Hey Babs, The Missing Connections

The story that Babs got tired of waiting for, so made it up. Sort of.

Hey Babs,

We recently worked with a consultancy firm to design and implement a complete overhaul of our organizational structure and service delivery. The changes are transformative and include expanding our leadership and management teams. We are looking forward to presenting our work at an upcoming conference and are feeling confident about putting ourselves forward for a workplace innovation award.

We are currently embarking on a strategic planning process to see us through the next five years and we absolutely need to have the strategic plan fit our new structure as we can’t go through any more service or organizational changes; the leadership team is stressed and facing burnout and the rest of the staff are, to put it mildly, not too pleased with us. Despite our wellness program (including fun Fridays and gym reimbursements!), they are not coping well with the changes.

This is a pivotal moment for our organization. After two years in a row of dismal key performance indicators and outcomes, funding hurdles, and a misdirected advocacy campaign, we are ready for bold change.

Yesterday our leadership team met with the strategic planning facilitator. We had each arrived prepared with evidence-backed arguments about the needs and priorities of each of our own areas of responsibility and it didn’t take long before our discussion became heated and unproductive.

I left the meeting feeling deflated and wondering what we were missing.

Do you have any thoughts about what we are missing?

Signed, No One.

Hey No One,

I certainly do have thoughts on this and have been waiting for someone to send this scenario into “Hey Babs”, but since no one did, I’m just going there myself.

But first a few questions for consideration.

1. What is it that your organization intends to transform and why?
2. How is expanding the leadership and management teams transformational?
3. Might the desired transformation be different if:
   1. The strategic plan had been done a wee bit ahead of or in conjunction with the new structure and service model.
   2. The leadership team was united instead of siloed. Nothing drags an organization down like a team snarling around the water hole of resources.
   3. The staff had more trust in the changes.
4. Change is an inarguable, from small daily adjustments in customer or community needs and wants to the increasing speed of technological advances and socio-economic shifts. How will you support those who you work with to not only adapt but even find ease or thrive in change?
5. Before you make any more changes, do you know the “why” behind your key performance indicators and outcomes, funding, and advocacy campaign? Dig beyond your first “whys” and try to get to at least 17 “whys” and then find the common threads in those “whys”.
6. How is this innovative and award worthy?

Work throws all sorts of seemingly disparate things our way and being able to see the big picture and what makes that big picture tickety-boo along is the path to leadership success, organizational outcomes, and the well-being of people. But too often we miss the key connections, the connections between strategic planning (constant and iterative), operating models (structures, services, etc.), and culture (how we muck along together).

Missing Connections

In not purposefully building the connections between strategic planning, operating models, and culture, leaders are missing the big picture of their organization which means that they, along with their leadership teams, are basically playing a never ending game of wac-a-mole (arcade game, no real moles) where they find themselves hitting whatever is most pressing and looking back on years, and in some cases decades, of the same problems and no or limited movement forward.

Notice that I said not purposefully building the connections. The connections are there with or without purpose because all organizations have, even if not openly acknowledged or articulated1:

1. a strategy, goal, or direction
2. an operating model
3. a culture

Let’s think of these three things as the three legs of a stool.

Without purposeful connection, the best that can be achieved with these three things comes down to good luck, which is no way to build a stool or lead an organization. Too often (like waaaay too often) organizations are missing this connection and are working like a lop-sided, wobbly stool where nothing feels quite right and nothing works quite right. At worst they are about to tip over and at best they are keeping up an appearance of functioning as long as nobody removes the work-around of a folded up napkin propping up a leg or two up.

With purposeful connection, the three legs of the stool can be brought into balance where the whole is greater than its sum of parts. That isn’t just a catchy phrase, it is the wonder of jazz, a choral ensemble, basketball, and my homemade vegan mincemeat that is stewing as I write this.

Not to be too MBA crass about it (don’t worry, I say that as an MBAer), but that greater whole is where productivity and success lie. More importantly, that greater whole is where leadership ethics and a better working environment move from talk to action.

Why Did I Make Up This “Hey Babs”?

Because I love my work.

My workdays begin with reading emails and meeting with folks who have reached out for coaching or facilitation services because there is something they want to shift or strengthen. They have a clear objective such as coaching for greater leadership ease and excellence or facilitation for strategic planning or team development or an assessment and recommendations for organizational improvement.

They are smart, good people who are busier than ever meeting the demands of an increasingly complex work environment. They don’t always see, but they most definitely feel, the missing connections and they want something better for their organization, the people they work with, and the communities they serve.

While working with these smart, good people, together we expand our conversations beyond what was originally identified to find that greater whole. Some examples include:

• Approaching strategic planning as strategic activation (something I learned from the folks at IDEO U). This approach brings operating models and culture into the planning, rather than something that happens as an afterthought.
• Getting into the deep dirt of organizational restructuring so that it isn’t a way to paper over problems, like too much (bloated) management or struggling employees. Once we connect operating models with strategy and culture the questions get tougher than “what will make our work easier” and the answers get better than “more management” or “shake up the departments”.
• Being more precise with our language and our stories for real change. We need to challenge ourselves when using words like “transformative change” when what is really meant is “tactical implementation”. One isn’t better than the other, but puffing-up operating models and work flows with $25 dollar words undermines trust and productivity. As an aside, many organizations have a serious productivity problem and oddly enough this especially includes those organizations that are super busy delivering front-line services such as some libraries and not-for-profits.
• Working with, rather than farming out culture to the human resource management folks. While they can brilliantly respond with sound and legislatively required policies and procedures along with best-intentioned staff wellness programs, they often do not have the information, influence, or authority to point out that the CEO and the leadership team actually hold the responsibility and accountability for culture.

Thank You

I know, this was a longer than usual read and taking time out to think and talk about the too often missed connections between strategic planning, operating models, and culture is not an easy sell. As such, I thank all of you for also seeing its importance and for allowing me the privilege of being part of your work day.

If you want to chat more about these connections, or anything else that is on your mind about life and work, please come hang out with me. You can book a confidential, complimentary, and no-obligation chat through my website.

I’m here for you.

Babs