organizational self-direction
TRANSCRIPT
May 1, 2023Presentation name 1
OrganizationalSelf-DirectionOlof HoverfältDirector, Sanoma Games December 16, 2015
@Hoverfalt
Sanoma Games is a diverse yet compact and lean unit
B2C & B2B, web & mobile Autonomous unit Key functions “in-house”
Business development
Marketing
Design
Development
Sales
The following reflections are based on experience from running an autonomous business unit within a large organization
Individual Business unit Large organiation
Autonomy
Self-Direction
...Design Product Marketing Business
Self-direction requires much more than autonomy and trust
Work environment enabling personal ability to improve
Data-driven culture
Operational self-direction
Management fostering self-direction
Purpose
...Design Product Marketing Business
Self-direction requires much more than autonomy and trust
Work environment enabling personal ability to improve
Data-driven culture
Operational self-direction
Management fostering self-direction
Purpose
The first step in any attempt to increase proactivity is to ensure that people can actually make an impact
<Personal influence is often more about the small things that matter than about changing the world.
It can be something as simple as choosing your own work equipment
...Design Product Marketing Business
Self-direction requires much more than autonomy and trust
Work environment enabling personal ability to improve
Data-driven culture
Operational self-direction
Management fostering self-direction
Purpose
Self-direction cannot be created by coercion, but must be built through intrinsic motivation from its visible benefits
Transparency Autonomy Ownership
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Improvement actions
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Revenue
ROS&packag. campaign vol.
Videocampaign vol.
Pricing
Discounts
Campaign volume
Optimization
Direct
Referral
SEO
Ret. visitors
Potential issues
Site problems
Ad blockers
New visitors
Reach
Monetization
Visits
Premiumfill rate
Premium eRPM
Remnant eCPM
Unique visitors
Media sales breakdown by contributing component
Impression success rate
nn%
nn%
nn% mm%
nn%
nn%
nn% lost
Ensure overall understanding of how the business works and of the contribution of and the dependencies between its components. Make deep data available
In order for a team to develop and fine tune an engine, everyone must know how it works
Adoption of a data-driven approach requires for people to see its benefits; how they could kick ass even more at what they do
Image: http://blog.crazyegg.com/lessons/show-benefits/
Make the personal benefits of being data-driven visible.Show how its autonomous pursuit enhances mastery.
Super You!Data-drivenness
You
Ownershipis not about doing what I tell you to do
is not about not doing what I tell you not to dois about doing what I don’t tell you to do
Ensure ownership of benefits, not deliverablesFocus on why, not what
...Design Product Marketing Business
Self-direction requires much more than autonomy and trust
Work environment enabling personal ability to improve
Data-driven culture
Operational self-direction
Management fostering self-direction
Purpose
Data-drivenness, at both individual and team level, is a capability that can and should be developed
http://skepdic.com/tencommands.html
+While a data-driven mindset takes time to develop, it is a key enabler of operational self-direction.
This capability is best built before attempting extended autonomy in direction.
Reflection Key concepts
Being data-driven is not only about sensibly answering questions, but about finding them in the first place
It cannot itself be standardized into rules or processes, but it
can be guided by high-level key concepts
Side note: for more elaboration on the management and data-drivenness layers in this same context, please see:
www.slideshare.net/Hoverfalt/building-a-datadriven-culture
...Design Product Marketing Business
Self-direction requires much more than autonomy and trust
Work environment enabling personal ability to improve
Data-driven culture
Operational self-direction
Management fostering self-direction
Purpose
Simon Sinek: How Great Leaders Inspire Action (TED) & Start With Why (2013)
Focus on benefits, not deliverables. Strive to make this the standard way of thinking in practically everything
Deliverable
Benefit
Ability to cross the river
Don’t get stuck here Alternative solutions can only be found through benefit thinking
Benefit thinking might also reveal unconventional links and radically different opportunities to create value (solve problems)
Deliverable
Benefit
Avoid wasting time waiting for the bus
Bus schedule Audible
Remove waste by minimizing waiting time
Remove waste by making the waiting time
useful
Both solve the same problem
Like creativity, autonomy works best under constraints. Benefit-driven direction and freedom in how can be highly engaging
*Henrik Kniberg (Spotify, Lego, …): http://blog.crisp.se/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/unproject.pdf
Alig
nmen
t
AutonomyLow High
High
Low
Authoritative organization
Conformist culture
We need to cross the river
Build a bridge!
Innovative organization
Collaborative culture
We need to cross the river
Figure out how!
Micromanaging organization
Indifferent culture
… … …
Entrepreneurial organization
Chaotic culture
I hope someone is working on the river
problem
Aligned autonomy*
What/why given, freedom in how
How do we get there?
Can we go beyond?
Meaningfulness and mastery are key enablers of self-direction
Wha
t
HowPhilosophyInstruction MethodologyProcess
Purp
ose
Bene
fitDe
liver
able
Task
Meaningfulexecution
Operational self-direction
Goal-driven achievement
Meta level (reflection)
Met
a le
vel (
refle
ctio
n)Combining ownership of benefits with methodological autonomy and capability forms a
strong foundation for operational self-direction
Increasing Meaningfulness
Increasing capacity to find opportunities to
create value(find problems)
Ask: Why?
Increasing Mastery
Increasingcapacity to deliver
value (solve problems)Ask: Why not?
Taylorism
Pragmatic optimizing
TealVisionary motivation
Disengaging routine work
Provided the right competence and mindset, people doing the job are far better at deciding what is needed than any outsider
Platform: people responsible for their own decisions
Tools Sourcing Technology Learning …
A well-funcioning self-directed team often needs to be protected from centralized one-fits-all solutions. There is little point in trying to resist this as smart people will find their way around
Self-direction might yield remarkable innovations otherwise prohibited by limitations in formal processes, roles or structures
...Design Product Marketing Business
Self-direction requires much more than autonomy and trust
Work environment enabling personal ability to improve
Data-driven culture
Operational self-direction
Management fostering self-direction
Purpose
Ideally, you have a Massive Transformative Purpose*. If you don’t, purposefulness can come from other aspects of work
*Salim Ismail: Exponential Organizations
Purpose can be tricky, especially for incumbent companies in comparison to their disruptors.Not all endeavors save the world though. Work can still be meaningful
Substantial Contextual
“Mantra”(not vision)
-Guy Kawasaki
“Massive Transformative Purpose”
-Salim IsmailGreat team!
Benefits, Challenges and Opportunities
The benefits of self-direction are indirect but potentially huge
Engagement Productivity Adaptability
Self-direction might be a potential enabler of survival for large companies in the battle against über agile start-ups only through playing even remotely with their rules (or rather rulelessness)
*Henrik Kniberg (Spotify, Lego, …): http://blog.crisp.se/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/unproject.pdf
Maximize value,not output*
An engaged employee can be 10x+ more productive
Focus on failure recovery, not failure prevention
Building self-direction is by no means easy…
Requires work Takes time Risky
... but the transformation becomes easier as it gains momentum until ultimately self-sustaining
Must be allowed its own pace to find its own form
Needs a champion but cannot be coerced
No standard roll-out nor guarantee of success
While increasing and decreasing autonomy both involve risk, one key difference is in the potential upside when successful
* In my environment and experience, over 1 year
Perfo
rman
ce
Autonomy
OpportunityStrain-driven performance is capped
The initially higher marginal performance of decreased
autonomy drives decisions to revert to control in bad times
Pote
ntial
out
com
e
Pote
ntial
out
com
e
Transitioning to significantly increased autonomy requires a long-term view* and the acceptance of a certain level of short-term risk
The risk of even temporarily decreased performance is for many managers an understandable barrier to experiment
Perfo
rman
ce
Time
Inhibitor
Opportunity
At the end of the day, it’s all about the people
Really, it is
As talent management is more about enablement than development, it calls for analytics much deeper than skills etc.Creating Strategy AnalyticalComplexityInnovativeLearning orientationMultitaskingVision Engaging TalentAffiliationConcern for OthersDevelopmentSociabilityTeam Orientation Inspiring PeopleAssertivenessAuthorityDecisivenessEnergyInfluenceSocial Assuredness Achieving ExcellenceAchievement OrientationCompetitivenessDependabilityDetail OrientationInitiativeOrganizedRisk OrientationSelf Control
IBM Workforce Sciences (2015): Leadership Preference and Leadership Behavioral Assessment
Diverse thinking Intrinsic motivation
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Radically changing environment
An exponentially changing word challenges companies both from the outside and from within with a force difficult to grasp
Environment Employees
285k subscibers 59 million views
Companies face not only an exponentially changing environment, but also a new wave of ”employees” that have embraced it and live at its pace and rulelessness
Fixedassets
Our standard way of designing organizations seems to be as static structures of roles, defined by tasks and required skills
This demand-driven approach is ill suited in a rapidly changing environment
A temporary and flexible constellation of humans with talents and ambitions is better suited to describe opportunities
A shift to supply-driven talent management calls for at whole new level of awareness at scale and at all levels of the “organization”
Efforts to optimize return on human capital should reflect value creation, current and potential
While efforts in finding and developing future-proof top executives will be warranted for a long time, companies should build capabilities to optimize their entire human capital yield at the same level
Most HR analytics efforts seem to be
put here
Although customer value is
increasingly created here
Disruption pushes people to higher levels of human contribution
Wha
t
HowInstruction PhilosophyMethodologyProcess
Purp
ose
Bene
fitDe
liver
able
Task
Meta level (reflection)
Met
a le
vel (
refle
ctio
n)
Companies need to not only be prepared for this migration, but to drive it
AI
This is an enormous
opportunity to improve both
productivity and happiness
It requires for people to have the
willingness and capacity to rise to
new levels
”The best way to predict the future is to create it”
The next best strategy is to build adaptability
If you are not playing in that league...
Great reads on future current organizations
If you’re excited about this stuff too, I’m always up for an intriguing chat. The coffee/beer is on me
@Hoverfalt
May 1, 2023Presentation name 47