There is an increasing number of companies breaking the mold of the industrial age of management. The hierarchy model is slowly disappearing in favor of “flatter” ways of organizing. This allows for quicker agility, increased workplace engagement & better work/life balance to name just a few improvements. Check out Holocracy, LeadWise, SemcoStyle or Gary Hamel for more on this topic. It’s amazing what happens when employees are free to leverage their collective talents & the leaders let go to let others go!
Had the privilege of working with some great folks recently during a professional development session. Our time together focused on simply getting better with managing stuff & leading people. The audience was the leadership team from a military squadron who dedicate 3 hours every week to increase their collective wisdom to serve their colleagues. At first glance, this seems like quite a bit of time to dedicate away from their monumental primary responsibilities. Instead, this scheduled “time-out” serves as a weekly reminder to each that they must continually improve as individuals to make the team better & inspire everyone they lead to do the same.
We began with some basic personality discovery & quickly saw how well they knew each other. The tone set by the boss created positive acceptance space for every team member & reinforced the fact that none of us can be anything but who we are. You can’t outrun your DNA! The key is to stay true to who you are to lead authentically with compassion. He didn’t have to say it, he showed it through his dedication to their development.
The biggest takeaway was what they displayed during a couple exercises. We gave them some “tools” to accomplish a task, explained the rules & gave them a time limit of 15 minutes. They had to “rescue” a critical piece of equipment with what we gave them; string & rubber bands. We made the task more difficult (we thought) by “crippling” some of their key members with blindfolds, broken arms, etc. These individuals could still contribute but others had to overcome these temporary setbacks. Their care for the “injured” members & adaptability would be paramount to team success. As the exercise went on we saw new leaders emerge. For every extrovert speaking their thoughts of how to accomplish the task, we could see the introverts minds blending in different ideas. Together they figured it out in 3 attempts in only 3:30 minutes!
Is this normal? No. Exercises like this are initially difficult with a bit of struggle to coordinate collective efforts toward task accomplishment. Individual egos & agendas get in the way & arguments ensue wasting valuable time. They eventually get it done but it doesn’t “feel” good, it ends in relief instead of elation. Remember, this is just the first part of the simulated grand task. Once they get through it they have to move on & after “fighting” a bit it’s not a good platform to continue. How often have we all felt a little like this where we work?
Their new leaders weren’t the ones with the highest rank, position or title. Instead, they seamlessly merged their efforts to get the job done. You’d expect in such a highly structured military environment there might be some hesitation from lower ranking folks to step forward to “lead” but not in this case. The principles of self-management were allowed to emerge freely! It mattered not they didn’t have a label or way of expressing what had just happened. They re-organized, served the team selflessly with their talents & came out with a “win”!
The work of Ricardo Semler has been well documented & continues to be an inspiration to others who want a little more wisdom at work. The Semco Style Institute believes that…
“Together, we will create organizations that are able to transform themselves continuously and successfully. Organizations that make people look forward to coming to work every day.”
They list these 5 factors as primary for increasing workplace democracy…
- Trust
- Reducing control
- Self-management
- Extreme stakeholder alignment
- Creative innovation
The leadership of this unit has obviously built trust through greater understanding of who’s on the team. The establishment leaders are comfortable enough with who they are they’ve been able to reduce control over other developing leaders below them on the organizational chart. With these first concepts in place, workers feel free to self-organize to re-align for goal achievement. The next step is to unleash creativity toward innovative new practices inside this military squadron. Not an easy task but well worth it!
Here are some additional thoughts on Letting Go!
If only we could experience these principle’s every day instead of getting mired in “survivor” behaviors due to the way our organizations are put together. Leaders can & should remove as many barriers to performance as possible. This team can’t do anything about the way their military unit is structured just how it “feels” to operate in it. They set the bar high in this first session & we’re excited to see them continue to develop!
If this can work in the military it surely can be successful where you work. Your efforts will no doubt make a huge difference in creating a high-performance team!
All the best,
Karl
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