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 connects to the organizational whole? This is a structural gap. Bridging it could help us to see, and to build, more completely.
Vantage
WHERE WE STAND
Where we are in an organization shapes what we can see, and it predicts the things we might be overlooking. A vantage is close to a structural position, but the edges are soft, and blend at the seams.
We exist independent of the organizations we are a part of. What it needs to thrive is not the same as what we 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 personal, we take it with us when we leave. We are more than our roles. We are complex. We are foundational. Craft is knowing, not just what we are capable of, but 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.
Depth
WHAT’S 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 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.
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.
Grand-Strategic
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.
Strategic Theater
A major front, a market, a product line, a region. This scope engages allies, and partners, structure and proactive knowledge building.
Operational
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.
Tactical
Where specific decisions (win this negotiation, ship this fix) become results.
Technical
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.
Tempo
HOW FAST WE CAN AND SHOULD
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.”
- Perennial
- 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.
- Collaborative
- 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.
- Steady
- (Quarterly to Monthly): The pacing of mileposts, and the allocation of resource budgets for the journeys ahead.
- Accelerated
- Monthly to Weekly: The pace of adjusting the sprints based on recent reviews, obstacles, or opportunities on the path.
- Responsive
- Bi-weekly to Daily: The daily task focuses on navigating fluidity, maintaining balance and momentum.