The Dangers of Traditional Thinking
Coming from a small business background where achieving results are imperative for personal survival, I’m constantly stunned of the stupidity of what goes on in larger organisations.
Consider the following story of Sandy, the newly appointed HR Director of manufacturing company — Trouble Inc.
It was 9am Monday and all the department heads were gathered around the boardroom table to deliver their updates to the CEO.
“We’ve shut down all social media access,” began the Director of IT.
“Excellent,” remarked the CEO. “Now our people won’t waste any time on Facebook, LinkedIN or that YouTube thing. Who’s next?”
“We’ve just adjusted our quarterly financials to cut back funding on research and development projects as requested,” said the Director of Finance.
“Great work,” remarked the CEO. “The last thing we need is to be wasting precious dollars on crazy ideas that might not work.”
The Director of Sales and Marketing went next. “We’ve created a brand new, highly creative, telemarketing campaign to reach our younger demographic.”
“Yes!” exclaimed the CEO. “That’s exactly what I’m talking about. Young people are always on their phones and we have to capitalise on it. Excellent work!”
Next up was the Director of Operations. “You’ll be pleased to note that we’ve found a cheaper component supplier for our new X Series machines. The quality isn’t as good as the old supplier but this one visits us more often to rectify issues at no extra charge so we’re ahead!”
“Outstanding!” remarked the CEO.
It was Sandy’s turn next. She took a deep breath and began her update.
“As requested, I have prepared the list of candidates for redundancy to however, I have another idea for you.”
The department heads spun around and stared at Sandy as though she had just sworn at church.
Avoiding eye contact with them, she continued.
“I have another list of candidates here that have been identified as prime subjects for that Corporate Entrepreneurship program I mentioned to you before. I strongly believe that by inspiring, empowering and supporting these candidates with the right knowledge, skills and tools, the organisation would be able to transform itself to overcome current challenges and achieve our strategic vision.”
The roar of laughter from the table was deafening.
“An Entrepreneurship program in a corporate environment? Ridiculous!” exclaimed the Director of Finance.
“I’ve been here longer than you and our people don’t like change. Why would you want to cause them trouble?” said the Director of Operations.
“I s’pose you’ll be expecting these ‘Entrepreneurs’ to have full unrestricted internet access???” questioned the Director of IT in between laughs.
“I want what you’re smoking Sandy!” demanded the Director of Sales and Marketing.
“Okay come on guys,” began the CEO, trying desperately to regain his composure. “Sandy I know you were hired to bring in some new ideas with regards to managing human capital but unfortunately this one isn’t going to fly. If we create Entrepreneurs within our company, they will leave and start their own businesses and compete with us. And that’s definitely not going to happen. Please begin processing your first list immediately. Meeting adjourned.”
The next day Sandy turned in her resignation. Six months later the CEO rebranded the company to become Big Trouble Inc. and 18 months later they closed doors permanently and went into receivership.
The Unspoken Problem
Sandy’s experience above highlights one of the huge challenges that many organisations face today: navigating new world complexities using old school thinking.
While the directors’ statements sound completely ridiculous, they are actually all real world examples from conversations I’ve been a part of. It’s scary to think just how many corporate leaders are closed off to new ways of thinking especially since the cost of operating in such a way is market irrelevance.
This is why startups often steal marketshare from traditional organisations.
Startups are formed through more creative thinking and supported by innovative culture models and as a result they are able to disrupt traditional business. You cannot apply the same thinking that got you to where you are today, to where you want to be tomorrow, especially when the rules of business have changed.
So if you are a decision maker in an organisation experiencing difficulties with the way you have been doing business traditionally, here are the three most important things you have to do immediately to survive and thrive.
1. Stop Stifling Creativity
Many organisations restrict access to Social Media sites citing two common reasons.
The first one is that people will be always chatting with their friends or watching videos and no work will get done. That excuse is completely redundant as many people use email and or the phone to communicate with others and there are no restrictions on those mediums?
A loss of productivity can be measured and managed without imposing technology restrictions. Consider the advantage of your people being able to self research to fill a gap in knowledge that prevents them from achieving an outcome. Or perhaps they could be moved into new thinking by an inspiring video. How powerful would that be?
The second reason relates to restricting LinkedIN. This is done because of the belief “Our people will go find jobs elsewhere.” Again utter garbage if you think that limiting a social networking site will lead to your people suddenly finding career contentment and job satisfaction within your organisation. If anything it will make them want to leave even more. LinkedIN is a great tool for research and building connections when used properly.
Don’t diminish the responsibility of your managers to get the most out of their people by relying on technology to do it for them.
2. Audit the Rules
One of the reasons why a startup is able to capitalise on new market opportunities is their ability to move quickly. With less people, policies and procedures there is a greater focus on achieving an objective rather than being compliant. Don’t get me wrong, rules are important but if they get in the way of achieving objectives then you have to question their validity.
It’s a bit like that old story of the pot roast dinner where the mother always cut the ends off the roast before cooking it because that was how her mother taught her, and her grandmother taught her and so on and so forth for generations. Finally after looking for a reason why this came to be, it was discovered that her great grandmother’s roasting pot wasn’t big enough to fit the whole roast on it unless you cut the ends off first.
Playing by the same old rules is dangerous when the game has changed.
3. Create a Corporate Entrepreneurship Program
Each year corporations spend hundreds of millions of dollars on consultants trying to find out innovative new ways of doing things yet most of these companies overlook the easiest accessible source of innovation: existing employees.
As Sandy said if you inspire your people to think differently, empower them to make better decisions and support them with the tools they need, then you will start to transform your organisation into a more agile one, capable of capitalising on new opportunities.
Creating a Corporate Entrepreneurship Program within your organisation is a great way to get the ball rolling. Host an information session to attract the right employees and then get them to work on specific challenges that the organisation is facing at the moment. Provide them with the tools they need to awaken their Entrepreneurial Mind and watch how problems get resolved.
If you are a part of a less progressive organisation, then form your group by invite only as a pilot project on the side. Protect and nurture the group until it’s ready to stand up to corporate scrutiny and then report back to management on what has been achieved.
Remember the goal with Entrepreneurship for Organisations is not to create more Entrepreneurs, but to create more Entrepreneurial thinkers. And in this highly competitive environment, can you afford not to?
AJ Kulatunga helps organisations awaken their Entrepreneurial Mind to conquer strategic challenges. He writes and speaks about the intersection of people, technology and business through the eyes of an Entrepreneur. Connect with AJ via http://ajkulatunga.com