gets focused against the common enemy and can rally everyone's support in a common direction. I've often seen the same behavior in my community when we get a blizzard - people who may not even be speaking to each other put aside their differences and help each other.

However truly great organizations proactively develop shared goals that enable the entire organization to be motivated in a common direction - without the crisis. There's never a good time to improve - and yet great businesses take the time to get clear anyway and succeed by charting their own path.