Value Deployment: Developing, Engaging and Aligning Your People

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Today’s leaders know that the key to success is creating and aligning resources to satisfy customers at the highest level at the lowest possible cost. Some believe the latest organizational tool or leadership fad is the silver bullet to achieve this end. Unfortunately, these quick-fix tools and fads often result in short-term gains, and ultimately fall flat and even diminish after the leaders have moved onto the next tool. Sustainability and engagement of all employees in the continuous improvement of the business is a widespread challenge that business leaders face.

Leadership principles, philosophies, and tools are vital in developing high-performing continuous improvement organizations. However, principles and tools don’t produce or sustain improvement. The key to sustainable results is your people and their everyday choices and behaviors, specifically how they apply business principles and tools to everyday business needs. These every day behaviors and choices define your business culture. It is critical to recognize this relationship between everyday choices or culture and your organizational results. Each employee will make hundreds of choices each day. They come to work and decide what they’ll do and how they’ll behave. They choose how they will react in every moment. The business relies on these choices and the sum of these choices ultimately equals operational results. Creating an environment where every individual within the business is empowered, enabled and aligned to make good decisions everyday is our objective as leaders.

∑ Choices = Results

If businesses win or lose by their people’s choices, how does an organization ensure or drive better choices? The typical approach is to limit decision-making to a trusted group. Businesses spend endless effort recruiting and retaining the “smartest” people. Organizations need these people because they are the decision makers, the ones entrusted with the business. Organizations create levels of bureaucracy and systems for approval to protect against bad decision-making.

These are typical management approaches; but, unfortunately, cannot drive the sum of all your employee’s decisions. Although these approaches attempt to control/limit risk, employees still must make choices relative to the ever-changing circumstance they encounter everyday. Control-based management methodologies are a thin veil of false comfort that gives management the illusion that they are making better decisions across the organization.

Watch Eric's presentation session, 'Strategy Deployment: Managing, Fostering & Creating Value throughout the Organisation'

The primary purpose of a leader is not to control or dictate but rather to focus on how he or she can enable others to make great choices. Leaders do this by creating a circumstance where people are capable to see and solve problems relative to the things that matter most. Leaders create this circumstance through establishing these 3 foundational elements.

Establish a Shared Purpose – Leaders must ensure that all employees know, understand and believe in the purpose or endgame of the organization. Imagine how an employee might act each day when they believe in the cause of the organization versus show up for a paycheck. Imagine if each believed that every business problem they solved was moving their own personal vision forward. Leaders must connect the business purpose to personal purpose. Leaders must help each employee emotionally connect to the creation and improvement of customer value. Each employee must know their connection to value creation. Leaders must help each see the performance of those connections and the critical gaps to be closed. This knowledge inspires and enables each employee to see and choose work that solves critical business gaps everyday.

Declare or Create Your Improvement Way – What is your organizational way to improve? What is your improvement method? Every employee has brought with them their way, which was fostered by past jobs or upbringing. These ways can range vastly from do what ever it takes to methodical collaborative methods. Each employee has their way and the lack of a declared method and guiding principles will create contention, variation and ultimately disengagement. Leaders must declare the way.

Teach and Promote Scientific Thinking – People must have skill to make good business choices. There is a range of skills required for a business to run including processing knowledge to financial and accounting expertise. Every employee must posses some skill to contribute to the business. However, all employees must posses the skill of scientific thinking. All employees must be able to see a problem, frame the problem, form a hypothesis, test and draw conclusions. Scientific thinking must be the root of your improvement way. Teach all employees to be scientists.

By focusing on these foundational elements, leaders create a circumstance where each employee can make good choices everyday. The collection of these good choices, over time, increases a business ability to drive sustainable results. Organizations reach full potential when employees make good choices every day.