For the Org
Design & Development class this Spring, we had to create a proposal on an
Organization Development challenge or opportunity. Since my organization had
just gone through the process of creating the new vision, mission and values, I
chose to focus on the opportunity to internalize the new VMV for my
organization. As part of the data analysis, I administered the Organizational
Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) Survey to a few people in the organization
and followed it up with a focus group discussion.
As seen in
the snapshots above, while the Clan culture is dominant overall, the Hierarchy
and Market culture are take precedence when it comes to measuring success, and
employees are understandably confused and unhappy with that. This made for a
very interesting discussion during the focus group where some colleagues shared
their vision of the organization. They
envisioned for the organization to be more
innovative, entrepreneurial, and creative. They also wanted the existing
clan culture to be taken to the next level and have
a team-based structure. Having been part of this organization for over 10 years, I could see where my colleagues are coming from and also where they are trying to go with this vision.
Traditionally,
we have always been a market driven, results-oriented organization, whose major
concern is to get the job done. This is
largely because our work is project based. This also makes operational
excellence and competitive pricing a necessity . Both of these translate into
limited scope for innovation because doing what we know takes less time and
effort. Also, we are always striving to accomplish as much as possible with as
few resources as possible. Coincidentally, this also leads to the same
resources/employees working in the same team for long duration resulting in
the dominant clan culture. Talk about going around in circles!
Given this
history, my colleagues' desire for innovation seems justified. I actually
believe that innovation will be of utmost importance to our survival and to
creating a competitive advantage. This is because the environment and space
(educational and corporate learning) we operate in has seen the emergence of so
many disruptive trends that if we don't innovate, we might get left behind. And
this applies as much internally (to employees) to the organization as much as
it does externally (out in the market/competition). Employees who don't get an
opportunity to upgrade their skills and knowledge and apply new trends and
technologies are soon going to deliver products that will be outdated as well.
And we are all well aware of what happens to organizations who can't get out of
this type of a spiral: they are either acquired or they perish. So innovation
seems like not just a smart choice, but a necessary choice that our leadership
needs to move toward.
Their second
vision about having a team-based structure makes complete sense given the
strong Clan culture of the organization, the fact that we work on project
basis, and that employees end up working in the same team for months if not
years. There is tremendous rapport, sense of caring, openness and empathy that
these team members share and they become such a cohesive unit that at the end
of the project it is really difficult to single out one team member to credit
for the success of the project or hold accountable for the failure of it. It is
therefore only fair that they be judged as a team for their success or failure.
This will encourage them even more to help and support each other to make the
project a success and thereby achieve the one goal that the organization
strives so strongly to achieve: client satisfaction and repeat business,
eventually leading to a successful organization.
It is indeed
interesting to note that the vision that so organically emerged in the minds of
my colleagues relates at such deep levels to not just the sustainability of my
organization but to its very existence and continuity itself. This fact
highlights how important it is for a leader to be in touch with employees at
the grass root level and to solicit their input when making strategic
decisions, because the ideas that come from the employees "who are in the
weeds" and "living it everyday" are many times far more
practical than the plans on paper made behind glass doors and a true visionary leader understands the difference
between the two.
Disclaimer about images: All images have been sourced from Google images and used for educational purposes only.
