You know how we keep bringing up communication?
Marcel Schwantes‘ article in Inc. Magazine really drives that point home.
The article cites examples from Elon Musk and Hubert Joly – and the benefit they wanted, and saw, from introducing autonomy to hierarchical organizations, highlighting how detrimental hierarchies can be to the modern organization. Our CEO & Founder made a similar point when he was interviewed by Kelly Wilson at Edge.
In the modern company, especially for knowledge & information workers, hierarchies are a barrier to – well a lot more than not. We’ve seen first hand how hierarchies impede innovation, the entrepreneurial spirit, uncovering risk and impede the execution of complex tasks that are the fiber of every modern company. They are an anchor.
The antidote? Autonomy! It does require real, intentional work to execute & we absolutely understand how hard & challenging that can be. Culture has to change, leadership and contributors need to learn new skills, the organization has to become accustomed to a new way of operating. But the benefits far outweigh the cost of such an exercise.
Autonomy is a force multiplier to any organization. It accelerates that critical time to value. Even more importantly it fosters the creation of tight horizontal bonds that are elastic & resilient. When the next inevitable crisis hits, the fires don’t stand a chance as people will organically come together and self organize to make sure of it.
If you’re going to change one thing this year – do this first. Contact us – we’ll help you start!
The Great Reset (not The Great Resignation)
