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How do you build Collaborative Leadership in organizations? (Continued)
Commitments
“Organizations exist solely for the coordinated exchange and fulfillment of specific promises made and kept by individuals.”
When you look at organizations as a structured exchange of commitments, you see what goes on in organizations very differently. Behind the organizational chart, the objectives, positions, job descriptions and reporting structures, you see the complex web of interrelated commitments that actually generate every single action (and resultant outcome) that takes place there.
Nothing an organization accomplishes is achieved without specific commitments made and fulfilled by someone for somebody else. When an individual, team or entire organization is not performing well, the place to look is at the specific constellation of commitments that are producing the problem.
With an understanding of the nature of commitments, one can quickly identify those that are missing, misaligned, or poorly managed. It may be that particular commitments were never clearly articulated. Or it could be that an individual, team or entire department is not well-versed in managing commitment effectively. Often, we find that one person or team is sure that an important commitment was made by another—but the other individual or team had no such understanding.
The net result of all of this is distrust. And distrust usually leads to evasive and indirect conversations, reluctance to make further commitments, and subtle (or not so subtle) distancing from the problem. What you get is a vicious circle of distrust, weak commitments, disengagement by those who really need to be working together. High performance collaboration becomes impossible.
By seeing organizations as webs of commitments, identifying and resolving costly performance problems becomes very straightforward. It’s not about personalities, hidden motivations or deep-seated psychological problems. It’s about clear, properly designed and coherent promises being made and managed well. Managing promises is a competence that every executive, manager and employee needs to have.
Conversations
“Every time we open our mouths, we are committing ourselves.”
We do many things in organizations. We envision how the organization, the community or the world could be in the future. We establish goals, formulate strategies and develop plans to achieve those goals. We research, analyze, measure, hypothesize and project. We hire people, train them, and sometimes fire them. We borrow money, advertise, sell, manufacture products, deliver services, and make agreements. We sometimes achieve extraordinary feats in our organizations, other times we just keep the wheels rolling.
But how do people in organizations really do what they do? And what really makes the difference between high performing companies and all the others?
From our perspective, the answers lie in something so fundamental to everyday life in organizations (as well as in life) that it often goes unnoticed. It is almost invisible. At the same time, it is central to the performance of every executive, manager and employee: We are engaging with language.
Engaging with language. Having conversations. Conjuring up images, comparing opinions, debating pros and cons; charting a course of action, making and eliciting commitments. All with words. All in conversation, either with others—or with ourselves. In fact, there is very little that takes place in organizations that does not take place in conversation.
It sounds too simple, too mundane. We all know how to have conversations. Many managers have taken workshops or courses on effective communication or interpersonal skills. Even five year-olds know how to have conversations. Well, yes they do—but not the kinds of conversations that produce exceptional organizational results.
The results executives produce in their organizations directly relate to how effectively they are designing and managing their conversations. High performing individuals, teams and organizations have high quality conversations.
Conversation is the medium through which effective contexts and aligned, coherent commitments are created. Conversation is the glue that binds the organization together, from long-term vision to the front line products and services.
By looking at the basic building blocks of conversations we can see what contexts are not conducive to results. We can see where the commitments (and action) are missing or non-aligned. We can identify gaps where entire conversations may be missing, or just ineffective. And in the process, we show our clients how to become effective observers and designers of the conversations throughout their organizations.
Grayson James Consultants assists executives and their teams to redesign their conversations, create powerful new contexts, and align their organization’s commitments for high performance, collaborative results.
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