The Time to Rewire is upon us - Part two

Rewiring three main areas

In part one of this blog, we promised to unfold the three main areas that we believe requires rewiring for the pioneer to be successful in the post-corona landscape. We even dared to call that a cliff hanger.

We identify the three main areas as:

1)    Strategy

2)    Leadership

3)    Operations

And, yes, it is only partially coincidental that they align with what Bossidy & Charan put forward in Execution (2020). Their work has for years been inspiring us and informing our informing what we do and how we work.

 Strategy: Always start with diagnosis

We define strategy as the instrument which helps make better decisions, alas in a new environment an updated instrument is needed. A good strategy coordinates, it creates focus, and exploits the uncertainties of the new environment (Good Strategy/Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt, but more about that in a later blog)

Plainly, if you want better decisions you need a brutally honest understanding of your own current state, and a similar brutally honest assessment of where you are. Therefore, it always starts with an unceremoniously honest diagnosis.

The diagnosis uncovers specific Focus Points which can act like pivot points, creating leverage and focus.

Put more metaphorically, the focus points are the points where the acupuncturist inserts needles to alleviate dysfunction or improve a condition. When it comes to Rewiring, the needles are well structured participatory interventions. Alternatively, if the organization is seen as an organism, the focus points are the organs running it, and the three areas are different modalities. The diagnosis is needed to see which organs and modalities are not in tip-top shape, and to establish which would give the best chances for survival in the new landscape.

An intervention may be small but have a ripple effect in the whole system.  An intervention can be anything from building a new vision, to identifying new unserved needs.

Leadership

The starting point here is not hero-leadership, and the leader as the great orator and motivator. It is leading one-self, then leading peers, and finally leading others.

Leadership is a modality; it is a focus area. As many a pioneer in the past realized, what worked in the old world, may not work in the new. The journey to the new land is often a hard one, whether it was chosen or forced upon the individual and the organization, and just like they instruct you on the plane: First you put on the oxygen mask on your-self, and then you help others. Leadership starts with leading one-self: self-mastery, authenticity, self-awareness and humility.

Operations

We like to think of the rewiring as a way to intentionally accelerate evolution.

In his theory of natural selection, Darwin points out that evolution happens through spontaneous variations that allows the survival of the fittest. This survival is based on the random and slow genetic variations leading to some species survive and others to die.

However, post-corona markets do not allow for such slow variations, it requires that the organism quickly adapts how it functions, if an opposable thumb is needed, it is needed today, not a couple of generations time.  

Strategy and Leadership are necessary for this, but they have to come together, and synchronize into operations. Hard questions need to be asked: Are our organizational structures still working in the new reality? Do we have the right level of agility in our processes and ways of working?

Just like the brain is plastic, and allocates more space to the sense or modality needed, so must the organization be plastic and create operations that mirrors the new conditions. 

This blog is already long, thank you for staying with us. Next up will be one where we go a bit into that favorite power tool of ours: Play. Specifically, LEGO SERIOUS PLAY, and how it helps rewire organizations to thrive; act and adapt faster.

“Play is like a fertilizer for the brain, it is crazy not to use it” (Stuart Brown)