Despite today’s constantly evolving economic environment, many organisations continue to operate the same way as they have been doing for hundreds of years.
Our consultants have seen this “business as usual” approach cause a variety of business challenges across strategy and vision, organisational structure, and working methods.
So what is a “traditional” organisation and what business challenges does it create?
Many traditional command and control organisations have a profit motive at their core. The relentless pursuit of profit as the sole objective can lead to myopic, short-term thinking. In a traditional structure, employees usually have limited tangible input into business strategy or vision. This can lead to disengagement because people feel removed from the decision-making process and cannot connect to the organisation’s purpose.
Employees are typically structured into distinct functional departments, each led by a manager responsible for overseeing their respective teams. However, these departmental structures are often bound by internal legislation, procedures and guardrails that can often create a sense of rigidity within the organisation. This rigidity, which is intended to provide structure and guidelines, can inadvertently stifle the flexibility and creativity that are essential for adapting to the ever-evolving business landscape.
Key decisions are focused on “leaders” within the organisation and leaders are considered the “thinkers”, while staff closer to the frontline are the “doers”. But we know that people on the ground often tend to know more about a business’s current challenges; leaders are sometimes too far removed from the frontline of the business to be able to make informed decisions.
In a hierarchical structure, final decisions can take a long time to arrive at while different layers of management weigh in on an issue. Employees often don’t have the autonomy to make their own decisions or problem solve which stifles innovation. Individual output rates are prioritised over getting to the right outcome.
How to overcome traditional business challenges
In the current business landscape, marked by rapid changes and intense competition, adaptability and agility are central to success. Organisations that have embraced a more forward-thinking and progressive approach have not only weathered the storm but made significant advancements, ultimately achieving greater success.
But what do we mean by progressive? The infographic below showcases our point of view on the characteristics of progressive organisations vs more traditional ones (click to enlarge):
According to Gartner, human-centric work design which features flexible work experiences, intentional collaboration opportunities, and empathetic management, can increase employee performance by as much as 54% (1).
In an era where organisational success hinges on adaptability and a people-centric approach, these principles are not just trends – they are the cornerstones of a thriving, forward-looking business.
Practical steps towards becoming a progressive organisation
Whilst we recognise there is no one size fits all, we want to share some of our experiences to help you take some practical steps forward.
In the coming weeks, our Change series will consider some of the common challenges that our consultants are seeing today and what a few of the solutions to these problems look like in practice.
We will consider how you can embed more progressive thinking into your strategy or vision. We will explore how organisations can structure themselves to reduce bureaucracy and speed up decision-making. And we will look at improved ways of working that will increase employee satisfaction.
We hope you will find this an interesting and useful exploration of this topic. By moving to a more distributed, agile, and (hopefully) inspiring way of working, you can increase your employee satisfaction rates and improve customer experience, which can, in turn, fast-track overall business performance.
Keep up to date with our insights on change here, or get in touch to find out how taking more of a progressive approach could help your business.
