Advancing the Game is what every organization strives for, yet many have difficulty achieving. A couple of the root causes of not progressing in this regard are organizational defenses and silos that limit the ability of the organization to improve due to departments or people advancing at the expense of others. While some traditional management approaches assume this as a positive, in practice it destroys trust and causes harm.
For different results, a different approach is needed in today's conditions...
In practice, Advancing the Game is all about overcoming defense routines that are reinforcing the status quo and discovering how the organization can improve performance from a systems perspective. The discovery is about improving the way work gets done and improving the way people work together to achieve the organization's goals and objectives. A shared, grounded vision and lived values becomes the anchor for how decisions are made and actions are taken, to set up the organization for future success.
We have found that addressing defense routines is the first and most difficult hurdle to overcome, because they are typically based on personal agendas and biases that are deeply rooted in the existing culture. Authentic Leadership practices, allow leaders at all levels to introspectively and critically examine their behaviors, actions and results in a non-embarrassing and non-threatening way. This provides an accurate, truthful and non-distorted view that enables positive and powerful personal growth to occur. In essence, it allows people to enter the fundamental state of Authentic Leadership, where they can significantly reshape the organizational culture through their productive influence.
When this change occurs, people become authentic leaders and begin to see the world differently. They become optimistic and driven to help other people succeed through influence rather than control. They are able to see and remove barriers to success they never saw before, when they were too busy giving orders, defending their position or saving face to protect themselves or others from embarrassment or threat. They see the world of possibility where every person is valued and can contribute to the organization's collective success. They also can see ineffectiveness of people and address issues in a respectful way following due process.
After Authentic Leadership is being practiced the next step to Advancing the Game is to engage employees in conversations about shared vision and living values. These conversations get people thinking about the question “How does this action improve the overall business situation?” This builds a sense of curiosity and responsibility for people working in the organization to examine existing practices and discover new approaches to improve performance without compromising values and regulatory compliance.
Once employees know the organization is serious and committed to making productive changes as demonstrated by the above actions, they will willingly engage and increasingly become more accountable for their behaviors, actions and results. At this point, organizational structural changes will be better understood and accepted, process changes will make sense and be driven by employees and performance will improve.
Advancing the Game allows organizations to adapt to change rapidly when challenged with new initiatives and sustain performance excellence in the long run.
It creates that collective winning team attitude in highly successful organizations and people are attracted to such workplaces. Is your organization willing to Advance your Game?
