Which organizations fail and why? 1.2

The third Process of Seduction in the famous book ‘The Art of Seduction’ by the Author Robert Greene dictates the art of sending mixed signals. An excerpt from his book goes like this “An elusive, enigmatic aura will make people want to know more, drawing them into your circle. Create such a power by hinting at something contradictory within you”. While his method absolutely works wonder and can not be questioned when it comes to casting a powerful seduction, the same can turn into a bloodthirsty sword if an organization gives “mixed signals” or “signal which it does not live up to” about its vision and mission to any of the stakeholder.

As an organization, the energies, the values, the belief systems from the top management should flow in word and action to every level of the organization. From from the CEO to the doorkeeper should “do and say” exactly the same thing. The energies should be the same, the intention should be the same and all should be aware of the ends they are working to and their roles towards its achievement.

Now, as it seems it is tough to get things that way and that be the primary reason why most of the organizations give up on this idea and instead go on saying it’s impudent and impracticable. It is tough to create a culture like this, harder than arranging finance, harder than procuring a sale order, harder than capturing a market share, even harder than acquiring a running business because it is immeasurable in terms of money, time, efforts of any other observable parameters. This can be seen in the phenomenal success of Apple in how the customer resort to the same Apple stock ringtone, in Harley Davidson’s customer having a tattoo and T-shirts with the logo of the company on themselves, in how Nirma or Surf became a generic name for detergent products. It is when the values and the belief system of the organization flow in harmony across the organization that these values start to flow into the society and the customers.

Having said that it is not an easy task neither a one day activity where you can call an annual day celebration of employees and bore them with a lecture of little interest and that it means what it means to the success of an organization it is always the responsibility of the top management to ensure three key factors for achieving this.

1.     Identifying their Means.

2.     Hiring people with similar Means.

3.     Ensuring the flow of Means.

Identifying Means:

The “means” is the reason for the existence of the organization, this can be seen as something the organization would be willing to do irrespective of the cash flows, something that has nothing to with the dues to the creditors and stakeholders, something that can flow beyond time and something that can be perceived more extensively than outflows by the stakeholders. It is something Tata Teleservices Ltd could display when it paid back 144.9 billion yen ($1.27 billion) to NTT Docomo Inc. in 2017, something Steve Jobs displayed when he tossed the iPod into the aquarium telling his employee to optimize until there is no “air” left in the device, something Spartacus and his allies exhibited in the quest of freedom from the Roman slavery, something Sir Ranulph ‘Ran’ Fiennes while preparing for his iconic landed expedition around the globe across its axes spent 7 years preparing for it. Without any means of making money, he was forced to work on the weekends at pubs to make a living. Every organization should know their “means”, the reason they exist and if you find your “means” to make money or your “means” is as vague as “becoming the best in the industry” or “becoming the biggest firm” then you need to rethink upon your “means”.

Hiring people with similar Means.

Once the “means” are identified, the next step is to connect. Connect with people with similar “means” as of yours. No two individuals can have identical “means” but they should be harmonious with each other and complementary to each other. How to identify people who have similar “means”? Something that PWC did when they started hiring people based not on their merits but their abilities, they exactly knew what they were looking for. It all starts with how the organization approaches its prospective employees. Do the employment ads only specify what we want to “give” and “take” to and from the employee and has no mention of what is added to the employee and what addition is sought from him or is it the opposite? Read these two exemplary ads:

Requirement: Graduate with 3 years of experience in sales, salary: $ 3,000 per month, job title: sales analyst. Post in your Resume.

Requirement: Graduate brains with 3 years of experience in providing insights towards increasing sales, salary: $ 3000 per month, job title: sales analyst. Post in your Resume.

The problem with the first is not only that it attracts fewer people or people who cannot add value (as everyone can) but the problem is that it attracts people with potential of providing insights without igniting any motivation to do so, where the second one has a specific calling to the value-adding people, people with similar “means” and you can very well screen out people who are in only for the 3000 bucks later on.

Ensuring the flow of “Means”.

With the right people comes great power and responsibility to handle them the right way. It is true to some extent that with motivated people the flow of means becomes somewhat of an automated process but the same must be ensured and it can be ensured by identifying the junctions and making these junctions the bearer of the red caps. The ones who would facilitate the top-bottom and bottom-up flow of values and if the flow is broken, they can be identified as the loose junctions. Also, read my Article 1.1 in this series to understand how to further facilitate this flow and eliminate any chance of friction in its early stage.

… to be continued    ~P E A C E.