Monday motivation | The social software of execution and robust dialogue

Like a computer, a corporation has both hardware and software. We call the software of the corporation “social software” because any organization of two or more human beings is a social system.

The hardware includes such things as organizational structure, design of rewards, compensation, and sanctions, design of financial reports and their flow. Communication systems are part of the hardware. So is a hierarchical distribution of power, where such things as an assignment of tasks and budget-level approvals are visible, hardwired, and formal. The social software includes the values, beliefs, and norms of behavior, along with everything else that isn’t hardware. Like the computer’s software, it’s what brings the corporate hardware to life as a functioning system.

Structure divides an organization into units designed to perform certain jobs. The design the structurally important, but it is the software that integrates the organization into a unified, synchronized whole. Hardware and software in combination create the social relationships, the norms of behavior, the power relationships, flows of information and flows of decisions.

Eg. Basic reward systems are hardware because they are quantitative. You make your numbers, the system rewards you according to a formula, and congratulations, here is the check. But if you want to reward other behaviors – your record with six sigma or in improving the diversity of your leadership team or your collaboration with peers – software enters the picture, because it defines the norms of behavior being rewarded. Leaders who create disproportionate awards for high performers and high potential people are creating social software that drives behaviors: people work harder at differentiating themselves.

The importance of robust dialogue

You cannot have an execution culture without robust dialogue – one that brings reality to the surface through openness, candor (frank, truthful) , and informality. Robust dialogue makes an organization effective in gathering information, understanding the information, and reshaping it to produce decisions. It fosters creativity- most innovations and inventions are incubated through robust dialogue. Ultimately, it creates a more competitive advantage and shareholder value.

Robust dialogue starts when people go in with open minds. They are not trapped by preconceptions or armed with a private agenda. They want to hear new information and choose the best alternatives, so they listen to all sides of the debate and make their contributions.

When people speak candidly, they express their real opinions, not those that will please the power players or maintain harmony. Indeed, harmony – sought by many leaders who wish to offend no one – can be the enemy of truth. It can squelch critical thinking and drive decision-making underground. When harmony prevails, here’s how things often get settled: after the key players leave the session, they quietly veto decisions they didn’t like but didn’t debate on the spot. A good motto to serve is “Truth over harmony.” Candor helps wipe out the silent lies and pocket vetoes, and it prevents the stalled initiatives and reworks that drain energy.

Informality is critical to candor. It was one of Jack Welch’s bywords. Formality suppresses dialogue; informality encourages it. Formal conversations and presentations leave little room for debate. They suggest that everything is scripted and predetermined. Informal dialogue is open. It invites questions, encouraging spontaneity and critical thinking. At a meeting in a formal, hierarchical setting, a powerful player can get away with killing a good idea. But informality encourages people to test their thinking, experiment, and to cross-check. It enables them to take risks among colleagues, bosses, and subordinates. Informality gets the truth out. It surfaces out-of-the-box ideas – the ideas that may seem absurd at first hearing but that create breakthroughs.

Finally, the robust dialogue ends with closure. At the end of the meeting, people agree about what each person has to do and when. They have committed to it in an open forum: they are accountable for the outcomes.

Excerpt |“Execution – The Discipline of getting things done” by Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan.