Systems Thinking
The first challenge is developing a systems perspective and understanding of dynamic systems. We’ve talked about this for over 50 years, yet we still don’t teach it in most business schools. We train people in business schools in different disciplines. So much so that the professors often know the other people, researchers, and academics, in their discipline, around the world better than they know their colleagues down the hall in another department or discipline. We don’t organize business schools in systems; we arrange them in silos by discipline (marketing, finance, etc.). We organize the curriculum, the research, and the teaching around those same silos. So, we produce a siloed education in business schools, and then we expect people to figure out how to put it together later as a system. We’ve been talking about this for a while, and everybody shakes their head in agreement, but we haven’t made much progress in remedying the situation. So, the first challenge is learning about dynamic systems and how the organization is a dynamic system. If you can’t get to that, you don’t have a basis for design because you need that understanding as a jumping-off point of good design.
Collaboration
The second challenge that most executives face is their ego. Collaboration is essential to good organizational design. No single person is experienced enough to have all the answers to a good organizational design or a piece of the organization’s design. Consequently, collaboration is critical to good organizational design. The leaders who are good organization designers have an ego at an intermediate position between arrogant and so humble that they’re meek and mild. This intermediate position means they advocate for their ideas and have an agenda, but they don’t think they have all the answers. They involve people to help them develop solutions. So the technical challenge of systems is probably easiest, and the ego challenge is perhaps a little more challenging to address. The last challenge may be the most difficult to address.
Curiosity
The third challenge is curiosity. If the leaders aren’t curious about better ways to design and run the organization, then they probably didn’t make it this far in this podcast. So people listening to this podcast are probably curious and wonder why that may be a challenge. But there are many people running organizations and occupying organizations that aren’t that curious about better ways to run the organization. They want to get the work done and get out of here. Suppose you’re not curious and you’re not interested in new and innovative ways that you might be able to design the organization in a unique way. In that case, you will be very limited in the creativity and innovation you can bring to management and the organization’s design. I contend that we need a lot of creativity and innovation in management and organization design.
I think the need for that is only going to get greater. It’s useful to think of the organization as your little petri dish where you’re conducting experiments and seeing what works and doesn’t because so much of what works in business is context-dependent and not generalizable. In fact, from a strategy perspective, we’re not hoping for generalizable organizational design and culture; otherwise, people will be able to copy it easily. We’re looking for unique designs that fit our people, purpose, strategy, and work type. So you need a custom design.
The video is an excerpt from a 2017 podcast with Dr. Chad McAllister at The Everyday Innovator. For more podcasts on innovation and product development, check out the podcast on his website and iTunes.
