Cultivating Organizational Culture for Complexity
Organizational culture isn’t a problem to be solved; it’s an emergent phenomenon we must cultivate. To the legacy leader, everything still looks like a factory. And all our problems can be fixed if we work long enough hard. But our bureaucracies are no match for complexity. They can’t handle the surprises we face every day, and worse, they’ll never surprise us with an unexpected breakthrough. This brings us to one of the most important things leaders and teams need to internalize: our way of working is made up. This isn’t how it has to be or even how it always was.
A complicated system is a causal system subject to cause and effect. Problems with complicated systems have solutions. Complex systems comprise many interacting components. That exhibit adaptive or emergent behavior without requiring a leader or central control. As a result, complex systems are more about the relationships and interactions among their components.
The natural barrier to progress in the twenty-first century is us. The man who grasps principles can select his methods. Stop trying to borrow wisdom and think for yourself. Suffering and difficulties provide opportunities to become better. Success is never giving up. We are addicted to the idea that the world can be predicted and controlled — that our stoplights are the only way to keep things in check. But when you view the world that way, today’s uncertainty and volatility trigger retreating to what has worked in the past. We need to hire more capable leaders. We need to squeeze out a little more efficiency and growth. We need to reorganize.
Organizational debt is any structure or policy that no longer serves an organization. Within that definition, we see it manifest in many different ways at many other times. Many firms try to use OKRs as a form of top-down control, ensuring that each subordinate’s OKRs fit with the OKRs of their superior. While this feels like alignment, it eliminates any chance of divergence or serendipity. Once people set their OKRs, they will do everything they can to hit them, including things that aren’t good for the business.
A healthy system will not cascade in a perfect hierarchy of intent. Every ninety days or so, gather your team and try to generate a few strategy statements of your own (or review and update the ones you have). Think about what you need to focus on to succeed. What has been implicit that you can make explicit? What necessary trade-offs don’t come?
Scenario planning should happen at every level: the organization, the team, and the individual. Your purpose is clear. Your essential intent is well-defined and tuned. Using these beacons, people are “voting with their feet” and energizing the projects that matter most.
One process that stands in the way of reinventing our way of working is the annual planning process. Let teams take ownership of their local expression of strategy and operations. Gather any colleagues and ask them to design the competitor that would bury you. You’ll be amazed at how they jump to the task. Their enthusiasm is proportional to the amount of org debt you’re carrying. We face an array of systemic challenges — in our economy, government, and environment — stemming from our inability to change. People can be trusted and will trust one another to use judgment and do the right thing.
[¹]: Brave New Work: Are You Ready to Reinvent Your Organization?
