by David Haynes

Huh? What does a clownfish hanging out in a green anemone have to do with improving how effective our organizations are? More than you might think…

No one understands all of the complex, interdependent ways that several thousand species interact on healthy coral reefs, but we do know that that interaction is critical to the overall health of our planet. Unfortunately, reefs around the planet are in crisis, stressed and suffering – not because we haven’t understood the relationships, but because we haven’t protected the environment in which those interactions take place.

In our businesses, we also tend to try to manage the thousands of complex relationships rather than the single environment that they exist within. We're also seeing the results of that impossible task: difficulty competing in a world market, unhappy and less productive work forces, poorly served customers, depressed profits, and entire organizations at risk.

Imagine trying to take care of your lawn by looking after the health of each individual blade of grass. Push your lawnmower five feet and you’ve already cut more blades of grass than there are employees at 3M.

Symbiotic relationships: Why ask why?

Our friends the clownfish have not only adapted to the unfriendly environment of the anemone (a sea creature that typically stings and paralyzes anything it touches), but they have learned how to use it to their advantage – with a clear understanding of the environment the anemone creates, but with no real understanding of how the anemone creates it. It is a symbiotic relationship, and each animal benefits from it.

That notion of the linking of mutual dependence to mutual advantage is key to understanding how best to create the message and the structure in your organization that will allow you to reap the benefits of employee involvement in continuously improving the business.

Researchers from The Gallup Organization have clearly established the link between “engaged” employees and customers and overall business performance. They also demonstrate that even when outcomes are similar across business units, the specific means to those ends may not be the same. In fact, they argue that in many cases it’s impossible to get the same outcomes using the identical processes in different contexts.

These “processes” are different from what we normally think of on the production floor. In the “process” of interacting with other people – which is what all business activities eventually boil down to – we all act a little differently depending upon our individual experiences and beliefs. When we ignore those differences, it results in the “canned” response we’ve all gritted our teeth through when we inadvertently answer a telemarketing call. The “process” for the telemarketers is the same, but the outcomes are much different.

Just as we can’t tend our lawn by attending to each individual blade of grass, we can’t tend our organization by standardizing each individual interaction. The clownfish, however, have proved that we can create a mutually beneficial relationship by managing our environment even if we don’t know all the reasons why it’s the way it is.

Managing your organization’s environment

First and foremost, managing your environment involves doing a little detective work to see if what you’re measuring really encourages the behavior you want. Just like a good magician creates strong expectations in order to divert you from what’s really happening just out of sight, the measures themselves can sometimes convince you that you’re seeing something that’s not really there.

This is where a good outside perspective can come in handy – as long as you can identify the needed skills. Years ago, Uri Geller convinced a lot of people who were experts in materials science that he could bend spoons with his mind. The people he couldn’t convince were the experts in magic – a group who thought his trick wasn’t even very good magic.

Once you start asking better questions about the things you’re measuring and their relationship to the things you want done, you can begin to look at the overall environment in your organization. Here are some questions to help shed some light on the environment your people find themselves in:

• Are people happy to be here? Why or why not?
• Do I hear enough dissenting viewpoints to be confident we’re challenging ourselves?
• When I ask people why the company exists, do they all say the same thing?
• Do people know what to do when they have ideas to share?
• Do we have any risk-takers? If not, why not?
• Are the leaders of our organization (myself included) viewed as people who remove barriers, or people who erect barriers?

Most of these questions you can’t effectively ask directly – people are always trying to figure out why you’re asking and what the “right” answer is.  This is often why leaders shy away from the so-called “soft science” of social interaction – it seems too slippery, too inconsistent, and too difficult to manage – but it’s also why so few companies achieve their true potential.

You don’t have to use all the brains in your organization – but why wouldn't you want to?

About the author

David Haynes is a senior process improvement consultant with Wipfli’s manufacturing practice.  His experience spans over 30 years in manufacturing, IT, and sales/marketing, helping improve and integrate processes in all aspects of business, from customer service to the shop floor. David can be reached at 952.548.3400 or dhaynes@wipfli.com.