Well expressed. And an organizational dynamic that unfortunately persists. When my partner and I worked with teams we used what we called a Compass Model. North was vision, mission and values, the What and Why. East was about Roles, the Who. West was about structures and processes, the How. South we called the Spirit of the organization, the culture. And North and South needed to be aligned. The Mission and Values of the company risked being simply word-smithed statements if it didn’t reflect and incorporate the values and the why of the individuals collectively contributing. I think if we were still working in this field we would be emphasizing and starting with answering the question What is the soul of this organization? Thanks for listening and sparking the discussion. 🙏
Thanks Susan. I often feel that we somehow shy away from what is the soul of the person and what is the soul of the organisation...as we should not consider bringing our souls to work. Thanks for reading and for your thoughts. Cheers, Ian
I love this post Ian! It's a tremendously sad truth that so so many businesses and leaders fail to respect. No business can run effectively if employees are seen and treated like objects rather than the vital soul of the company. We are seeing this happen in the mental health world in the past few years, where management service organizations and private investors are buying group practices all over America under the guise of making them more efficient and then, unfortunately, not attending to the culture of the organization or the care of the providers and clients. This has resulted in higher turnover and, sadly, the closure of many practices in a field that already suffers from a lack of accessibility to the public. Thank you for your article:-)
Well said Ian. It is ultimately people who build and run businesses. Yes, we might speak of product market fit, about automating systems, about processes and procedures, however these were all set up by a group of people working collaboratively with each other. Like a boat with a crew that doesn't work in tandem.
Thanks Scott. As you write about...it is so important to have a team who can ask the simple and important questions..."what is really going on here"? "Is there something we might have missed in how we structured this"? Cheers mate.
I really appreciate the focus on wisdom, and agree that our business is about deepening our humanity and relationships.
Well expressed. And an organizational dynamic that unfortunately persists. When my partner and I worked with teams we used what we called a Compass Model. North was vision, mission and values, the What and Why. East was about Roles, the Who. West was about structures and processes, the How. South we called the Spirit of the organization, the culture. And North and South needed to be aligned. The Mission and Values of the company risked being simply word-smithed statements if it didn’t reflect and incorporate the values and the why of the individuals collectively contributing. I think if we were still working in this field we would be emphasizing and starting with answering the question What is the soul of this organization? Thanks for listening and sparking the discussion. 🙏
Thanks Susan. I often feel that we somehow shy away from what is the soul of the person and what is the soul of the organisation...as we should not consider bringing our souls to work. Thanks for reading and for your thoughts. Cheers, Ian
I love this post Ian! It's a tremendously sad truth that so so many businesses and leaders fail to respect. No business can run effectively if employees are seen and treated like objects rather than the vital soul of the company. We are seeing this happen in the mental health world in the past few years, where management service organizations and private investors are buying group practices all over America under the guise of making them more efficient and then, unfortunately, not attending to the culture of the organization or the care of the providers and clients. This has resulted in higher turnover and, sadly, the closure of many practices in a field that already suffers from a lack of accessibility to the public. Thank you for your article:-)
Thanks Warren. I reckon there is a bit we could talk about. I really look forward to your upcoming posts. All the best mate.
Well said Ian. It is ultimately people who build and run businesses. Yes, we might speak of product market fit, about automating systems, about processes and procedures, however these were all set up by a group of people working collaboratively with each other. Like a boat with a crew that doesn't work in tandem.
Thanks Scott. As you write about...it is so important to have a team who can ask the simple and important questions..."what is really going on here"? "Is there something we might have missed in how we structured this"? Cheers mate.