It is Possible to Untangle a Messy Workday. Here's How.

I have a favorite phrase when it comes to describing most people’s day-to-day work experience:?

A tangled ball of chaos.

A @MatchPace colleague coined the term a few years ago, and it continues to perfectly capture what our modern workday feels like:

• Time and attention spent on things that aren’t mission priorities
• Trying to figure out where your job starts and where someone else’s starts?
• Interpersonal tension that gets swept under the rug
• Meetings spaced out just so inconveniently as to not give you any real time to focus

If you’re leading an organization that feels tangled up, with most of your team’s energy going sideways instead of directed toward your mission, you’re not alone.

Fortunately, I’ve spent the last several years figuring out a framework for exactly how to untangle the ball of chaos: the Five Hallmarks of Organizational Effectiveness.

The Five Hallmarks is a tool any organizational leader can use to untangle that ball of chaos and help their team work effectively. And what are these data-backed Five Hallmarks? I’ll tell you!?

• Clear Vision: leadership-defined direction for the company, supported by leadership’s words and actions, to measure other decisions against?
• Defined Accountability: articulated lines of authority and responsibility within the organization and project teams, including what someone is and is not responsible for?
• Honesty and Trust: willingness to be both upfront and vulnerable, committed to direct conversations and truthfulness?
• Healthy Work Experience: the day-to-day experience of employees; enough freedom to encourage creativity and growth and enough boundaries to have direction?
• Structure for Sustained Growth: the existence and maintenance of tools that support the vision; many tools can be automated but will require human use and “tending”?

I recently shared a series of posts with a real-world example of an actual MatchPace client who used the Five Hallmarks to identify areas of opportunity for their organization. (You can find links to each of those posts below.)

The Journey to Organizational Effectiveness begins with an assessment we call the Pace Check. One unique thing about the Pace Check, compared to other workplace assessments, is that it measures staff perception against leader perception. If there’s a large discrepancy in any of the Five Hallmark areas, then there is an opportunity to clarify the vision, make sure roles and responsibilities are clearly understood, build trust, set a sustainable pace, and empower team members to learn and grow.

In the individual posts, you’ll follow one of so many examples of clients who have used the Pace Check to see where the way their team was working was getting tangled up, preventing them from being effective and leading to overwhelm and burnout. It IS possible to untangle that ball of chaos and get your team working on the right priorities, at the right pace, and the Five Hallmarks are a powerful tool on that journey.?

Interested in learning more about the Five Hallmarks, the Pace Check, and how you can use this framework in your own organization to help your team work better? Please send me a message and let’s start the conversation!

Post 1: Intro to the Five Hallmarks

Post 2: Clear Vision

Post 3: Defined Accountability

Post 4: Honesty and Trust

Post 5: Health Work Experience

Post 6: Structure for Sustained Growth