Seeing opportunities
When minimizing the number of hierarchical layers, you will inevitably encounter some (middle) managers whose positions seem to be disappearing. To protect themselves, they might not enthusiastically respond to simplifying the organization and introducing a flat structure. In one of the executive teams we guided, there seemed to be all sorts of delaying tactics. There was a trend of constantly questioning things by asking endless questions. An answer only led to a new question to be investigated. Time passed more and more. To get things moving, we organized a session with all the executives.
It worked as follows:
- The goal was to surface concerns, objections, and opportunities. In previous sessions, concerns and objections were disguised as questions, and opportunities were not much discussed.
- After presenting the session content, executives were allowed to write their concerns, objections, opportunities, and questions on Post-it® Notes. Each of these four categories had a different color for visual recognition.
- By sticking the Post-it® Notes on the wall, a collective view of concerns, objections, or opportunities emerged.
- There was room for questions, but only if they were clarifying questions and the answer was accepted.
- Self-reflection was encouraged: executives had to first check if their question was really a question or something else. They were also challenged to come up with answers together.
- The discussion could then be more focused. Concerns and objections were addressed or accepted.
- Ultimately, this led to a collective decision to experimentally set up a pilot organization according to the new structure. This experiment had a clear start and end date.
What delaying tactic do you see in your organization? Can you initiate the above intervention to get things moving?
