Schlagwort-Archive: Goals

Distributed leadership shares knowledge

The right decision needs the right understanding of the situation at the right time. Executives secured their claim to power for a long time based on the maxim „Knowledge is power “. Since in the past twenty years the Business processes, the IT and the organization were effectively streamlined, further progress can only be carried out by each individual. For this purpose, the employees receive in their role defined tasks, with the necessary authority and, in addition, the responsibility for the results. The prerequisite for this form of distributed leadership is openness through sharing the existing knowledge.

Wissen

In order to facilitate the decision making for the employees and in the interest of the joint goals, the access to the following information has to be guaranteed.

  • The context of the enterprise needs the overview of the corporate sites (incl. contact partners and local information of all kinds), the description of the market (incl. understandable market indicators and news) as well as the important internal and external stakeholders (e.g. suppliers, partners, and customers).
  • The products and services, competencies and processes that define essentially the business build together the strategic core. Thus, the employees can align their doing more easily to the value-adding functions.
  • The strategic and operational goals as well as key figures (incl. historical revenue and sales data, successes and difficulties, HR evaluation criterions) are the pre-requisites for a coordinated, successful goal achievement.
  • The description of the values, the rules and the escalation procedures shape the corporate culture.
  • The barrier-free access to all other databases (e.g. projects, products, procedures) avoids disturbing delays and reduces wasteful friction losses.

Bottom line: Enterprises cannot afford any longer to concede individuals any kind of knowledge lead. All have to be in the position to decide at any time that it is favorable for the enterprise as a whole. One of the most important pre-requisites is the equal access to ALL information. The only exception is information that is classified as secret.

The concept is feasible, if it functions comprehensibly

In art and entertainment, you can find formats that are based on improvisation. Action Painting, Jazz, Improvisational theater or talk shows offer a simple framework where the participants create results that are not previously planned in detail. In the construction of buildings, the programming of IT-applications or the foundation of an enterprise, a more extensive preparation is indispensable. The various parts are developed in relationship to one another. They are supposed to fit eventually as planned. One of the leadership tasks is it to ensure a consistent concept, besides the self-management, the coordination, the communication and cooperation. At best, one starts with a short description that shows that the intention is logically feasible.

Konzeption

In this first sketch, the following four aspects should be described in a way that one can decide, whether the effort of a detailed concept is worth it.

  • Goals
    This is to describe the desired target state as goals – the main goal and the corresponding sub goals. They should be formulated in a way that also outsiders understand the project.
  • Premises
    Thepremises describe the conditions that have to be fulfilled, in order to realize the project. This includes the required number of employees, the needed financial means, the necessary infrastructure (i.e the hard and software, spaces and media of all kinds) as well as the crucial skills and knowledge.
  • Results
    Theresults are always products and/or services. Products are split into expendable or durable goods. Services are person- or object-related. At this point, the understandable, complete list is better than results that are described in detail. In later preparation, the individual results are specified in more detail.
  • Explanation
    Theexplanations should further clarify the project to the reader. The vision and the mission obtain thereby the purpose of the plan. The listing of the substantial functions and processes convey the way, how the individual elements work with each other. The history and additional interesting information complete the picture. The explanations should be limited to those aspects that clarify the project and be formulated short and simple.

The biggest challenges in describing the concept are the determination of the length and the level of detail that should be prepared at this point of time, at the beginning of the process. Since the size of a project differs very much, there is no clear answer about the number of pages or other key figures. As rule of thumb, consider the following:

  • Outline as extensive, as necessary for understanding.
  • Describe as detailed, as necessary for the current decision.
  • Invest as little time, as possible.
  • Illustrate always goals, premises, results and explanations, as clearly as possible.

Eventually, you should be able to say: The concept is feasible, if it functions comprehensibly.