Build Learning Teams
Set the conditions for extreme transparency, shared vision, shared effort and shared accountability for the outcome to out-produce your competition
People do not work with companies. People work with people. Companies are not 'real'.
'Companies' are constructs. They seem real because they are codified, certified and documented. Thus according to the law, 'it' can hire people and own things and transaction with other parties.
These companies embody central ideas that are important to enough people that they agree to adhere to them and work for them.
When people agree to adhere to a shared vision, they begin to work collaboratively. They begin to work as teams. They become Teams.
This is how real people bring constructs to life.
Teams are where the resources of the company are brought to bear to create. Teams are the engine of growth of a business translating ideas through various stages into an economically viable good or service, for the intended beneficiaries by its leadership.
Treat an engine well and it will last for as long as you need it to. Invest in it and you could smoke the competition. Teams are where this investment is to be made, and where pain will first be felt when it is not.
Its a basic management practice to impose efficiency in a top down strategy.
There is another way. Allow the Teams to lead.
Give them air cover then surge their resources to give them time to digest and assimilate company strategy into their understanding. The objective, accomplished with continued open discussions, is a shared vision internalized at the team level.
Guide the process, do not force it through incentives and testing; allow it to happen naturally - leveraging the strengths of each team to shine, by removing barriers to growth.
Their success will eclipse that of other teams as a result and naturally they will be imitated the longer their success continues.
The secret sauce is no secret. Its human nature. People value their work more than others do and they are very likely to fight to deliver their best when allowed to.
Companies do not feel appreciation, nor empathy nor comradery. People do and when this happens their sense of 'team' becomes a shared value that drives behavior. The team has created culture, one based on shared vision, shared experience and shared success.
We believe this is where Leaders of Change and Maintainers of Status Quo alike should focus their highest value energies to remain effective.
Focus on building teams that are allowed to pursue the vision as they and their teammates agree is best for the strategy that they are now stakeholder in.
Focus on building Learning Teams that are driven to self-improve in the process as a direct outgrowth of their stake in the outcomes. It creates a stasis, a virtuous cycle.