Have you ever considered what would have become of humanity if the apple had not tempted Adam… if it had not sparked his interest, if instead of taking a bite out of step he had continued to do the things ordered by the boss? The dream of every CEO is to shoot in his people the ambition to fulfill his task, with a commitment and dedication that reveal his greatest contribution, his imprint, his diversity. But nevertheless, like Adam, people crave other things, and the wisdom of his boss, was to let him choose freely, and from there… Adam, always did his part.
When people choose to carry out their task, they immediately assume an attitude that directly impacts the generative capacity of the organization.
Because of that individual choice, a sense appears to the whole organization that drives it and that transforms the link between people and processes in a way that cascades down to the last step.
This wiring has a link function. It is concerned with holding the organization as a whole together. Your deliverable is measured in the link between people & processes. Her contribution is a committed management from every sin. Her means of communication is organizational culture in a permanent and interactive process. Its vital fluid… is the management context.
Understand the meaning
In terms of value generation *, the first step happens when people understand the meaning of their presence in the organization. That is, the meaning of the functions that are assigned to it by the process in which it participates. In this way, he discovers how his task impacts the generation of organizational value.
The sense of participating and contributing from each job qualifies the organization's efficiency and its ability to achieve. This factor is closely linked with the generative capacity of its people.
So when people understand their task as a part that integrates the whole, their work begins to impact results more effectively because of the relationship between "meaning" and "understanding."
Create consistent wiring
It is the CEO's task to create the path that illustrates his people about the sense of the role he plays, and from that awareness, each one will understand the reason that gives life to their position. This understanding embedded in each job, this awareness throughout the organization, marks a starting point that allows you to string together a consistent wiring.
Starting from there, the organization can be designed as a sufficient offer so that the daily and anonymous fact of building together with others, is installed at the whim of its people.
(* complementary notes: Value Generation, Conviction or Convenience, Possibility Management.
www.orggames / clavedelceo).
Design the offer
There is probably a lot to add to the toolbox that the management culture has been assigning to each CEO. A well-known secret is to declare the suffering model of "the carrot and the whip" obsolete, because with that recipe only one of the parties tastes, and the other simply does not tempt you.
It is vital that the organization is a labor "offer" valued by its people and tempting for the market.
The offer that each organization is for its people, will be largely determined by the management context that knows how to build and not the money, which without doubt is one of its relevant ingredients.
Part of the recipe is the way to serve the table, because it invites the flavor to come forward, and creates an environment that predisposes wills and joys that when working for the banquet make a good difference.
That environment, that charm, that frame that precedes magic, that effect, after all produces a concrete impact. A very careful impact at the time of any event because it defines its result and its significance, and that is why it is built with great care, so that it is installed in the memory and fulfills its objective, but still and achieving the best result, if there is absence Consistently designed, it's something that fades away in the end.
The opportunity to summon the generative capacity of people to install themselves as a daily way of doing things is waiting.
Warning the signs
To measure your level of opportunity, the thermometer is inside the company. You can see it with an obvious indicator, it is like a light that flashes before a direct question: are people contributing all their generative capacity?
Without surprising or disappointing, the answer is most likely negative. After all, it is a natural consequence, almost a reflex act, derived from the way the link between the organization and its people was dealt with during the 20th century.
In the last century, as closing the millennium, technology was still thought of as a differentiator. The one with the best technology, the most advanced machines, the most sophisticated processes, achieved an obvious advantage and built solid barriers against its competition.
In this new millennium everything has been commoditized. Today, yesterday's strategic spreads are commoditized. Technology, equipment and processes are purchased per kilo, and with different prices and plans for any bidder. Today everyone accesses them and every day at a better cost. So all that successful philosophy that reigned in the 20th century in this new millennium is transformed to make way for another strategy.
The game is defined on the court
From now on it is about generating a shared recipe, to give people a “central space” in their relationship with the task. That central space is at the meeting point that links people and processes.
Today that point is at the center of the scene. To better observe it, it is necessary to distinguish it from its environment, locate it, put the magnifying glass on it. It is a central point, and is located between "installed capacity" and "generative capacity". It is vital for the organization to make this point very clear.
In these different capacities, “the installed and the generative”, there is a key aspect that has the complete hierarchy of an organizational Value. It is a value against which it is necessary to take a stand.
Time to take a stand
Here is the dilemma, where to put people. I give you this question: In your organization, are people considered "installed capacity or generative capacity"? The decision is inevitable and also, whatever it may be, it is also evident because people notice it immediately, at every moment, and act accordingly.
Thus the organization causes a first impact of people on the results, and along with that a clear message of the space it occupies, by the immediate reflection of the place assigned to it.
If we define that people are part of the installed capacity, then it will undoubtedly be considered a resource, thus the organizational offer is constituted and people will provide themselves as such. It will assume its replaceable character as any resource, and will provide, at best, what is expected by design of the process in which it participates. In other words, with complete success, it will get people to do the job. This result for a dinosaur CEO will be a resounding success.
The management context
In this case, the management context will be of little relevance since people are only expected to do their part well, and if this is not the case, they will be replaced indefinitely until they get the right one. In this game model there are two classes of people, those who can contribute, those who are key, those who order what should be done, and the others, those who obey, abide, and are only a resource. It is the classic paradigm of the employee-employer model in organizations during the 20th century.
In the new millennium, we can already consider the participation of people as a reflection of the generative capacity of the organization. This is how a transcendent change begins in the way of inviting people, and waiting for their contribution and their leading role. This invitation opens the way for each employee to become a strategic generator of value.
For a visionary CEO, the challenge is to bet on people designing the task, owning the process and executing it by choice, and to achieve this, they will focus on designing a management context that provokes it.
Thus, thinking of people as the generative capacity of the organization, an original strategic concept appears: “the Management Context”, and it has a leading role in generating value.
The context defines the way and the purpose with which people are linked to the processes. The management context is built, generated, and is palpable. You can count on it effectively, it is stable and it does not depend on the mood as it happens with motivation.
Currently, the challenge of “designing the management context” is absent from the agenda of relevant issues to be resolved, since it is simply unthinkable.
Each person, by default, assumes an attitude in the task due to the way he interprets the organization, the offer that it constitutes, and his own space in it.
In the operational mechanics of organizations, and clearly in world-class global ones, that attitude is seen as fact.
It can be seen in the intention, in the attitude with the work, in the relationship of people and processes.
That relationship, that bond that allows people to discover their potential, their ability to contribute, and bond with their peers in another way, transforms the way they intervene in the game, and impacts on the results and their lives. The transformation that happens as a result of the context is that the power of choice is triggered, and is manifested in the generative capacity of the people made available to the organization.
The fact of concluding agreements between different sectors and people of an organization to achieve the committed goals, is as common as the difficulty of achieving them. A frequently asked question is how can it be understood that the same people who concluded the agreement fail to fulfill it? and the answer is very simple. These are two different dimensions. In one dimension, the best known, which we will call the “content dimension”, agreements are concluded on specific topics in which both people or areas are expert experts, and may even agree on their implementation schedule.
In the other dimension, which we will call the “context dimension”, other knowledge is played with, and it is the one that, depending on the state of the context between those people or areas, determines compliance with the agreements.
In summary, the agreements are concluded in the dimension of "content" in what we could call the visible, verifiable and rational world, but their effective execution depends on the work carried out in the "context" dimension. Depending on whether this “context” dimension has been worked on, the expected results will be obtained, or an endless number of explanations, accusations and culprits that may confuse even those involved, who may be acting in total ignorance of the weight that “context” imposes on them in their capacity to generate results.
The role of trust
On the way to discover and work in context, we will find confidence. We will have to ensure an effective transit through trust to build the context. In this primary stage, what is possible when thinking about the fulfillment of the agreements, is established by the conviction that the other will comply for mutual convenience. If this happens clearly, in an adult and serious way, the other, the guest or the partner, will be able to choose, and will learn to maintain the context so that both manage to fulfill their agreements.
With an attentive look at the context management of the result is prosecuted.
Today we know that the generation of value happens by decision of the people. This idea allows us to differentiate “installed capacity” –which includes processes- and “generative capacity” as two different elements. The first - which we can also call basic infrastructure - can be said to be bought per kilo. On the other hand, “the generative capacity” corresponds to attaching a determining element so that the “Choice Factor” exists.
People create value only when they choose it. For “the choice” to happen, people need to understand the organizational offer and have a space, a clear place destined for him to manifest himself, to appear as a person and provide his generative capacity in the organization.
We have seen surprising results due to the design of an appropriate management context both at the management and middle management levels, as well as at the operational levels of sales, administration, logistics or production lines.
The new roof
Articulation between people and processes is a pending stage. Abiding by the process - fulfilling the task - is a primary challenge that, if understood as a ceiling, can never be achieved. In its place, the generation of value is a new ceiling that involves completing the task as a starting point. This constitutes a challenge available in the hands of people that it is time to pose to undo the task and give the work a much more interesting meaning.
The challenge of designing the management context constitutes a clear opportunity to summon the leading role of the people, and this factor finds organizations without the adequate preparation to become a convening offer.
This management context is manifested in the link that articulates processes and people, and is a space for intervention and design that is decisive in making things happen.
Looking at the link
That link, that concrete and fertile place, here deserves our special attention.
The usual management tools are not sufficient for this challenge because they fail to notice the management context. New tools are required to detect their condition and intervene effectively. The difference between a traditional management model that ignores the design of context as a strategic variable and the model that deals with designing the management context, is defined by the way in which the generative capacity of people is summoned.
A proposal that brings people together is the necessary starting point. The idea of knowing oneself as a “resource” makes its participation uninteresting for anyone worth its salt and constitutes a lackluster call as an organizational offer to hand over generative capacity.
In short, the management context dwells anonymously in organizational genetics, in each cell, and from there sets the course of the possible, triggers the sense of each member to fulfill their task, determines the level of participation and delivery, calls commitment and constitutes an environment that is breathed everywhere.
The management context is a key factor waiting to be attended to, and in the case of Adam we can say that the wisdom of his boss was to let him choose freely, and from there, of his choice, Adam always did his part and gave a vital impulse full of courage, virtues, sins, opportunities and defects that pushed humanity, with the impulse of choice, down a path that ends right in the world of today.
