Opening Insights: The Players – All of ‘em
While participating in Co-Lab research to examine the leadership framework of medium to large-sized organizations, a moment of clarity gripped me. This concept of communicating across three levels of an organization, from workers to middle management to leadership, is not so complicated, nor is it difficult to understand, so why is it so rare for this triumvirate to be healthy within organizations? Why do many organizations leave their customers out of the loop?
Informational Insights: Followship – Management – Leadership
An organization is just like a person with respect to the elements which compose it. The mind, body and spirit are what constitute a whole person. If one piece is left out, the person cannot interact with their environment. The same is true for organizations. In fact, we could go so far as to illustrate how the same 5 Basic Needs crucial to human survival are fully applicable to that of organizations. For the purpose of this blog we will examine how to create and maintain a top-performing people-driven organization.
In most medium to large-sized organizations there are three tiers of personnel who make up its body, mind and spirit. A healthy being will have those three elements in a state of balance and in constant communication. Each element will interact with its complementary part of 
existence and communicate back the others what it is experiencing. Then as a unit, the three interpret and decide what to do with that input. That’s how solidarity happens. That’s how wholeness happens. When there is an imbalance, such as one element receives more care to the exclusion of the others, or the inter-connectivity between elements is degraded, solidarity and wholeness are diminished. That’s when reaction to stimuli, rather than responding, becomes the norm.
Communication (or lack thereof) between the elements of the triumvirate is at the core of so many of our problems at work, home, worship and play. Without communication, there can be no exchange of ideas, no establishment of intent, no shared vision and no partnership. Looking at medium to large-size organizations, there is a propensity for individuals to become nestled within their section, for silos to form and for the lines of dialogue to become clogged. When communication stops, so does growth, achievement, innovation and re-investment. The problem often is not within the individual roles, it’s in how they connect, interface, communicate and work toward the same goal/vision.
Just imagine if your mind wanted to do its own thing without consideration for the body and the spirit. What would that look like? In order to connect, synchronize and empower the three elements let’s get to know the players, then we’ll discuss how the customer fits into the picture.
The Players
A medium to large-size organization is composed of three separate, but interconnected and inter-reliant elements. For the purpose of this blog let us liken the hourly workers to the body, the middle management to the mind and liken the leadership to the spirit. Together, they compose the elements of a whole organization. Take one element away or interrupt their communication, and functionality ends. The triumvirate comes together for a single purpose, to serve the customer. Should the customer be considered in this equation?
The Hourly Workers, which make up the physical majority of personnel, are the ones who do the actual work. They put the time in, handle the nuts and bolts, and in many cases come up with the big ideas that will set an organization apart from their competition.
The workers are the ones who interface with the customers, who get “down and dirty with the data” and who know what is really going on within the organization. They influence middle management and the leadership. The hourly workers make up the body of an organization.
The hourly workers have real power of the organization. Collectively, they decide whether or not, and how, to follow the directives coming from management and leadership. They make up the culture of the organization. They are the spokespeople, and if they don’t have the same message, communicated with the same investment and passion as their leadership, then the strategy and vision of the organization are worth no more than the papers they are printed on.
Culture eats strategy for breakfast
PETER DRUCKER
The Leadership are positioned on top of the organizational chart and, as far as decision authority goes, are at the top of the food chain. The leadership will typically consist of the three-letter designators such as CEO, CFO, CTO, etc.
Their role is to craft a vision for the organization and all its personnel to follow and to exercise oversight of the big picture. They typically do not interface with customers, rather, they limit their communication to the other leadership from other organizations. Leadership are the decision-makers and make up the spirit of an organization.
The leadership are there to serve the workers, much like our representatives and senators serve us in government. If our representation has no idea how to represent us, then they will just make things up as they go along, which typically doesn’t serve anyone. If the leaders can’t hear their followship base then they aren’t leading anything.
The Middle Managers are smack in the middle, just as the name implies. They act to translate the big vision of the leadership into directives that make sense to the workers. They pass information upstream as well, informing the leadership of how effectively their vision is being implemented and cueing them into the overall health of the organization.
Those at the top and at the bottom of the organizational chart sometimes ponder the necessity of the middle management, and consider removing them altogether. They forget the integral function middle management serves, acting as the hub in which communication passes through. They are the mind of an organization.
This triumvirate of players make up the body, spirit and mind of most organizations. Remove one, or impede their communication, and the three cease to be a unit. Solidarity stops. Wholeness doesn’t happen. Then, the true purpose of the organization, which is to serve the customer, becomes an ethereal concept. Though the customer is not a piece of the triumvirate, as just indicated, they are the reason an organization exists.
With respect to The Customer, there are two types of organizations. There are those that see their customer as an outside piece to serve and will work hard to influence their decisions and interpret their reactions. On the other side of that strategy are the organizations that partner with their customers.
Instead of viewing their customers as a commodity, or fruit from which the juice must be squeezed, they invite their customers to become part of their decision-making process, part of the experience of commerce. The latter is typically more successful than the former with consideration to long-term growth and resiliency, but the former is superior when it comes to short-term gains.
Lately, most Americans live in the short-term and have no consideration, or interest, in the future. It’s too far away to matter – it doesn’t affect my NOW feelings. Thus, we experience the death of the customer-as-a-partner concept. This began with the Baby Boomers and is perpetuated (and taken to the extreme) by Millennials. This shortsightedness and loss of perceived value of the individual is seriously threatening the way we do business. What needs to change? How do we get back to the way things were during the golden age of capitalism?
Tools for the Job
Many organizations are missing a collaborative framework that weaves a guiding set of principles and a communication methodology throughout their operations.
Many will attempt to build this through a clever set of rules, a plucky vision/mission statement, open-door policies, suggestion boxes and so on… What many forget, and so few truly get right, is that an organization is not its vision nor mission statement, it is not the building(s) nor facilities, it is not its charter nor stock price nor quarterly earnings. An organization is its people and their combined beliefs (perceptions, attitudes, thinking, feelings and behaviors) or, in other words, its culture.
It is crucial to invest in the people who make up the culture and are an organization’s components. What happens when individuals become empowered to unite their body – mind – spirit? They become whole people! What happens when we have whole people staffing the worker, management and leadership positions, and they have a communication network based on equality? We would get whole organizations. The tool that accomplishes this is called a Collaboration Laboratory Institute (Co-Lab).
AwareComm has the tools to rekindle Authority (the power to direct the actions of self and others), Responsibility (the ability plus the obligation/charge to act) and Accountability (the owning of the results of the actions) in individuals within organizations. Take note of the graphic below. AwareComm’s Co-Lab is at the center with Influencers and Decision-Makers on either side.
Instead of having responsibility without authority, the influencers get both. Instead of having a vision with no followship, the decision-makers get both. They come together to support a single vision and are stronger as “we.” The Co-Lab hub creates the environment for that to happen. The dashboard is how the communication occurs, the hub is the foundation for the environment to be created.
The adoption of this model empowers organizations to move away from individual Authority, Responsibility and Accountability and nurture an ecosystem of Shared Authority, Shared Responsibility, and Shared Accountability. It happens when the Co-Lab is the unifying foundation that brings us all together for a single vision. Add the Co-Lab App Dashboard and the Employee Assistance Resource (E.A.R.) to the mix, and the foundation for effective communication is established. When all the energies of all the organizational stakeholders are allocated to the same goal, big things happen and everyone shares in the success.
Just How Important is Communication?
Hawaii used to be a major producer of sugar cane. Big plantations sprung up all across the islands of Oahu, Maui and Hawaii (Big Island). The workers who came to work on the plantations originated from all over the Pacific Rim. There were Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Korean, Portuguese, Vietnamese, Tai and many Pacific Islanders. They all came together to work in the fields with the Hawaiians and English-speakers. This was a melting pot of language and culture. How were they all able to come together and serve the same purpose and pursue the same goal? Communication.
It was from this time in the history of Hawaii that Hawaiian Pidgin English (HPE) was developed. HPE is a mixture of all the languages founded in English. It put everyone on equal footing so communicating goals and objectives, as well as story-telling and relating to each other could occur. The language brought the people together. That is what the Co-Lab does. It’s a common vernacular, principles and system of valuation. The Employee Assistance Resource (E.A.R.) is the technology and methodology that places everyone on equal footing. When everyone in the organization speaks and listens through the E.A.R. then everyone gets heard.
The Bottom Line Synopsis
With this approach, the most powerful dimension of an organization, the workers, the people, can become aware of the challenges that management faces. Therefore, they can identify practical answers and incorporate solutions that will be supportive of management and leadership of the company. Hence, the followers become the leaders in developing and implementing solutions.
Possibilities for Consideration: Everyone Matters
Leadership (sets direction), Management (allocates resources) and Followship (the doers, the ones who do the work) all come together for a common purpose. There’s no more us against them. We’re all on the same team. Everyone matters. Everyone is important. Everyone can get their ideas heard.
- What would it be like to work in an organization where there were no hierarchical boundaries?
- What would it be like to know that your organization was healthy, and could carry on fine without you, but preferred to keep you?
- What would it be like to have the confidence to take a risk, knowing that your coworkers will have your back?
- What if you could take the personal development software home with you, and heal your family as well?
Add Your Insights
Work is love made visible
And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste,
it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the
gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy…
For if you bake bread with indifference
you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man’s hunger
KAHLIL GIBRAN