Cross-Fitness for the Organization

Contrary to conventional wisdom, proficiency isn’t always the best way to achieve a goal. Sometimes, proficiency can lead to deficiency.

Take running, for example. I’ve heard many a runners’ mantra that the way to improve running performance is to run exclusively. They run over and over, but eventually hit a plateau. Initially, the runner’s caloric output is high because the body uses more energy than normal to get used to the new patterns. As the body becomes more efficient it uses less energy to burn the same amount of calories, so the runner has to work harder to get equal output as before.

This same holds true for individuals as people fall comfortably into a pattern of behavior. Someone may get used to a specific approach, mindset or process that achieves results. The individual repeats the behavior in multiple areas. After all, why change something if it’s not broken?

There is a blindside, however, in repetition and mastery. When an individual masters something, he becomes less dependent on external resources to master the process and more dependent on his efficient mastery of the problem itself. Similar to the runner who runs exclusively, the individual who repeats the pattern requires less energy over time because the behavior has been mastered. All of the sudden, it becomes easier to develop a strategy because she’s done it before. It becomes easier to enter a new market because he relies on past experience to get him there. But in the meantime, the individual is subtly separated from the fresh insights afforded by a changing external reality.

Thus, individuals – and by extension, organizations – absently self-sustain instead of externally replenish with resources, individuals or other ways of doing things to achieve results. Processes cement around doing things the way they’ve always been done, hiring the same people or entering markets in the same way and the organization hits a plateau.

So what’s an organization to do? Well, what’s a runner to do?

Cross-fitness.

It’s counterintuitive, but if a runner wants to improve his run, he’s got to do more than just run. Moderate swimming, for example, increases a runner’s lung capacity and strength, resulting in improved speed, endurance and performance. By doing something outside of running, the individual actually becomes a better runner.

Within an organization, an individual who seeks external discovery in the unexpected advances farther than the internally oriented individual. The individual is exposed to ways of thinking, relating, approaching and executing that were not there before. All of the sudden, the avant-garde becomes the new normal, and you leave the laggards in the dust.

Filed under: Challenge, learning, Strategy, Vision

The delicate balance: challenging yourself and others challenging you

I’ve always wrestled with a thought in business: whose responsibility is it if an employee fails because they were not challenged or coached enough? Is it the manager’s responsibility to make sure that the employee is challenged and coached, is it the employee’s responsibility, or is it a combination of both? At what point in the job role does the responsibility for challenge shift from the manager to the employee?

I visualize the orientation of workers (task versus strategic) in the firm on a horizontal hierarchical scale, with task oriented positions being on the far left end of the hierarchy and strategically oriented positions falling on the far right of the strategy. As a simple example, the secretarial position or mail clerk would fall on the far left, and the senior level manager or CEO would be on the far right. The horizontal hierarchy is in no way representative of importance to the firm, it is just a framework to use when visualizing task versus strategy oriented jobs.

The secretary’s tasks are purely instructional: keep our files orderly, answer the phones in three or fewer rings, set up as many appointments on next Tuesday as you possibly can. The senior manager’s tasks are more esoteric: introduce X product into the European market, develop one new product per year for this specific product line, increase brand recognition in rural markets. If a senior manager had to receive a task list every week in order to inform her of the expected objectives, it’s likely that she does not have the appropriate skills for the position. Conversely, if a manager expects a secretary to take a majority of the responsibility for the strategic goals of the company, the manager does not understand the role of the secretary.

At some point in the hierarchy, there starts to be a blend where positions resemble a blend of task-oriented and strategic objectives. Consider the sales representative role: maintain a list of customers, call on the customers, tell the customers about our product, convert customers. This job is a blend of both tactical and strategic objectives. The same with a marketing manager: keep reports of conversation with customers, send out weekly emails, create marketing messages.

Is it fair to argue that responsibility of challenge should lean more towards the strategic influencer? In other words, the person who is influencing the strategic role of the position (be it the manager for the secretary, or the senior manager for himself) is responsible for challenging and coaching themselves to grow and improve. Should it be the organization’s role to coach and challenge regardless of the task-orientation or the strategic orientation? Maybe it depends on your view of the firm: is the firm purely in place for profit, social responsibility, or some combination of the two? Does giving an employee a positively challenging work environment improve the success of a firm?

This may depend on company, industry or structure, or it may depend on the person. I’ll keep wrestling with this and add thoughts as experiences and ideas come to consciousness and to mind. Just food for thought, to whet your appetite with thoughts to consider as your work for, or manage employees within a firm.

Filed under: Career development, Challenge, Coaching