Changing is hard thing. When it has to do with changing your management and leadership styles, it gets even more challenging.
I’ve found that anchoring in my mind a simple statement which summarizes a set of (great) principles is a very effective way to facilitate the change I am called to face.
The Principle of Mission is actually what Managers and Leaders of today need to accelerate their process of change towards Lean-Agile mindset. Use it like a catalyst!
We know that complexity, disruption, technological advances and products obsolence, everyday, cause change in customer perceptions and needs, business models: everything is fluid, volatile and uncertain (VUCA).
In these contexts the old-style management/leadership approach is disfunctional.
Command and control approach comes from war scenes.
The general and his officers made detailed plans to conquer a new strategic position and finally gave orders to soldiers (Command).
Ehi, look there! Now that general is sitting on his horse on the top of the hill, observing the results of given orders, and in the meanwhile he is receiving reports from the field (Control) and thus giving additional orders to be transmitted to the troops.
Very Static.
Unfortunately, even if this sounds old and vetust, in many organizations that leadership and management style is still well and alive.
We learned that in context like the one we are living, adaptive and servant leaderships are the only ones which can succeed.
I’ve found that anchoring in my mind a simple statement which summarizes a set of (great) principles is a very effective way to facilitate the change I am called to face.
Adaptive: in the sense of leveraging short feedback cycles, to be able to steer and change plans quickly.
In order to do that, we need to have a clear vision on what objectives we want to reach in the mid-long term period, but need to work empirically, in narrow iterations with short-term goals, which are appraoching stages to the former strategic objectives.
For the manager this means to: have an exciting vision, communicate it vividly, bring transparency, be prepared to review her plans according to feedback, accept failures.
Servant Leadership: in the sense of definitely aknowledging that teams and people working on the field are the experts. They, actually, could see any changes, risks or opportunities far before the manager and, therefore, in order to produce value for customers they need to be free to adapt and chose their ways of working autonomously.
For the manager this means to: be open and lowly, empower teams, promote trust, reduce the distance from the C-Suite to the teams, develop the skills and abilities of the people, remove any roadblocks the teams come accross, work through networks instead of hierarchies.
Such a big stuff to keep in mind for someone which is not used to it, isn’t it?!
And this is when the Principle of Mission comes into play:
Specify the end state, its purpose, and the minimal possible constraints.
Actually, coming back to war scenes, Napoleon was probably the first one who adopted the Principle of Mission: he provided his subordinates with the authority to make decisions in case the situation on the ground diverted from original plans and, more important, without the need to wait for any approval through escalation processes. Thus, his officers could adapt rapidly to changing circumstances.
Getting to the point, the Principle of Mission is a great tool for leaders to inspire through a vision and clearly communicating and stating the final intent of the organisation’s mission and contemporarily, letting the people to decide how to achieve it, avoding micro-managing and command and control.
Oh yes, and ultimately, repeat with me: “Specify the end state, its purpose, and the minimal possible constraints. Specify the end state….Specify the end state….” this will remind you all the flavours and nuances of the kind of leadership you have to develop during your journey. Good Luck!
