Dear Leader,
Know Your Organizational Performance.
This might be you right now.
You are the boss of a company or department that employs, produces, sells, and has a positive impact in the world. You gave your all to make the right decisions at the right times, even tough ones, to keep the ‘boat’ afloat and expanding. You have shaped the best human organization you could, to ensure efficient operations and deliver the highest quality to clients. You uphold noble values and are proud to share them with your employees, including during challenging times. You believe - or at least hope - that these values give your employees meaning and drive in their daily work, aligning with the company’s purpose.
But you are unsure.
After all, nobody tells the boss everything. Not what is going terribly wrong. Not what isn’t tangible or verifiable, certainly not the toxic atmosphere. ‘Is there a disorganization too deep to be solved? Let’s avoid being the messenger on this one.’ Even if your employees try, will they provide you with a clear, exhaustive, and actionable picture of your organization? Will you know the dependencies, what to stop, where to start, how to change?
A new employee arrives, enthusiastic about joining your star team and contributing as much as she will be let. She doesn’t have a proper job description yet, but it is clear in your head (and in hers, of course – or maybe not) where she can play a role. Within 2 weeks, her fresh perspective on the organization starts to shape.
You will never know, but in this short time, she has already observed blurred roles and responsibilities at different levels, was shouted at in the open space, overheard employees discussing the general ‘chaos’ across the board, and learned that a colleague is leaving the organization after only 7 months – by choice. It won’t be long until she discovers the lack of project management culture within the teams, or the despair of many employees feeling they are battling uphill to get even the tiniest decision validated. Ironically, it will take her a bit longer to realize how political and predatory the workplace can be... And she starts suffering herself.
While this may seem like a catastrophic scenario, it is a typical example of how the organizational reality often deviates significantly from the leader’s vision and values. This disconnect, I believe, stems from a lack of intention, attention, and ‘maintenance’ in organizational settings and dynamics.
No one wakes up intending to harm their people.
Yet, as businesses grow, it becomes increasingly difficult (virtually impossible, in fact) to stay aware of and attend to everything happening within the organizational field. The primary focus tends to be on growing the top line, often at the expense of that crucial aspect.
Consequently, the people & operational organization can gradually deteriorate without your knowledge:
- An incomprehensible strategy
- Organizational irritants of varying severity:
- Ineffective governance (leadership, decision-making, and control)
- Unclear organizational structure, roles, and responsibilities
- Inefficient and unsynchronized processes
- Human resources and means disconnected from the stated strategy, daily operations, and/or planned projects
- Absence of project management mode, projects that do not come to fruition or are over budget, out of scope, and behind schedule
- Poor management practices, including:
- New employees poorly welcomed and then poorly integrated
- Lack of on-going training
- Lack of mobility and clarity in career progression
- Increasingly lax risk management (Law & Compliance, employee’s Health & Safety, end-user safety, etc.)
- Consequently, human red flags:
- Absenteeism
- High turnover
- Degraded climate
- HR disputes
- Burnout and other work-related illnesses and accidents
- Consequences on operational quality, productivity, top-line, and bottom-line
You need to know.
In order to maximize top-line revenue growth, bottom-line profitability, employee retention, mental health and quality of delivery, conducting a comprehensive review of your organizational performance and dynamics at least once every five years is essential corporate hygiene.
You should be able to spot the most needed improvements and answer many questions like:
- Is my strategy understood? supported by the employees?
- Does the macro-organisation make sense? is it understandable by employees?
- Are roles and responsibilities clear?
- Are means and human resources aligned with functional and project needs?
- How lean are the operations? How qualitative is the service or production?
- What is our maturity level regarding project culture?
- What are the current managerial practices?
- What is the climate?
- Is the employee’s pathway in the company qualitative? (hiring, integration, training, mobility, promotion, salary, incentive)
- Are HR dynamics positive? (absenteeism, turnover, mental health, sense of collective, NPS…)
- Is internal communication effective?
- Is our quality of service or production impacted by all of the above? And how?
- What is our external reputation? Among clients? Among former employees?
- Etc. etc. etc.
Relying on top executives for this evaluation is risky. Because of their very position in the organization, their assessment is likely to be fragmented, incomplete and - let’s say it bluntly – biased.
Refraining from acting, on the other hand, condemns employees to a spectrum of misery.
The most effective way to understand your organisation performance and dynamics is to invite a qualified external perspective, for an objective and systemic evaluation. Then, you are equipped to act in the best interest of your company and its people.