15 May The power of a good theory
What one theory is most useful in organisational life? What one theory can lead to a long journey of discovery, of personal and organisational growth? What one theory, routinely opened for investigation, can lead to the agony and ecstasy of healthy organisational development?
What one theory is most useful to an executive contemplating a strategic shift? Or to the manager trying to design a new role? Or to the HR team asked by line managers to help with Organisation Design?
The one theory that rules them all
The theory that matters most is the theory of how your organisation is supposed to work. What is the simplest, clearest, most widely agreed answer to this question? That is a theory – and that theory belongs entirely to your organisation. It is built moment by moment, conversation by conversation. The only test it needs to pass is that it is useful to all who work there, and it is delivering the results you hoped for.
We refer to these conversations in other ways, and those ways are useful but not enough. While seminars on “Culture,” or “Strategy,” or “Leadership” are immensely powerful and extremely useful, it might be that the simplest theory is the most powerful. How is your organisation supposed to work? And how does your role and your unit contribute to that working? Is it normal to talk about this, to enquire about it, to challenge other people’s theories of it?
Loss of meaning
We have worked with regional HR units that had come to believe that their mission was to protect employees, befriend the union and ensure policy was followed. When pressed, they could identify some of the loftiest organisational objectives, but that had to be drawn out of them. Their biggest complaint? The unreasonable demands that operating units were making of the region, and the ways in which the operating units were ignoring them. They had lost sight of the fact that they are a support unit to core operations, and that rediscovered insight shifted their world. Within days, after reaching out to the operating units, they discovered a shared purpose and a renewed sense of meaning – joining core projects rather than standing on the sidelines as referees. They were in the game!
When support units have lost their connection to core purpose, then they lose their connection to core business. When analytical units have drowned out support units, and when core business units have lost touch with their customers – then there is only one theory that brings everything back into some sort of viable shape – how is this organisation supposed to work?
That question is as powerful for a local municipality as it is for a Home Affairs branch office. It is useful for a retailer and for a banker. It is always local, and it is always a contested conversation.
Going beyond speeches
A strategy document doesn’t resolve this. Neither does a leadership speech. Those might inform a conversation but it in no way replaces conversation. It is through language that we find meaning – and through meaning we focus resources, and the combination of meaning and resources shapes norms over time.
From conversation, it is possible to rediscover purpose, values, goals, renewed and reviewed processes, innovative systems, reimagined roles, and revitalised operating rhythms – not necessarily miraculously but steadily and progressively.
The value of conflict
How is your organisation supposed to work? How is your role supposed to link to others to make it work? How is your unit supposed to link to other units to make it work? When these conversations are real and are routine then there may be conflict – the clash of ideas about what matters, and about how things are supposed to be. Powerful people in the organisation can hold the space for those conversations or can close them down. They can inform those conversations with their visions and dreams, and they can equip those conversations with their resources and talent. Or they can drown them out with their long speeches and their certainty about what is right for them, from their perch on the bureaucratic tower.
Everyday theorising
This might sound as though these conversations must be grand events that need a lot of planning. That is not true. Grand events might start the conversations or might help them move to another level. The deep theory development work is the normal, everyday, air that drifts between meetings, wraps around cups of coffee, and fills space on walks down corridors. How is this organisation supposed to work? What is my role and what is my unit’s role in making that work – and how do I connect to you and how does my unit connect to yours to make the organisation work?
One theory, one long and ongoing conversation – open to the fact that the answer might be on the tip of our tongues and slightly out of reach. Things are changing. Customers are shifting. Skills are moving. How is our organisation supposed to work?
Do you think that enough people share the theory of how their organisation is supposed to work? Share your thoughts in the comments section and join the conversation.
Our WorldsView
At WorldsView Academy we help to develop strategy, organisation design, leadership, and teams. We host a monthly conversational café around these themes, and our conversation on 21st May asks, “Who designs the organisation?” – it’s free to participate, and your voice would be welcome. Follow us on LinkedIn and register for our newsletter to keep up with work we are doing for first-time managers, organisational redesign, executive leadership, functional group, and cross-functional team development. We only work in-house, so reach out to us if your organisation needs a fresh take on any of these issues.