Multiple layers of management that separate people from information, customers, and the ability to make knowledgeable decisions won’t work in your agile future. Neither will people who want to do one job, make limited decisions, take no risks, and pass each challenge to their supervisor. As a manager in the desired environment, every time you make a decision that could be made by the individual who has the knowledge, the proximity to the situation, and the need, you deprive that person of the opportunity to grow.
Direction and focus, in this environment, is provided by leaders who drive and communicate the organization’s strategic vision throughout the workplace, daily, incessantly, and consistently. People internalize this vision and perform their work to maximize its attainment.
Furthermore, if you are still focused on meeting customer needs by providing a quality product, on time, that meets requirements, for a price your customer is willing to pay, you are lagging behind the learning curve. According to Daryl R. Conner, CEO of ODR, Inc., in How to Create a Nimble Organization, published in the National Productivity Review (Autumn, 1998), “the defining moment for customer service will be not when established needs are expressed, but will be when the unexpected requirement materializes over night.
Conner cites three critical characteristics of the nimble organization. These organizations:
- Hire only the agile. Conner believes that who is on your team is more important than how the team is structured or its assignment. “When staffing your organization for nimbleness,” he says, “80 percent of your resources should be directed toward hiring people already prone towards the desired attributes, and then training and coaching them to expand their capabilities even more. No more than 20 percent of your resources should be allocated to assisting those who say they are willing to work against their own instincts and biases and try to develop completely new propensities…” to become nimble and resilient.
- Understand the interaction of control and resilience. When change is introduced, it is typically better handled by resilient people. It is better integrated by people who are used to constant change and who are not taken by surprise by the announcement or request.
- Build a core competency around handling ambiguity. People who handle change most effectively recognize that change can be scary, perhaps unpleasant, and that it always requires something different from them. Despite this, they continue to rise to the occasion and effectively perform their job responsibilities.
