Born Shouting

Going through some old notes from a systems thinking course a did a few years ago I came across the following text, that gave me pause to think about the organisation I work for how it organises itself.

The way top scoring firms work is radically different to the way bottom scorers work, the research has found. In top firms structure was found to enable rather than drive performance. Processes were simple, though not simplistic and designed to expedite decision-making. Risk taking is encouraged and if things go wrong, procedures allow changes of direction quickly and easily.

Communication in top scoring firms goes up, down and across and it is an organisational objective to confer with unions and works councils and share knowledge with those on the factory floor or out in the field.

Leaders of the highest performing firms are seen and heard. Their organisations are not necessarily easy places to work, but there is little hierarchy and people at the top strive to deliver resources and technology to let their teams get the job done.

Although the buzz around leadership currently focuses around the ‘transactional’ and ‘transformational’, leaders of top scoring firms are stewards of their organisations rather than visionaries..

The culture of these organisations is characterised by a sense of pride and vigorous determination not to get left behind. Managers had positive self-image, worked on their own self-development and encouraged others to do the same. Quality not quantity and a focus on the external are exemplified by the way structure and process is subordinated to delivering to the client. This is facilitated by employees having control over how, where and when to get things done.

Finally, a challenging and open working environment determined relations between employees. Though working environments are supportive, these firms are dynamic and maintain employee engagement through a sense of organisational pride.

Cracking The Performance Code: How Firms succeed, 2005, report from the Work and Enterprise Panel of Inquiry

Working for a traditional, old economy bottom scoring firm as I do, the thought of working for a organisation with ‘a sense of pride and vigorous determination‘, rather than in hierarchical school-room with a veneer of empowerment is a beguiling one. But do such places really exist or are these top firms just new organisations with attractive modern veneers hiding old hierarchical hearts?