Running a successful business today requires you consider the unique challenges you face and what kinds of people and teams you need to meet them.
“Culture lives in the collective hearts and habits of people and their shared perception of how things are to be done. The #1 advantage for the ‘organization of tomorrow’ is investing in a Human System that creates a NEW KIND OF TEAM in which people are motivated from within.”
Judy Ryan
You are running your business to assist your customers, hiring the best people you can find, and doing all you can to ensure success and great service. Despite this, if you’re like many organizations, you suffer from these challenges:
Complexity
One of your concerns is managing complexity, especially advances in digital technology. Today’s techno-human eco systems must contain agile workforce teamwork in which all members can both lead and follow with confidence, in order to meet today’s requirement for collaboration and dynamic flow. Bridging gaps between those creating software systems, including simultaneous, iterative development, requires interpersonal skills of people who can act in heuristic ways, aligned with the development process itself, in order for your people to be capable of creating solutions on the fly, rather than relying on pre-determined formulas.
Diversity
Another concern you have is how to manage diversity – of thought and experience. This can be seen in the uninterrupted struggles withinpeople (such as stress, depression, and addiction) and betweenpeople (such as righteousness, racism, gender-ism, sexual orientation, and agism to name some of the biggest struggles). The glue that holds us together must include a human system framework that brings about unity and appreciation for differences, seeing strengths and appreciating and recognizing that is the impetus for creative solutions.
People
Another concern you have is regarding people– your greatest asset – including how to attract, develop, engage and retain top talent. As more businesses hire across different time zones and locations, working on numerous projects and using new technologies, organizational design must evolve to accommodate an unbroken and durable work flow. Matrix structures must replace linear hierarchies, and people will succeed primarily on how well they collaborate with their internal and external networks. Healthy human systems are not a nice to have; rather they are a need to have.
Wellness
Statistics show skyrocketing healthcare costs, impacting our entire societal community and your business. The vast majority of people are suffering stress and resulting disease, often relying upon pharmaceuticals to get through each day. There’s too much processed, fast, and non-nutritious food consumed, failure to exercise, get physicals and much more. Absenteeism, disability, prescriptions and health insurance are just a few of the costly indicators of our lack of wellness, not only regarding symptomology, but the reactive way we treat wellness rather than focusing on creating it, and our lack of addressing core, underlying systems that prevent wellness in the first place.
Competition
Your organization needs to stay relevant and competitive. What once took decades, now takes months or even days to create and implement. Consider robotics, artificial intelligence and IOT (Internet of all things). Emotional and social intelligence must be cultivated in order to favorably impact current and future trends, when the only certainty you can count on is uncertainty. The kind of organization that will thrive in today’s climate, is that in which each person manages their relationships, productivity and engagement using a human system framework that creates stability despite rapid change.
Sometimes it’s difficult to consider that all five of these primary challenges are mitigated with a healthy workplace culture compatible with today’s needs. If you read the latest data on trending teal organizational models and why they work, they all describe unconventional systems that promote expanded human potential. Let me know if you’d like to discuss what LifeWork Systems has witnessed with our proven systems approach and what we can do for you and your organization.
This article was published in the column The Extraordinary Workplace in St. Louis Small Business Monthly, September 2018
