Management, Leadership in the modern complex era we work in today

One of the reflection on how to deal with change, is that change is less about a change initiative, and more about how we work. We are recognising that change is more and more like the way things are around here.

This is an interesting point, because there is a strong metaphor of; we are either in a balanced and stable state, or we are trying to change something. When we are stable we work one way; procedures instruct us, measures guide us, and people do the things they have on their job description.

And when we ‘do change’ we work another way. We plan, decide, develop a programme, and implement. We are move from one state to the next.

But increasingly we see that both seem to be constants at the same time… And trying to jump between one and the other seems to be unstable and often contradictory. Staff cannot keep up, and managers are trying to fight fires.

The clash between the two states points to a tension, that if it remains, becomes increasingly uncomfortable. And the more we try and pin each down, the more confusion it seems to create.

The Flexibility we Actually Need

Looking at how progressive organisations deal with being agile to deal with the modern world. We can observe that those working in them have different characteristics. It is not that they are different, it is simply that they are working in a way that creates an ongoing balance between change and operations. Those leaders are able to develop the accommodation required for both states to exist at the same time.

I write at length about these two different ways of working, but here I wish to describe leadership and management; there is a key characteristic that defines the traditional form the progressive.

Traditional Management and Leadership.

This focuses on clear departments, with employees doing their roles as described. The work is standardised as much as it can be and described by procedures that we know work well. Managers ensure that this works well, by the practices of measurement, targets, and dealing with the variation that they find.

We measure Customers and change things when we have to.

Leaders use summary measures and their expertise across the organisation to develop plans to move forwards. These plans and visions are communicated to the rest of the organisation in grand ways, where it is up to managers to ensure that they are implemented.

This approach works well, except of the fact that when you actually delve into these organisations, it does not really work that well. The culture often becomes one of ‘managers tell’ and ‘workers do’. Innovation has to be done in a room with bean bags. And HR have to come up with ways to motivate. We look and feel like a corporation, that thinks itself important.

Progressive Management and Leadership

Imagine an organisation that works according to the way that individual customers want us to. Where front line staff can deal with customers, and decide what they need to do and how they should do it. They decide within a framework, and can easily pull for support from their managers or experts when they need to.

‘Management is learning and supporting’

In this environment, the real change is in what leaders and managers do. They are less glued to their screens and writing report, and they are out and about learning. They are learning about what is actually happening in the workplace, they are engaged with customers and see first hand the impact of their staff. They witness the teamwork across the organisation. They engage vertically and horizontally.

Mangers observe and learn when things go well, and support when they dont. They have the ability to stand back, and make sense of the the various levels and dynamics that synthesise into a whole service. They pinpoint where they need to act and how to do that, that allows for the causes of problems to be dissolved, never to occur again.

The role of Managing and Leading is learning and acting with the staff to ensure that they can learn and adapt.

Engaging in horizontal and vertical learning cycles.

This is the synthesis of stability and change. With the understanding of how deal with the complexity of a real organisation within its dynamic business environment.

And the reason why we often find this a difficult thing to do, is because we often fail to recognise that this change needs a change in the ways we behave and act as managers and leaders. We try and be flexible, by applying our traditional behaviours and methods of management.