A former colleague of mine dubbed it “The good ideas club” and I liked it so much it has stuck with me ever since. You know the club, where every man woman and child in your organisation has a theory on what is wrong with your process, system or people, and how to fix it. We’ve all been members of the club at one point or another, still, others are lucky enough to be season ticket holders, and an alarming number have life memberships.
Let’s not even talk about the hall of famers.
This club is masterful at filling time in important meetings with “solutions”. The problem with the good ideas club and its ever-growing membership is that unless you can quantify the problem you are trying to solve, and identify the actual cause of the problem, you will be forever chained to the wheel of membership meetings, votes and endless, energy-sapping propaganda.
The foundation of the club normally occurs when companies either don’t listen to their people or stop listening altogether to everyone, customers included. However, it can also occur when companies try to do the right thing by empowering their people to identify issues and raise them accordingly.
On the surface, this appears to be a logical thing to do. However, without meaningful metrics and diagnosis, real problems can go on undetected, priorities can be overlooked for changes that are emotional or political, and implementation and benefits realisation can be tricky to non-existent.
How do we break up this club and empower old members to create meaningful change in the business?
There are many ways, and companies need to be as mindful of the cultural journey as the path to building capability. You can not leap from one peak to the next, without first descending, and respecting the landscape of the new climb ahead.
To do this well you need a combination of factors that fits with your culture, including strong measurement tools, creative thinking, a willingness to change, diagnostic knowledge and a distinctive leadership capability. Keep an eye on your membership card, this is one club where you want your membership to expire.
About the Author
Stuart Nielsen
Stu has been transforming financial services business for over 2 decades with his unique style of people leadership and problem-solving acumen. Never afraid to tackle the complex problems in any facet of an organisation, Stu will bring a sense of reality to any problem and leverage the combined energy of your people to create a high performing business.
Capable of working at the strategic end right through to delivery and knowledge transfer, Stu's strength in communication is an asset to any organisation trying to make sense of its self and drive change towards a common purpose.
"Data is great, feedback is awesome, however nothing is real until it is observed"
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