Managing the interfaces - an exercise in leadership
Organisation, culture and technology are key considerations in strategic conversation. Understanding how they interface with each other is key to the successful implementation of strategy.
In simple terms, a company's organisation, culture and technology each provide a description of that company. Do they all relay the same message about the company? Do they relay the same message to every audience? If the answer is not 'Yes' to both questions and the differences cannot be described and explained the following brief discussion may be helpful. It considers the interfaces between organisation and culture, between culture and technology and between technology and organisation.
1. Organisation and Culture
Flatter organisational structures have been widely adopted, often in search of greater efficiency and flexibility. Removing a band of middle management provides an opportunity to devolve authority and authority to the edge of an organisation and represents the very essence of empowerment. The opposite often happens and control becomes more centralised with reduced autonomy and poorer communication for those furthest from the centre. The result can then be a two tier organisation with one tier comprising the leadership and the other everyone else. This arrangement may be functional but it does not use the full potential nor does it meet the employment needs of the people who make up the second tier of the company.
2. Culture and Technology
Company culture determines those behaviours that characterise the company; these behaviours are rewarded and define the company's performance. When new technologies are introduced to the company, selecting which technologies to deploy is not always a straightforward process. How closely technology is perceived to align with the prevailing company culture will play a major part in determining the eventual success or failure of the its deployment. If a technology is seen to challenge the culture, it raises the question: is the prevailing culture still right for the company? If the culture is right, the technology is wrong; if it is not, culture change needs to be addressed before any technology can be identified and deployed.
3. Technology and Organisation
Technology is good at doing consistently very specific tasks that require more precision, speed, strength or endurance than a human being can manage. It can provide great tools to make the company function more efficiently. However technology investments are rarely seamless 'bolt-ons'; they often require significant further investment in money and people to support their operation. These in their turn demand organisational adaptation. History suggests that the scale and importance of this adaptation is often underestimated and that the return on investment can be significantly reduced and delayed.
Octinver can work with you to analyse the impact of change on the relationships between organisation, culture and technology. Using tools such as surveys, interviews and pilots the interfaces can be characterised and change programmes agreed. Contact Mike Duncan if you want to learn more about how Octinver can support you in the implementation of change programmes and follow up with monitoring and guidance to ensure a satisfactory outcome.