It's time to change how we build and run organizations. Digital economies have changed everything ... but companies are build and run like in the good old days of the industrial production lines: hierarchies, top down command & control, carrot and stick.

Now, we face The Great Resignation (BBC).

And, it's not even sparing Germany with it's notoriously loyal, hard working workforce: Research by Gallup suggests that The Great Resignation, is real in Germany too. 

Some taster?

Let's assume there are some special effects (we had a pandemic after all). Still, that's a lot of disengaged humans. Conversely, 95% of engaged employees see themselves doing their current job in 1 year from now, shows this research. Thus, being engaged makes a huge difference.

What we should be doing differently seems straight forward then: Get/keep employees engaged! What's required to this end? A different company culture. Gallup again:
"Those cultures tend to be values-oriented, agile, and run by leaders and well-developed managers who can centralize their purpose, leverage employee strengths and care about their people as people (not means for production)."

However, most managers have no clue how, because they only every experienced one organisational model: namely 'command & control' (aka hierarchies & career ladders, 'carrot & stick').

In this model, a side effect/symptom is The Peter Principle (i.e. everybody gets promoted to their level of incompetence). It's still well and alive! As research in this episode of Freakonomics Radio shows ("Why are there so many bad bosses").

Meanwhile in startup land (my perspective):
"Engine" has become a very popular term to describe the desired end-state of an organisation (or function therein): A central piece that is humming like a F1 engine*, works precise like a clockwork producing the same output over and over without hick-ups, free from emotions and not distracted from any threats/opportunities around it. Tune it, fuel it, rev it up or down ... as seem fit.
(* No, not electric. There would be 2-4 electric motors in a modern electric car. Can't fit that in a centralised/pyramid org chart. 😉)

This so called "Engine", in my experience so far, more often than not is like a dressed-up "Kindergarden". It just isn't ever going to fulfil F1-grade expectations. Sooner than later someone will throw a tantrum and call the parents (aka the boss) or the teachers (aka HR) making entitled demands about this or that, bully others, or mindlessly execute what they were told from the top...

I get the "engine" picture for a production line, or software code with zero human interaction. But in a knowledge/service economy, it seems … odd and surreal.

Instead, why we don't refer to an "organism/body"? Like an athlete that trains for a race, goes through ups and downs. Makes ad-hoc adjustments during training and during the race as needed (e.g. due to changing terrain, weather, better/worse health, new equipment, contestants' strategy …). The entire body adjusts instantly and only one thing matters: Outcomes (results) … as opposed to output. 

You don't cut your hands just because it was your plan a year ago to put your hand on the particular spot where there's now some broken glass... You trust your hands to instantly make the right call and not check back in with the brain for a risk assessment...

Wouldn't that be a more fitting metaphor for an environment where humans work together, serve each other? Those in the frontlines should know best what is a good call...not a person distant from reality on the ground.



So, what then, you wonder? I don't know for sure!
Many ways lead to Rome. So let's figure it out.

👋

M·M

PS: Two things amaze me:
As a former citizen of a Socialist country, it seems absurdly familiar to dictate top-down a 3-5 year plan for a firm operating in a dynamic market. Sure there are adjustments along the way. But the time & money invested in predicting the future is just madness and a waste.
As an MBA alumni, I'm disappointed (now) that we only ever learned about one organisational model: command & control with a socialist planning method. As if all else out there failed. Forbes noticed this too back in 2016.