Für Unternehmen

FOR COMPANIES

Leadership I The agile organization I Teamwork

FOR COMPANIES

Today’s markets are evolving at a rate that is far greater than was the case just a decade ago. Market leaders are being driven out of their markets three times more often. No company today can achieve long-term success without innovation. Companies that continually change, progress and reinvent themselves grow three times faster than other companies and earn higher profits.

A survey of 400 business executives revealed that the wave of the future is self-organizing networks that afford access to collective intelligence that promote innovation. In short, companies need to be agile.

Far from being a buzzword, the term “agility” refers to an urgent necessity.

What does agility connote for you? What would your company be like if (a) it responded flexibly and rapidly to every market change, or was even able to predict such changes intuitively; and (b) it had an organizational culture that enabled its employees to take responsibility for their own work and actions and organize and structure their work as they see fit?

I can help you to transform your company in this fashion – that’s my job. I will work with you to create structures, processes and a corporate culture that transforms your company into a distinctive and creative organization that’s fit for the future and that isn’t a carbon copy derived from some manual or other. For in this realm as well, I firmly believe that authenticity is everything. I believe in your potential.

Management

According to a study, many German business executives feel that Germany’s prevailing corporate culture is outmoded. Less than one out of every two German executives feels that the management style used in their company will help their organization to meet future challenges.

So management styles and cultures urgently need to change. The old-fashioned authoritative, profit-oriented management style is far too cumbersome to keep pace with new developments.

A modern organizational culture is based on open and flexible networks and other structures, confidence in one’s personnel, employees taking responsibility for their own work products, and a robust web of productive relationships amongst employees and between employees and their customers.

The agile organization

The major challenge facing companies that are striving to become more agile can be put as follows: How can we create an organization that is based not on power and control, but rather on creativity and trust? And: how can we empower and enable our employees to do their work in an agile fashion?

Countless companies fall flat on their face in their attempts to achieve agility. The reason for this is similar to the problem that beset the rollout of lean management some years ago – namely that too much emphasis is placed on methodology, and too little on the people involved in the relevant processes.

No amount of aping the techniques found in manuals can possibly guarantee that a company will be able to transform itself successfully; because what is needed most of all is for all concerned (a) to be involved in the transformation process; (b) to be able to unleash their creative potential.

Team

In any organization where people work together, teams and teamwork are a key factor in the equation. Individual team members may have the requisite skill sets, but may not gel as a group. You may have experienced this phenomenon in your own work.

According to Patrick Lenzioni, teams are prone to the following five dysfunctions: a lack of results orientation; a reluctance to assume responsibility; a lack of commitment; conflict avoidance; a lack of trust.

Where does your team fall short? What do these shortcomings cost you in terms of productivity losses, and a failure to innovate and systematically pursue goals?