This article is one in a series sharing best practice insights for continuous organization effectiveness. Other articles can be accessed through links provided at the end.
HR professionals and OD practitioners often struggle to gain traction in their organizations. Resistance is often experienced, and leadership buy-in to initiatives can be hard to gain. We see the greatest impact being achieved when active management is embedded in regular business planning and review processes. Of course, this ‘seat at the table’ is not automatic, and for this reason preceding articles have focused on:
- Establishing key measures which meet the business need for insight;
- Unlocking forward-looking insight to forecast the future organization; and
- Tracking key measures over time and revealing the underlying reasons for changes.
This is not the stuff of projects or one-off initiatives; these are ongoing requirements to get and maintain operational control. Credibility is established by providing insight which (1) speaks directly to the size and cost of the workforce; (2) enables adaptive decisions through forward-looking insights; and (3) brings clarity in a context of complexity.
Organization effectiveness is embedded in the cadence of regular business planning and review
When organization effectiveness is managed as a project, or a program of multiple projects, traction can be difficult. Connections to business leaders is limited to set-piece, infrequent presentations, and calls to action are often resisted. The playbook of change resistance contains familiar responses: Data reliability is questioned (‘I don’t recognize my organization’), and exceptions are claimed (“my part of the organization is different”). However, when the insight described above is unlocked, and leaders are equipped to gain operational control, involvement in the cycle of monthly and quarterly business review planning is typically observed. In short, involvement is sought because insight is required.
We observe astute OD practitioners putting their own priorities below the priorities of their business partner and business leader counterparts: whilst there is a pressing professional desire to minimize organizational layers, optimize management spans, or eliminate grade-compressed reporting relationships, these are pursued after the critical requirements of the business have been secured; after credibility has been gained, and a mandate has been won.
“If you’re just turning up from time-to-time to present your analysis, you’re destined to fail. Reactions and responses are likely to be: ‘I don’t recognize my organization … your data is wrong … my part of the organization is different’. We only got beyond this when we were included in the regular review and planning process. We’ve got beyond ‘my data’ and ‘your data’. We initially had data quality issues, but now have a firm understanding of the size and cost of the workforce, how this has changed over time, and how things are planned to change over the course of the year ahead.”
“Let’s be honest, no business leader ever started their day motivated to review the status of open positions! We’ve made this part of the regular review process.”
“People Partners, Finance Partners and Talent Acquisition get together monthly with business leaders to review the plan and ensure the committed plans can be delivered.”
Impactful visualizations and consistent reporting formats are applied to build a shared and common understanding
Myths and anecdotes abound within organizations. When decisions are influenced by politics and personalities rather than being informed through insights based on data, organizational efficiency deteriorates.
Managing organizational effectiveness requires stakeholders to have a shared and common understanding of the organizational reality. Impactful visualizations accelerate this because how people see the world informs how they understand it. Reporting data on the number of organizational layers or the average span of control may or may not resonate with the intended audience. Visualizing the organization on one page for audience members to see clusters of micro-team managers at extended organization layers has far greater effect.
Consistent application of reporting formats breed familiarity and can accelerate the speed at which insights can be taken on board for productive focus.
“The organization on one page is the most powerful tool I have in my kitbag! Over the years I have learned there’s no better way to get leaders’ attention. For every key measure we color-code the organization for stakeholders to visualize where we are on track, and where we have exceptions and anomalies.”
“The use of consistent visualizations in monthly review and planning meetings was key: seeing the data makes a big difference.”
“We’ve got over having to explain the analysis on every occasion because we use the same reports at every meeting.”
“Executive summaries of key measures are valuable, but we always have the ability to get beyond the headlines for leaders to see their organization.”
This article is one in a series sharing best practice insights for continuous organization effectiveness. An overview can be found here, and related articles can be accessed through the following links:
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