Is There a Substitute for Leadership?

Where Has the Focus Been?

The call for trust, people to be leaders versus bosses, and employees to be more engaged has been getting louder over the past 10 years. Yet, we have been working more on developing and improving programs to drive change in organizations. Instead of realizing what place these programs have in supporting a strategy, they have been expanded beyond their original designs and capabilities. These programs have been used to take the place of a customer focused purpose for being in business. With the thinking that being Lean or re-engineered alone will attract customers. The danger in making an improvement program a strategy is it actually reduces the ability to change. Instead of using approaches like Lean to lead, we need to focus on how we develop leaders and managers to achieve objectives. 

When Lean was first put into practice, the popular approach was to conduct event after event to transform the organization. Kaizen blitzes were all the rage in the ‘90’s. It didn’t take long for most companies to figure out this didn’t work. Instead of understanding why, another improvement program like Six-Sigma or Business Process Re-engineering was adopted.

It Wasn’t Always This Way

Some corporations in the 1960’s went long, focusing on brand management and creating customer desired value by developing robust management systems. Not all companies realized the need for or knew how to use a system approach though. Most companies worked the basics and were subjected to the ups and downs of their industry or the overall economy.

You can look to the iconoclasts like GE and others as the more successful companies in their time that developed robust management systems. We certainly don’t want the rigidity of the corporations of years past, but they did show the power of unified cultures. As early as 1916, GE saw the need for strong financial knowledge within the ranks and developed an in-house school of finance. The GE Financial Management Program (FMP) to this day is recognized by other employers as a bona fide finance program. The ability to learn, develop and practice new skills and abilities became part of the culture within GE, this gave Jack Welch the ability to focus the entire company on Six-Sigma.

Understanding the Benefits Without Including the Whole Picture

When executives were lured away from GE to use the same Six-Sigma approach in other companies, very few made the desired impact. They implemented a program without the support of a management system. We have learned since then what makes a company successful is born from its own unique culture. We can learn best practices from other companies but without understanding the differences in cultures, the risk of failure is high.   Cultures can endure through time and changes in people but only if ideas are introduced with their uniqueness in mind and based on an established management system.

We have gotten away from robust management systems based on solid organizational development in pursuit of off the shelf approaches. This has led to the abundance of ever-expanding programs like BPR, Lean, Six Sigma, TOC, etc. I am not discounting these programs in their ability to be effective. In fact, it’s hard to imagine a company thriving without using one of them. It’s how and where they are used that needs to be revisited.

It’s Not All for Nothing

Efforts to realize the full potential of improvement programs has not been futile. In fact, I believe in some ways it’s been necessary.  To get the most out of something, we need to practice or try it out before we can discover the best way to use it. 

People have always resisted change, not always because of the discomfort but sometimes because of the way it conflicts with the culture. Somehow, we have dismissed everyone’s resistance as a natural behavior to deal with, not giving enough attention to those who know differently. It takes engaged leadership to know the difference. 

We now have a better understanding of when, where and how to manage change.   A best practice to realize a strategy, is to reengage teams, clearly define the purpose for being in business, and develop a vision free of a specific program. 

There is no substitute for leadership.

To learn how to better manage change, visit us at Driscoll Organizational Solutions