Art Murray has extended his suggested transformations in An opportunity for real change, part 2, where he continues the idea of stepping back from the day-to-day to think about how the organization should work in the future (I mentioned part 1 last month).
He did five transformations in An opportunity for real change, part 1, and this time he does another five:
- Replace the mindset of "doing more with less" with "creating greater value from the resources you have."
- Move from a posture of sense-and-respond to one of "co-creating."
- Replace mass and niche market mentalities with "N=1."
- When asked, "How many employees do you have?" say, "We draw from a talent pool of 1B*(R=G)." [Update: 1.3B*(R=G)]
Shift your performance focus from profits to value creation.
Adherents to Theory of Constraints will recognize #5 above as a key mindset shift required to focus on value first and cost savings second. "Do more with less" is a better sound bite, but value creation is the key, no matter how many resources you have.
And if #9 doesn't send you to the article to figure out what that equation is, I don't know what will.
While #10 may sound a platitude, the TOC concept again of defining the goal of the organization first applies here too. Some of the earlier definitions to the goal were things like, "Make more money now and in the future." But beyond the first blush, this doesn't exactly make sense. Many people wonder about this, and recent suggestions say things like "Create an ever-flourishing company." Even this may not get at the core need for the owners and directors, but it gets closer than "make more money."
From Art's close:
When the going gets tough, the natural inclination is to hunker down. If you have any belief at all in the global knowledge economy, take a deep breath and start making these transformations now. We’re just getting started. More big changes are on the way, so you might as well help co-create them, and be among the first in line to reap the benefits.