Organizational Harmony
Exists in Three Dimensions:
Vantage, Depth, & Tempo
Most of us can describe our own job roles in great detail. But how many of us can describe how it meaningfully connects to the organizational whole? This is a structural gap. Bridging it could help us to build a more complete understanding, and a more complete organization.
Vantage
WHAT WE SEE FROM WHERE WE STAND
How our roles are defined determines where we are in an organization. It shapes what we can see, and it is a strong predictor of the things we are more likely to not see. A vantage is close to a structural position, but the edges are alive with collaboration, translation, and cross-functional learning; we all blend together a little at the seams.
Humans exist independent of the organizations we are a part of. What an organization needs to thrive is not the same as what humans need.
“The roles that are structured around Coherence never exist outside the organization, they’re equal participants, with a shared fate.”
Craft
We are value creators. We build Craft through practice, and while we can build it with others, it is a deeply personal experience that we take with us whenever our journeys take us. But we are more than our roles. We are complex. We are foundational. Craft is not just knowing what we are capable of, but understanding where that capability is needed.
Contextual
What is the journey of the things we create? What is the experience of value? Everything we create in an organization is consumed by someone else. Every handoff has a recipient, and their experience of the handoff, not the artifact itself, is the real unit of value. How does it connect to what people around us are doing? How does it connect us to a sense of purpose?
Systems
We are teams, and teams-of-teams. We are complex, and we are structurally emergent. What we need is not the same as what the dynamic we create between us needs and this complexity cannot be simplified. How can an organization build from these dynamics help us create value, without commoditizing us? Resolve conflict within its parts, and do so equitably? Facilitate creativity, and not stifle us? Serve as the basis of trust, and remain an authority, even to itself?
Networks
Connection, interdependence, and coordination among peers. We build communities wherever we go, and we are stronger for it. It is our nature. How do we connect to the people around us? How do we align our separate goals to a common purpose?
Coherence
The more we specialize our roles, the more our grasp of the whole diminishes, as does our connection to it. The other vantages each see a complete organization but only from their own perspective. Coherence is the view of the whole. The roles that are built from Coherence never exist outside the organization, they are equal participants, with a shared fate.
WHAT IS AT STAKE
At what strategic scope does a decision need to be made? Is it a grand-strategic one, or technical? Any one decision might be right at one depth, but entirely wrong for another.
Depth of scope applies to actions and decision-making more than teams because depth is fluid, and should be allowed to overlap. Depth isn’t a position at all, it’s a property of the questions being asked, and a single decision can and should be examined at more than one depth at a time. Teams in roles defined by the operational scope also have the overlap of tactical and technical considerations in the execution of their operational roles.
A role, by design, gives us a detailed view of one part of the system and almost no equipment for seeing the rest of it.
The concrete tools or methods used to execute a task today. A short lived scope, fast and deep, but closest to the value of an organization, and the foundation of its efforts and successes.
Where specific decisions (win this negotiation, ship this fix) become results.
The systems and means connecting strategy to daily work, meant to protect both. This scope can serve to manage shared resources or choke by gatekeeping political rewards.
A major front, a market, a product line, a region. This scope engages allies, and enrolls partners, in collective knowledge building.
The organizational whole’s direction and purpose. This scope looks beyond time, and envisions a future. It looks beyond the organization, and it sees an ecosystem.
HOW FAST CAN WE, AND HOW FAST SHOULD WE
At what pace does an activity need to move? Is that pace shared or is it imposed? A response correctly delivered at one tempo can be wrong at another. Tempo exists as a spectrum, a continuum of pacing, native to different industries, organizations and teams. Slower teams entrain to a shared rhythm with faster teams when permitted to do so.
“You don’t overcome resistance to change by pushing harder; you give the energy a path to travel through, instead of a wall to hit.”
(Annual to Semi-Annual): The speed of the approaching horizon. The deep bedrock of an organization moves slowly. It sets the permanent boundaries, core values, and multi-year visionary goals.
(Semi-annual to Quarterly): The translation from vision to strategy, and from intention to action. This is the speed of organization itself, and defines how the different teams work together toward their shared objectives.
(Quarterly to Monthly): The pacing of mileposts, and the allocation of resource budgets for the journeys ahead.
(Monthly to Weekly): The pace of adjusting the sprints based on recent reviews, obstacles, or opportunities on the path.
(Bi-weekly to Daily): The daily task focuses on navigating fluidity, maintaining balance and momentum.