Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships
Michael Jordan
Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships
Michael Jordan
Many organisations look outwards for solutions to business growth or improvement of their processes, products and services.
There are very high profile and experienced consulting companies out there who have a great wealth of knowledge, smart business tools, and an infinite array of support services. It is quite possible that these high-end consulting companies can be the solution to some or all of your problems. But unfortunately, these solutions can come at great financial cost to the organisation, and in some cases may not always be the best available solution.
The truth is that an organisation normally has a huge ‘untapped’ talent pool who have vast amounts of industry, business and product/service knowledge. The problem is how to you get the necessary alignment of the talent to access the knowledge in a way that is constructive and meaningful for the organisation.
And then what about this knowledge? Knowledge by itself does not have meaning unless there is an objective that directs it towards a tangible outcome providing benefits to society, the organisation, employees, and other stakeholders. Seeking tangible outcomes can also produce many intangible benefits that are not immediately transparent and measurable, but nonetheless invaluable.
To give you a real life example, I was asked to facilitate a cost reduction program that was run over several years for a large manufacturing company. The purpose of the program was to strategically reduce manufacturing input costs and to also increase the value of the product to the customer. Challenging indeed.
The program was given an overall objective which was well communicated. It was supported by a well-designed process, was independently facilitated and included knowledgeable participants who had vested interest in a successful outcome. A ‘stretch’ target was established with the aim of reducing input costs by 10% within an 18 month period.
I am making it sound easy here, which it was not, however, to cut a long story short the ‘tangible’ objective was achieved, and the project continued on for some time to come. My point is that the program had all the necessary ingredients to make it successful, it was very well planned, communicated, and executed, but the main thing that I believe made it successful was harnessing the knowledge and experience of the people who participated in the various workshop activities.
More importantly, and one of the biggest things that was probably overlooked and not discussed was the ‘intangible’ benefits that the program produced. These significant benefits included improved alignment of the business, improved relationships, a deeper understanding and appreciation for each other’s constraints leading to a much more mutual respect, moments of truth telling, and transfer of knowledge just to mention a few.
I believe that improvement is a result not just an activity to be undertaken, however, done well an improvement activity can produce intangible benefits. It is very difficult to measure some of these intangibles and sometimes things just don’t need to be ‘quantified’ but rather the experiences and outcomes can simply be shared and communicated.
If you are considering embarking on any business strategy or strategic improvement program, ensure that the program is well designed, includes real commitment from the senior leadership team, has an overall purpose and objectives that motivate an internal call to action, that the planning has considered all requirements, the program is tested before going mainstream (if possible), vital communications both one-way and two-way are established ahead of time, and that the program is effectively executed under the watchful eye of the organisation’s leadership.
Experienced independent facilitation can also be invaluable to the organisation, it is much less expensive than perhaps some consulting solutions, it can engage the team in the right way leading to tangible outcomes and intangible benefits that add value and can be shared throughout the entire organisation.