Lose Organizational Obesity to Win the Game

"If our organizations are really artificial persons, these people are incredibly fat."

Today's organizations are obese. I always thought there’s a lot going on in their guts but after a closer look, it turns out there’s too little going on to help shed those extra pounds.

Why do we need food anyway? It gives us maintenance energy, right? And energy helps us do stuff. What good is the food then if it saps our energy in the long run rather than adding to it? Remember, the food is composed of nutrients that if not utilized quickly convert into fats and make us slow and dull; unable to respond to changes in our environment.

In the context of today's organizations, such nutrients abound. It is crucial to keep an eye on the organizations ability to convert nutrients (technology, policies, procedures and best practices) into energy (revenue, cash flow, ROI). Seemingly trivial measures like inventory turnover and accounts receivable ratios tell us how good the organization's metabolism is.

The Case of Alex and Kelly

To put this this in perspective, consider this:

Alex the Project Manager emailed Kelly the Business Manager asking for the approved business case so that he could ask the Project Finance guys to release the funding to the project transit. Kelly was obviously not happy. She thought, "it took me over a month and innumerable emails and phone calls to get the business case approved which I had sent to Alex over a week ago, and here he is today asking for the same thing all over again?"

To be fair to Alex, the procedure demanded that Kelly upload the business case details into two different systems before Alex could assign a project number that he would use to ask another team to make the funding available to kick off the project. That meant Kelly would have to fill out two separate forms and get the required approvals to be processed by two different teams so that she could get access to the systems. That would involve a lot of manual work for Kelly. Even after having a lengthy phone conversation with Alex she could not understand the rationale for doing all that, simply because she had come from a lean organization that only expected employees to do the stuff the company really needed them to do in order to move ahead on its strategic road map as fast as they could.

In other words, Kelly had moved from a lean organization into an obese one. Here, the rationale for the work didn't matter as long as you were making sure your to-do list for the day was all checked and up-to-date. That is true for most organizations today.

The organizations of today are so overwhelmed by all the competition around them that they end up eating whatever junk they can lay their hands on. This points to their anxiety to grow lean muscle that ironically adds up even more fats, only because their metabolism can't keep pace with all that they are ingesting. It's a global epidemic of colossal proportion that needs immediate attention.

From cumbrous procedures and zero-sum policies to archaic risk management practices and unnecessary technologies, they gulp it all in and lose their agility along the way which is an absolute must to win the game in today's fast changing arena. Here's why.

Long Distance Running

Like an athlete at the top of his game, today's organizations need to be incredibly good as marathon runners. To quote from Accenture's Creating an agile organization,

"Think about organizational agility in track-and-field terms. High performance for a sprinter depends on bursts of speed and strength. Long-distance runners, by contrast, require energy over a longer time, enabling them to keep going when others fatigue."

It is not only speed that is important for long-distance running but also endurance to be able to cross the finish line. In many interesting ways, all examples of successful organizations have this attribute in common.

Changing Course

Equally important is an organization's ability to preempt and quickly respond to the constantly changing demands of its clients and the unpredictable dynamics of the market it operates in. It is akin to being a triathlete who has to have the best of everything, long-term endurance, speed and the ability to quickly change course.

"Triathletes must have both attributes—and more: not only the endurance of the long-distance runner and the speed of the sprinter but also the ability to react quickly to the changing demands of running, swimming and cycling."

This dynamism comes from the top leadership and permeates through the organization's cultural fabric. Before getting too excited with the next big fad, the top leadership must ensure that embracing it in the name of best practice would not mean compromising on the organization's ability to tread difficult terrains.

Jumping Over Hurdles

Successful organizations also ought to be good at avoiding unnecessary risks. Through their understanding of the regulatory, operational and market demands of the business, they should be able to preempt imminent risks and more importantly, respond to those risks in a timely manner.

The lesser the time required to understand and respond, the better the chances to avoid the risk. An organization that is infested with cast-in-stone policies sees itself colliding head-on with the hurdle only because it needed more time to satisfy the policy requirements and avoid ending up in a pit. This analogy underlines the need for risk-measured implementation of controls. I've seen organizations going all out to adhere to a control requirement only to find it exposed to the very risk that the control was meant to avoid.

The key for an organization to stay relatively lean irrespective or the age and scale of its business is to reflect on the strategic value of all its inputs such as policies, people, tools and technologies. If a certain policy or technology does not help your organization be strategically more successful but is only meant to help you survive and sustain your presence, don't kill yourself over it. After all, you do need some fats to store energy. But you also need to balance it well with the protein you need to grow lean muscle.

My message to all artificial persons is, simply taking a minute to think about your dietary requirements and your fitness goals the next time you feel the urge to swipe your card at your favorite fast food chain, can help you be one up in the game.

Photo credits: Guian Bolisay

When Getting There Means Letting Go – My 4 Lessons

Photo Credit: Randy Heinitz I was 15 years old. Hiding behind my desk in the classroom, trying hard to ignore my trembling legs and sweaty palms, I was dreading that imminent moment when the teacher would call out my name and I would have to come out of my snug invisibility cloak and be seen for all my limitations. This would be my first impromptu speech to an audience of more than one. Don’t even ask me how it went. As my impulse reaction to the experience I had been through, I decided to remain unknown. Comfortable in my anonymity, I had convinced myself that I had no interest in achieving success in life. I was in denial mode. But there I was years later; reflecting on the experience that had shaken the very core of my self-esteem as a school boy. I looked inwardly to search for what my reason had been. What I discovered was appalling. I was too afraid to let go of something I thought I had. I didn’t want to take the risk of doing the things necessary for making i

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