Too much or too few is too complex.

Managers overdoing their strengths and avoiding the areas of discomfort cost their companies a fortune. Why? Because they create organisational complexity – read more in our last blog entry. Let’s look at some examples of managerially-generated complexity in the area of strategy and planning:

• Seeking the perfect strategy. Many managers engage in a never-ending quest for data and analysis to craft their strategy. But overdoing “research”  – instead of committing to a few key goals and actions – can cause massive churn and add unnecessary complexity.
• Delegating strategy to others. In the quest for the perfect strategy and to avoid developing it on their own, some managers entirely delegate it to others. Whilst consulting support for strategy creation and execution is generally beneficial, it should never substitute the duties of the executive team. Otherwise the results become disconnected from the organization – and never get implemented.
• Allowing the planning cycles to run on and on. Insufficient discipline in regard to timing and finalization of outputs leads to multiple planning cycles and adds up to the overall time and complexity. Stick to a clear process and move on, finito!

Do you recognize yourself or your managers in any of these patterns? Enter your comment below. In the next memo we will see how similar behaviour influences goal setting and demand making.

This blog is from our Friday noon memo #36. Interested in regular updates? Sign up here.

© Copyright by New Pace Consulting SA, 2010. All rights reserved.
This post is based on “Simply Effective” by Ron Ashkenas.

Comments

[John Zimmer]

Hi Volkmar,

A good post. I particularly like the first point. It reminds me of an Irish proverb: ""You'll never plow a field by turning it over in your mind."

Cheers!

John
http://mannerofspeaking.org/