Subtle behind the apparent

Capability, Structure and Business results in a dynamic environment

In recent discussions with several business leaders and consultants one thing got emphasized several times. The current market scenario and the expected future which is extremely challenging specially for some industries. With the pressure mounting up, most of the organizations are devising ways to deal with the situation. The two levers at a broad level to look at are revenue and cost. To unlock value and curtail cost, organizations start looking at their org structure with a fine tooth-comb. What starts as an exercise to reduce cost and make organization future ready, results in some big structural changes. While the study is done and changes executed, it gives a certain sense of confidence because the CEO and the leadership team can see concrete numbers usually in terms of savings along with certain roles being removed, as a consequence certain roles become bigger and meatier and many a times demanding a significant change in the ways of working. A pretty common change is from siloed working to getting work done through collaboration and influencing without authority. The new horizontals that are created serve several entities and therefore demand the aforementioned capabilities to ensure that the new structure gives the benefit on a long- term basis as it appears on a ppt or document when it is proposed.

In such a scenario, the weakest link which is the big elephant which usually nobody wants to address directly is the gap in certain capabilities that has now become a norm and percolates within layers of the organization. It is this subtle element which has the potential of derailing the complete benefit that the new structure on paper promises.

The usual change management which is about declarations, some big events, some e-mail communications etc creates a sense of confidence which usually gets shattered within months. The reason being, the leaders who were successful when everything (all the functions) was under their absolute control now feel helpless and anxiety ridden as they are asked to demonstrate something completely new in a challenging environment when their roles have also expanded. This doesn’t sound fair to a lot of them, they may accept the change as it is inevitable, however, deep down they know that they are ill-prepared to deal with the situation. This results in big FRUSTRATION

1-     The new structure doesn’t seem to work

2-     Frequency and nature of conflicts increase

3-     Blame game is on the rise

4-     Coming unscathed from the management review (which are far too frequent now) becomes the topmost priority

5-     To add to the misery the outside job- market is anyways pathetic

All of the above problems cannot be solved with a silver bullet, however what emerges as a big learning is certain competencies (like collaboration and influencing) which are becoming more relevant as the future of work goes through tremendous changes, needs to be developed even if the current situation can be managed without much use of these competencies. It becomes a survival issue at some stage and it also impacts both individual and organizational growth. In a recent conversation with a business leader it was apparent that one of his DRs that he was fond of and was a great contributor in a hierarchical set up, was now facing as well as creating enormous problems in the new structure. It is difficult to accept one’s developmental areas when there is a blood bath in the market and there are roles that are being eliminated internally. The survival issue becomes critical and therefore all the more difficult to accept and acknowledge the reason to change. It is therefore imperative to be prudent about the world that we live in and develop capabilities beforehand. Also, the organizations that are considering some big structural changes need to understand that structure is just the starting point, real value gets unlocked when the people who are part of the structure specially the leaders, are prepared to accept and leverage the new structure and cascade the benefits. After all it’s the subtle that invigorates the apparent.