In their article How Process Enterprises Really Work Michael Hammer and Steven Stanton state that it is

‘..impossible to superimpose an integrated process on a fragmented organization’.

This theme is also touched upon by Jeff Sutherland in his talk ‘Scrum and Not-Scrum‘. Jeff Sutherland is an expert on agile software development.

For a process enterprise to function, power needs to be distributed in another way than in a vertically defined organization. Knowledge of the processes in the organization is a very important part of changing to a process enterprise. But a proper distribution of power is what enables people to act according to their understanding of process interdependencies. Michael Hammer and Steven Stanton wrote an article for Harvard Business Review titled “How process enterprises really work”

Egomanagement. Though I never heard of it in this particular way until I read about it on Leading Blog, it is something that I’m not altogether unfamiliar with. I think it to be crucial to a balanced life. I’ve been told to be too outspoken, too explainative (wordpress spelling check tells me this is not a word, but I’m sure you can get the hang of it), not aware enough of who I’m talking to. And no, I was not 100% able to receive these comments gracefully.

Wanneer we het hebben over procesgericht organiseren, bedoelen we niet het organiseren rondom deelprocessen, zoals bijvoorbeeld het salesproces. In functioneel ingerichte organisaties worden processen vaak per functionele afdeling gedefinieerd. We bedoelen primaire processen, van klant tot klant. Wanneer processen op een dergelijk brede wijze worden gedefinieerd, is te zien dat zij in een traditionele organisatie vaak over verschillende afdelingen zijn uitgespreid en dit werkt afstemmingsproblemen in de hand. Hoe meer afstemming er gedurende het proces nodig is, hoe belangrijker het is dat dit op natuurlijke iteratieve wijze mogelijk is.

Via the American Management Association I joined the webcast Leadership with a twist. It was a presentation by Kenny Moore.

Now I found this webcast to be worthwhile not only because of the enlightening content, but also for the dynamic way in which Kenny Moore tells his story. It is very interactive and he has a marvelous gentle and refined sense of humor.

Some excerpts that I really liked:

Answering the question: How do you deal with employees who are negative no matter what the company does or what message they deliver?

Kenny first tells us that he loves those people, as they represent a part of him. Next he says, let’s take a look at a way of looking at this. He puts on a model, based on the work of Claes Janssen, the 4-room apartment.

This model says that everyone is always in one of the four rooms of the apartment: contentment, denial, confusion, renewal. How do people behave when they are in one of these four rooms? People in ‘contentment’ are happy, life’s good. People in ‘denial’ are angry, sarcastic. In ‘confusion’ people are frustrated, anxious. In ‘renewal’ people are engaged, entrepreneurial, energetic.

In this four-room apartment, there are doors, but the doors only go one way.

The article The 7 Deadly Sins of Performance Measurement (and How to Avoid Them) appeared in Sloan Management Review in spring 2007.

It is a highly recognizable tale of the way performance measurement cripples performance in many of our organizations. The nice thing is that the article doesn’t stop at that. It also tells us about the importance of measurement and of how we can measure the things we need to know.

A quote:

‘There are two related keys to ensuring that a performance measurement system is focused on the right things.

The first is to emphazise end-to-end business processes, the cross-organizational sequences of activities that create all customer value. Processes transcend functions and other organizational units and are the mechanisms by which the myriad activities performed in an enterprise are integrated to realize results. Typically an enterprise of any size has five to 10 primary business processes, each of which may be decomposed into a similar number of subprocesses. By focusing its measurement system on processes rather than functions, an enterprise helps create alignment and a common focus across disparate units; instead of each seeking to optimize its own unique metric, departments are encouraged to work together to improve the performance of the process(es) of which they are part. …

The second key to ensuring that the right metrics are selected is to determine the drivers of enterprise results in terms of these processes. … to determine what factors were most critical to the company’s success and to identify metrics that captured them.’

The full article can be downloaded on the website of Hammer and Company.

 

When asked: “How do you change, when you see things are not right?” Wessel Ganzevoort answers:

You begin with looking at what’s really there. Often we are accustomed to look at what’s not OK. And we will design the opposite of what we really are. … The starting point for development is to start with what your good at, and to acknowledge what doesn’t work. Also in this matter there no basic difference between people and organizations. If you are very insecure, the first question I would pose is: ‘OK, what’s wrong with that? Let’s just let this insecurity be.’ Acceptation is the most receptive ground for change.

These are quotes from an article by Johan Schaberg:

‘When ambition is the motivating factor, the leader is not a true leader, but a commander. This kind of leader gives orders, doles out punishment, offers rewards, and manipulates everyone because the leader’s aim is to fill a hole within by taking from others.

The true leader doesn’t set out to lead at all. Whether other people follow is, to him or her personally, of secondary importance. These kind of leaders don’t lead, they follow—a dream, an ideal, freedom for their country, a good life for their family. And they’re very clear about it, which touches the people around them who then want to share in the dream. True, authentic leaders know they are connected to something bigger. Their wish is to serve that.’

and

‘It may not be your aim to save the world’s climate, but to be a support to your young dyslexic neighbor. More to the point, anyone who is always preoccupied with the climate and doesn’t see his neighbor may well be primarily occupied with his ego. Because as lofty as your goal appears, it will take shape right beside you, down at your level. ‘

I especially like this because I think that leadership does not show in big events or big responsiblities, but it (or the lack of it) shows in every aspect of your life. We all have the huge responsibility to live a life that’s true to our heart. It is tricky as there are no rules. It is so easy to lie to oneself.

Information is too complex to be transported to the enterprises cockpit to be processed there. Cooperation is more important than ever. To be able to be fully cooperative, people must feel secure. Therefore trust is the most important asset.

Providing trust is in fact the only issue left for management to manage. It spreads top-down. It cannot be projected upwards in the hierachy. And the hierarchy is a fact, though often denied nowadays. If it does not exist explicitly, it is causing its effect implicitly. It is inevitable.

It is only by really empowering others, by acknowledging that their input is indispensible in the process, that the organization can act to its full potential.
This empowerment does need to go beyond the patronizing layer it is usually restricted to.
In order to do this, management should make this most precious move: it must trust itself. Meaning: there should be no identification with status.

I always felt reluctant to come up with brilliant ideas, as this could perhaps be punished by having to accept a financial (NOT very substantial) reward in front of the whole company in a so called ‘canteen meeting’.

Strolling the net I came across this interview with Alfie Kohn, regarding his book ‘punished by rewards’. I like it especially as he also describes what would be nessecary to inspire learning; the ‘three C’s’. (Bit of a turn off there, seven S’s, five A’s, six sigma, seven habits,… – all those numbers make me lose my concentration. My mind always wants to escape as soon as numbers show face) But… these three C’s are not that bad: content, community, choice.