The Executive Perspective

Dr. Deming, a thought leader, in quality improvement theory and practice once said, “No theory, no learning.”  What does this mean? Don’t we learn through experience?  Isn’t experience itself a teacher?  I say NO!  I do not believe experience teaches; rather only refection on experience teaches.

It is difficult to reflect on experience if you do not have a good working theory to be the mirror providing the reflection. As a system engineer turned CEO, I have studied organizational theory and behavior for over twenty five years. Over this period of time, I learned that every company is a system perfectly designed to produce the result it is producing. If you do not like the results, you have to change the design.  I also learned that the system design did not just happen. It evolved through a conversational process, and everyone in the organization contributed to the process and the current state of the design.  How can I say everyone contributed to the design? Isn’t it clear that the executives and managers are responsible for the organizational design?  Yes, they are part of the system, and may have a heavy hand on the controls, but everyone else is also part of the system, and they do have an influence on the design, usually stronger than they believe.

Look at it this way, organizational excellence is not based on one or two factors.  It is based on several interrelated factors starting with compelling vision and effective leadership.  When I say leadership, I do not just mean leader ship at the top.  I mean leadership throughout the organization.  With a compelling vision as the context for action, the next aspect of leadership is to create a powerful strategy as a means to bring the vision into reality and effective operational structures to execute the strategy.

The underpinning of strategic and operational effectiveness is ultimately the effectiveness of the teams throughout the organization. At the end of the day companies do not innovate or execute, people do.   

When all of this is done with excellence, the result is financial effectiveness and business growth.

Here is a framework to look at many of the key aspects of your organizational system. If major capabilities and/or processes are missing or are ineffective, then your results will suffer until you change the design.