How business processes shape the space for behaviours and mindset
We can not avoid but to work on and with the human behaviours in running and building organisations. No strategy map, organisational rule book, software or set of instructions will be acceptable, complete, flexible or human enough, to channel the work and energy of a diverse group of people, every day again. Also, human, behavioural and cultural aspects not rarely frustrate or break the business growth and transformation trajectories we design. Until further notice, building a business is about human and behavioural design, whether we like it or not.
At the same time, you can not steer directly nor dictate how humans behave (in a lasting way). Key role for the leadership is to create the space for people to adopt and grow the behaviours that make a positive difference to the collective objectives, in a sustainable fashion.
That space gets shaped by the way we make decisions, run our meetings, test new ideas, provide customer service, run our operational process, negotiate with suppliers, to name only those. This signals what matters in this place, which behaviours get encouraged or discouraged, how we work with (or against) the emotions of our people, what can be said or not, how we relate to one another. The hard coding steers the soft coding (and of course, vice versa). In the same way the physical environment in a house influences the mood, channels the energy and signals how we interact with what is inside and outside the house, business processes and systems (as the hard coding of a business) design the space for how our people behave.
While leaders will undoubtedly see and take their responsibility in designing the business processes (with a keen eye on control, cost efficiency, zero defects, first time right and other key objectives), we invite to take into that same equation the behavioural design. How do we/how do these processes build a mindset and behaviour-set of curiosity and connectivity, of value creation and value delivery, of ownership and responsibility, of trust and safety, of focus, speed and flexibility. All these are key in building growing organisation, yet, we might be surprised how much (or little) this is represented in the design of our core processes.
Some important principles that we need keep in mind when creating the space:
- Lasting behavioural change happens when intrinsic motivation meets external context and requirement.
- New behaviours emerge from ‘will’ (energy and drive), from capability (chance to learn and grow the new behaviours and habits) and from permission (the encouragement to try and display the new behaviours).
- People we trust and admire have more impact on how we think and act, then people with a title only.
- Recognise that (new) ways of doing things will need to grow from awareness, to understanding, to implementation, before these are truly internalised.
- People act themselves into a new way of thinking, they don’t think themselves into a new way of acting: (purposeful) action and connected experiments breed (new) behaviour.
- Mindset is key. The permission mentioned above, is also the permission our mind (and therefore we) give(s) to ourselves. Our own assumptions, beliefs and thinking patterns shape how we behave.
Leading through behaviours, is a craft. Actually, leading is a craft. Because you can not not lead through behaviours. Nor can it be delegated to others inside or outside the organisation.
We can trigger (not programme) certain behaviours in people, through different influencing mechanisms:
- By making explicit what (critical few) behaviours are important and why.
- By setting up organisational processes and ways of working where those behaviours can be displayed in day-to-day life: e.g. if empowerment is key, how do we create a budgeting and performance management cycle that stimulates ownership and empowerment? If we believe in diversity, how do we stimulate difference in opinions in our weekly meetings?
- By encouraging the proper and discouraging the improper behaviours, through feedback and reinforcement loops.
- Creating role models and informal ambassadors that get recognition for their constructive behaviours.
- Giving people a chance to experiment and grow into (new) behaviours, unlearn old/unproductive behaviours.