Develop and deploy human resources and capabilities for competing in the future as well as today
“…companies die because their managers focus on the economic activity of producing goods and services and they forget
their organization’s true nature is that of a community…”
-De Geus-
The mind often resists new ideas with surprisingly single-minded energy; it likes a strange idea as little as the body likes a strange protein.
If we listen to ourselves honestly, we often find we have begun to argue against a new idea even before it has been completely stated. Effective leadership of people should overturn such negative reactions to new thinking
The word ‘strategy’ is used implicitly in different ways even if it has traditionally been defined in only one – planning. Explicit recognition of multiple definitions can help people to manoeuvre through strategic approaches to business. Mintzberg provides five definitions of strategy: plan; ploy; pattern; positioning; and perspective.
Underpinning these definitions is the implicit need to align individuals, teams and departments with the company’s objectives, vision, values and current mission. Aligning people with a company’s strategy demands change or transformation as situations continuously ebb and flow around them.
Adapting to change requires individuals in companies to compete simultaneously in two time periods. Whereas strategies for the present are primarily concerned with maximising the effectiveness of current resources and capabilities, competing in the future is concerned with re-deploying existing resources and capabilities and developing, extending, and augmenting them.
First and foremost in strategy development has to be managing this change in the key resource all businesses deploy – people.
Progressive firms anchored in the ‘art of the possible’ have an emergent corporate strategy rather than a top-down, Ansoff-influenced, pre-planned and prescriptive approach. Such a corporate strategic approach underlines Clausewitz’s view of planning:”…whether in war, science or business, the intellect that demands certainty as a condition for taking the next step will be a timid…petulant and ultimately sterile intellect. Chance and the unexpected provide the richest setting to engage the intellect.”
(Von Ghyczy)
As succinctly stated in a recent LinkedIn post;
“…business strategic transformation is all about people, so the first thing that needs to be understood for business strategy is people: their fears, hopes, desires, needs for communication and collaboration. Anything beyond that has to follow and be aligned to this understanding and has to serve the transformation of people first and foremost. Transformation of business will follow as a consequence.”