Creating Sustainable Organizations
By Chuck McVinney
©2001 McVinney & Company
7. Some Common Sense Guidelines for Sustaining Organizations:
Creating A Durable Culture Through Systems Thinking
We hear a good deal about systems thinking, but many organizations have trouble putting the concepts of systems thinking into tangible enough actions to take. We believe systems thinking starts by creating a culture and a community where the values that support sustainable thinking, working and living can flourish. What follows is a discussion of the components of systems thinking that allow organizations to create sustainability and durability over time. These components are:
- Clear, Articulated and Living Values
- Distinct Visions
- Specific Missions
- Understandable and Achievable Goals
- Fair and Meaningful Metrics
When these are integrated and aligned and the whole organization believes they are true, the possibilities are extraordinary. Here are the ways these components create corporate culture.
Values Based: Organizations that last, that is, that are durable and sustainable, have at their center certain core values which in turn drive the whole system. These core values reflect their commonly held beliefs about what is important about their work and the way they work together. Values have to do, then with what is really important over time and experience. They are indigenous to the organization and shape its culture - they are not phony bullet points on a plaque on the reception room wall - hanging there dead. They are living concepts and now practices, that define the very landscape of the everyday experience of work within that place. An example of a real value produced recently at one of our "Creating Sustainability" sessions follows:
"Prosperity is a core value - it means to us creating and sharing abundance with our customers, our employees, and all we touch, affect or meet while pursuing our vision and our work."
Vision Driven: In addition to a well formed value system, the most successful organizations have a big picture vision of what they are trying to accomplish. But most companies don't understand what a real vision is. Ironically, real visions are not about you - which will come as a shock to just about every CEO and senior manager we know. Vision is about the effect we want to have on the world; that is, what we want to do for our ultimate customers, and the long-term legacy we are trying to create. Put another way, a responsible, sustainable and empowering vision statement is about the world we want to create, not about he company and its business goals. Business goals are great, and we want to envision achieving them; vision is bigger than that. As Collins and Porras point out in their book "Built to Last" we have to make clear distinctions between vision, values and big business goals, which they refer to as B-HAGs (Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals). An example of a vision that is bigger than a company, but drives the company, comes from an Internet infrastructure provider we know whose vision is to create:
"A world where people can connect with each other instantly regardless of time, culture, geography and politics."
That vision statement is about the customer - the world outside the organization - it doesn't say anything about the company. That comes later - after the vision of the world you wish to be part of creating is clear to you.
The world health organization might declare its vision to be:
"A world without hunger or disease."
That statement is one which is clearly enough to occupy a lifetime and which is not about the organization or individual holding it.
The Creative Education Foundation in Buffalo, New York has as its statement:
"We envision a world where people can create lives they love from the unlimited choices they can see for themselves."
At McVinney & Company our vision statement is:
"We envision a world where people apply their creativity to sustaining and enhancing life."
Mission Centered: Real mission statements derive from and support the vision. Mission statements are descriptions of the work we do to serve the values - in that sense they are statements of purpose. If the intranet infrastructure provider in our example above believes their own vision, than their mission statement might be to:
"Build, deliver, and maintain the hardware and software necessary to advance communication technology and capacity world wide."
That might be the opening line of a more extensive description of the company's day by day work; the starting point for creating a business strategy and executable plans.
At McVinney & Company our mission is to work with business and other organizations to apply systems and creative thinking to the challenge of creating sustainable organizations.
Results Centered: All of the above components are measurable in one way or another. To assure that the organization is meeting the challenge of focusing on its mission, measures can be created and implemented that are goals and objective based. These measure in the longer term (goals) and in the shorter term (objectives). They are tied to the values, vision and mission, and no measure should violate the spirit or intent of any of those other components. The measures allow us to determine the level of effectiveness at achieving each of the other components. The right measures, working together as an integrated strategy, assure the ability of the organization to track its work daily, shift tactics quickly, and reward its members in a timely way for successes and accomplishments.
Here is a summary of the definitions of the key components of system building and culture management essential to creating sustainable organizations:
Values:
Core beliefs held by the company about what is important about the work they do and about how they work together to accomplish it. Core values can last 100 years. They are hard, nearly impossible to change. They are at the root of the company's identity and culture. Organizations will change every other aspect of themselves, including products, structure, missions and goals - and sometimes people - to preserve the values.
Values shifting occurs when major paradigms shift at such deep levels that no one is untouched. Old paradigms may be forced to surrender to the new, but even then, old values born of those paradigms die-hard. Those individuals and organizations that can evolve fast enough and keep their wits survive - others may not.
Vision:
A statement of the future you wish to create. It is not a statement about the organization that holds the vision - it's about what they want to leave behind or are dedicated to doing for the world. It is a concept larger than the company or organization, but drives it over time and through all conditions. Vision statements tend to start with phrases like "We imagine a world whereÉ" Or "We envision a world whereÉ.."
Mission:
A statement of the actual work you do in order to support the values and achieve the vision. Missions evolve to support the more lasting vision and values. The definition of a company's mission provides the framework for strategic planning, informed as it is by the values and vision.
Measures: Goals:
Long term but measurable achievements support the mission and serve the vision and values. Long term may be a concept that varies from company to company, but usually goals drive organizations from 6 months to two years.
Measures: Objectives:
Shorter term, specific and measurable tasks that derive from the goals and create a matrix of feedback, which allow us to determine whether or not we are achieving the goals. The measures serve the other components of the organization best when they are integrated and comprehensive and "tell on each other." That means the measures are potentially interactive, suggesting remedies and approaches when they are achieved or not.
More and more organizations are using these concepts to create a sustainable hierarchy of business planning. The approach allows for the conscious creation and management of a supportive culture where the business can better grow and flourish. In addition, the shorter term goals and measures can be embraced by everyone in the company and co-created more frequently. This allows for broader employee participation in planning and thinking about organizational identity. Sustainability is more assured by empowered participation than by hierarchical structure. This is a lesson we learn from the natural order around us. Just as the whole human organism is protected from disease by the tiniest T cell, so the vision of the whole enterprise can be assured by the achievement of the shortest term objective.
In nature, hierarchy mitigates Darwinism. The Hierarchy exists, finally, for the well-being of the system as a whole, not for its own sake. Hierarchies are servants for distributing and conserving energy, not simply as command and control operations. The sun may be the most powerful entity in the solar system, the source of all energy - but life and consciousness exist millions and millions of miles from it. The two entities, a star and a companion planet, can enjoy a collaborative relationship. By keeping its distance and fueling rather than annihilating planet earth, the sun becomes the servant leader of life in its own mini-universe.
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