Supervising organizational culture

Mostly, companies don’t fall prey to a business drama because of poor products or services. Instead, it’s often because of how people behave: decision-making, problem-solving, and collaboration. In other words: the organization’s culture.

Business dramas always follow a similar pattern: while the (short-term) results seem fine, the drama germinates, unfolds slowly and suddenly becomes clear in full size. Whether it is about accounting scandals (Imtech, Vestia), corruption scandals (Ballast Nedam), or harassment in the workplace (Talpa / The Voice): such dramas have been in the making for years. When we learn about them in the media, it is often an apotheosis of long-term development. Business dramas powerfully underscore how much the organizational culture is relevant to a company’s long-term success. This begs the question: what are the possibilities for an organization’s non-executive board to supervise culture?

Culture is complex but decisive
It is easier to manage costs or cash flow than culture or behavior because culture is more complex and often more elusive than financial figures or key performance indicators. Culture also goes beyond compliance. For example, a non-inclusive organization, where leadership only promotes certain people, could still be fully ‘compliant’ with the applicable rules and regulations. The lack of inclusiveness could still backfire, for example, because its reputation in the labor market deteriorates. Or because lack of inclusiveness reduces the agility of the organization.

Often, organizational culture is considered a given that is hard to change. It goes so far that leaders often regard culture as an obstacle to change. For example, a study under 85 ‘Fortune 1000’ companies showed that the use of Big Data and artificial intelligence does not yet lead to expected improvements. For the fifth year in a row, ‘cultural barriers’ were the main obstacle. And that is peculiar because culture is pre-eminently a long-term factor that directors and supervisory boards can monitor and influence.

Moreover, culture can be made specific. It does not lend to hollow rhetoric because employees always test the preached values to the actual behavior in an organization. Behavior contains information for supervisory directors to act upon. Because it always reflects the values that truly matter in the organization. For example, consider an organization where ‘Teamwork’ is a significant value. When management consistently promotes those who profile themselves at the expense of others, it is clear that the actual value is more something like: everyone for themselves.

It’s the culture, stupid!
One of the Bill Clinton election campaign pillars in 1992 was the US economy. Internal communication constantly pointed this out: “It’s the economy, stupid!” This phrase eventually became the campaign tagline that contributed to Clinton’s victory. This one-liner, somewhat rephrased, is equally suitable for long-term supervision of organizations: It’s the culture, stupid!

A culture is a long-term object of board supervision
There are national codes for good corporate governance. It is the responsibility of supervisory boards to monitor whether actual behavior reflects this code well. It can relate to the quality of directors, their vision on reality, cooperation, and the (informal) balance of power. But also to behavior that they observe elsewhere in the organization. Whether that behavior aligns with the criteria and long-term business interest becomes clear through dialogue, observations, and verifying information. Non-executives are ideally suited to test whether an organization’s culture serves its long-term interest. An organization’s culture can be more explicit subject to supervision. It requires an effort by supervisory boards, which will pay dividends in the long run. That is because solid cultures are the pillar of unicity and change capacity of organizations. The same applies to allowing a culture that is not in line with the long-term business interest: that also pays itself in the long term, but in a negative sense.

Autonomy for less stress and better performance

Work stress
Work stress causes more than personal suffering. It increasingly leads to loss of productivity and it is costly (see factsheet). It affects the performance of organizations and reduces their capacity to change. For organizations that want to be able to respond effectively to developments and events in their environment, it is important to understand the possible causes of work stress and what can be done about it.

The week of work stress
In November it is the Week of Work stress. This annual event was initiated in 2014 by the Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment. Every year the work stress statistics are – unfortunately – impressive. What is most striking is that 1.3 million workers in the Netherlands suffer from burnout complaints. That is 14% of our nine million workers, or one in seven. What is further striking: employees experience low autonomy as the main cause of work stress. More than 43% in 2020. This percentage has been fairly constant in recent years.

Responsive Organizations
An analogous picture emerges in the analysis of responsive organizations. They have an optimal capacity for change: they respond well to changes and anticipate effectively on new needs and developments in their environment. Responsive organizations come in many shapes and sizes, but what they have in common is that autonomy is invested as low as possible in the organization. In other words, employees have a high degree of autonomy.

Autonomy, work stress and change capacity
So it seems that autonomy, work stress and change capacity have a relationship with each other, as shown in the following graph:

Autonomy levels affect both the wellbeing of employees as well as the organizational capacity to change

A higher degree of autonomy is good for the well-being of employees and for the change capacity of organizations. Time to take a closer look at autonomy…

Autonomy is a basic need
People experience autonomy when they can determine the way they do their work. The degree to which autonomy is possible depends on the type of work. But even if a task is clearly defined, there are still plenty of opportunities to give employees autonomy. For example, by letting them make certain decisions themselves, giving them room for their own (improvement) initiatives and being open about the developments of the entire organization. In all kinds of studies, ‘autonomy’ emerges as one of the basic needs of employees.

Netflix: Freedom, Responsibility and Trust
A good example in which autonomy leads to more well-being of employees and contributes to the ability to change is given by Netflix. The company gives the ultimate interpretation to the concept of autonomy: to optimize the innovative capacity of the fast-growing company, there is a culture of ‘no rules’. The management recognized that (rapid) growth of organizations often comes at the expense of the freedom of individuals: in order to cope with the increasing complexity, more and more processes and procedures are being introduced in larger organizations. But it also comes at the expense of employees. Especially those who make significant contributions to success and are less comfortable with the curtailment of their freedoms in the workplace.

Netflix wanted to turn this around: can we continue to grow fast and continuously attract sufficient talent, without increasing complexity? Therefore, the company introduced a values-driven culture without rules. Full freedom for the employees, in the confidence that they take their responsibility and make decisions in the interest of the organization. This means, for example, that people do not have to ask for approval on travel or expenses. There is also no maximum number of vacation days, which are not recorded anyway.

Netflix’s continuous growth and creative achievements show that a high degree of autonomy contributes to a high intrinsic motivation of employees and to the innovative capacity of a company.

Win win
In the history of management, employers and employees have always been pitted against each other. This is partly due to deep-seated prejudices and assumptions that lie at the root of traditional management thinking. In it, workers were seen primarily as a factor of production, an extension of machines, rather than people with individual needs.
In the present time there is no more room for this schism. Because statistics – worldwide – make it clear time and again that the social, organizational and personal sacrifices no longer outweigh the benefits of employees with little autonomy.

It is time for entrepreneurs, directors and managers to work towards maximum autonomy among employees. That benefits all stakeholders. It is therefore a win-win situation: employers, managers and employees have an interest in the highest possible level of autonomy. The Netflix case is one of many, in which it is consistently proven that giving trust, responsibility and autonomy leads to more agility, resilience and innovation capacity. As a bonus, it benefits the employer brand. And that is worth a lot in this time of talent scarcity!

How to create more buy-in

Change which is ignited by motivated employees goes better and faster than change which is ‘imposed’. How can you tap into the intrinsic motivation of your employees so that it matches the ambition or priorities of the organization?

Support base
Lack of support is one of most the important causes of frictions that hinder change. Differences in understanding of priorities exist between management and teams (in 40% of the cases, see graph) and within teams (70%). They lead to resistance. How can you convert that into support?

Source: dissertation by Dr. J.M. van de Poll,
Ambition Patterns in Strategic Decision-Making.

The trench of one’s own right
We live in a highly opinionated society with an abundance of information. We only need a little information to form our opinion and we are strongly inclined to hold on to it.

We have all experienced it: you have a discussion about a problem and you are convinced of your opinion. But… the better you put forward your arguments and supporting facts, the harder your conversation partner seems to cling to his or her conviction. Instead of coming together, it seems that everyone is digging themselves in the trench of their own right.

Trying to convince others of your opinion often leads to more resistance and controversy

Persuasion leads to resistance
This is a well-known phenomenon in clinical psychology: people are well aware of their behavior – and the improvement it needs – but when you want to convince them that they have to change, resistance arises. What if we don’t try to convince others but instead let people find the motivation to change themselves?

Change by listening
That’s exactly what motivational interviewing is about: it’s a technique, developed by Bill Miller and Stephen Rollnick1, that originated in addiction treatment.

1 Motivational interviewing: helping people change, William R. Miller en Stephen Rollnick, third edition, 2013

In motivational interviewing, the interviewer – or: the manager, the colleague, the parent, the coach… – mainly asks questions and listens, with the aim of finding out what would motivate someone to change. Not by telling people what to do, but by letting them discover alternatives themselves2.

2 The results of this method of interviewing in mental health care are good: 75% of the studies on this method report positive results and psychologists and doctors who use it report a success rate of 80%. Source: Think again: the power of knowing what you don’t know, Adam Grant, 2021, page 149. 

Suppose a manager has an employee on his team who often delivers his work too late. That is annoying for colleagues because they depend on it. The manager would like the employee to plan his work better so that the team can rely more on him. When the manager tries to convince him to change his behavior, the start of the conversation could go like this:

Manager: I notice that you often deliver your work late. You need to plan your work better.
Employee: Oh, what’s wrong with it?
Manager: The people who depend on your numbers get in trouble if you deliver late. They must be able to rely on you to keep your promises.
Employee: Well, I keep my promises allright…
Manager: But your numbers are often too late.
Employee: If different things are asked of me all the time, it becomes difficult to keep everyone happy.

This does not seem to be going in a direction that leads to motivation and agreement. What if the manager is eager to find out what would motivate the employee to organize his work differently? That conversation could go like this:

Manager: Could you explain to me how you plan your work?
Employee: Of every request that comes in, I note when it has to be finished.
Manager: So you have a good overview of all deadlines?
Employee: Yes.
Manager: And that works well?
Employee: The problem is that people come up with additional questions very often. As a result, I lose the overview and some activities will be delayed.
Manager: I understand that’s difficult. What could you do to keep the overview and meet the expectations of your colleagues?
Employee: I could schedule activities for each deadline and stick to it more closely when new requests come in.

Now an open conversation arises in which the manager understands the nature of the problem better – ‘planning’ is not so much the problem, but what the employee does when shifts occur. The employee, in turn, feels safe to think along about changing his behaviour. Now the door opens to a structural solution.

Change from within
Motivational interviewing enables the other person to find his or her motivation for change. Such motivation is always stronger than when behavioral change is imposed. It also leads to greater mutual understanding and support. It enables you and your team to become more responsive because dilemmas and problems are solved faster and more effectively, with more creativity and in greater harmony.

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Market leaders are extremists

No lack of ambitions
When you read the annual reports or websites of companies, you will notice that there is no lack of ambitions. Just see how often you come across the following phrase: “Company X has a leading position…”, “Company Y is the market leader in….”.

There are, of course, more companies with the ambition to be a market leader than there are actually market leaders. After all, it is easier to declare yourself the market leader than to actually be it. But responsive organizations grow from within, with self-awareness and confidence. It is good to have a solid ambition, but with that comes the question of what the ambition of your organization means in practice.

The game and the rules
Long ago, after I had ended a relationship, a good friend gave me a book as an uplifting gesture: ‘If love is a game, these are the rules’. The writer, Chérie Carter-Scott, approached the subject like a game. Assuming that understanding and applying the rules of the game will increase your chances of lasting success in love and relationships. In the context of entrepreneurship, this is an interesting perspective: if ‘market leadership’ is the game, what are the rules? And are you willing to do what it takes to realize your ambitions?

Mercilessly hard
Companies that are leading in their market (segment) come in many shapes and sizes. A great diversity is possible in the way in which market leadership is shaped – in terms of market share, quality, turnover, cost leadership, service or innovation. In that respect, the first rule is that market leaders find and go their own way. Heading for their own, unique, vision of the products and services they provide. That is the starting point for exceptional results that ultimately lead to market leadership. But this requires a quality that is just as important: the ability to do it. That means sticking mercilessly to that vision and the principles of quality. To the extreme.

Extremists
In our earlier blog ‘The blessings of micromanagement’ we already discussed that extreme attention to detail leads to extreme quality. You could say that market leaders are extremists. In the good sense of the word.

For example, Djops is an employment agency with its own vision on quality: the company wants to be the best and strives that customers and temporary workers experience this every time. That is why, for example, every temporary worker is personally brought to the customer by a Djops employee at the start of an assignment. To ensure that everything is in order for a good execution of the work. Employees are therefore endlessly pointed out how important it is to always fulfill the quality promise (‘starting inside means winning outside’ is the motto). That extra attention takes a lot of effort and energy. Every day. But it leads to distinctive quality that is experienced. As one client put it: “Temporary workers often complain about their employment agency, but never about Djops”.

Steve Jobs is known to have had an extreme vision vision on design: the inside of a PC must also be visually well designed and neatly arranged. Does it matter? Yes, because “mercilessly” following this rule contributes to the best possible user experience; even when you have to open your PC once, the product looks great. Which is fully aligned with the vision and mission of the company: to realize the best user experience, by providing the best service and fantastic products.

Jumbo Supermarkets goes very far when it comes to customer service: at the start of the supermarket chain, they investigated the main reasons for dissatisfaction among supermarket customers. It turned out there were seven. Waiting times at the checkout, for example. Or a large assortment, but just not the one brand that you like. Jumbo turned these ‘dissatisfiers’ around and turned them into seven ‘customer certainties’. Some of these are extreme from a traditional retailer’s point of view. If one customer wants a product of a specific brand that is not sold, it will be bought specifically for that person. And are you number four in line at the cash register when not all cash registers are open? Then you get your groceries for free! Jumbo’s extreme behavior when it comes to service and exceeding customer expectations has contributed to the supermarket fast growth for years.

New Year’s resolutions
It takes a lot of effort to realize extreme ambitions – whether you are an employment agency, a computer manufacturer or supermarket. But it always delivers distinctiveness that pays off in market position and growth.

This requires more than that unique vision or that far-reaching idea: the discipline and the ability to actually do it.

In other words, the most important rules of the game ‘Market leadership’ are comparable to the annual good intentions: you should not only have them, but above all: follow through. Every day.

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From resistance to aspiration

Details make perfection
In the previous blog we discussed the blessings of micromanagement: if you want to be the best, it pays to go into great detail. “Details make perfection, and perfection is not a detail,” said Leonardo da Vinci, and that also applies to top-quality products and services.

So micromanaging products and services pays off, but micromanaging people does not: it distracts and undermines self-confidence. Moreover, nobody likes it when people are constantly told in detail what to do and how. People thrive when they can indulge in a task that suits their talents and ambitions, with a certain degree of autonomy, in good cooperation with colleagues.

Resistance
The micromanager’s urge to control creates resistance. Because people feel affected in their autonomy, while they want to have the feeling that they are masters of their situation. In addition, people under micromanagers experience insufficient recognition. And that is a basic social need: people want to be seen for who they are and what they can do. Lack of recognition also causes resistance.

Out of the stranglehold
How do you get out of the stranglehold of the urge to control? How can you achieve your goals without the resistance that a micromanager typically evokes? Without giving yourself and others the feeling that you have to interfere ‘really on everything’ in order to get the work done properly? How do you involve people in your ambition for quality and results?

Trust
In micromanagement, the self-confidence of team members is undermined because they experience insufficient confidence in their qualities. The primary task of management is to build that trust. You do this by being explicit about the qualities you value in your team members and the potential you see in them. One of the most influential thinkers in the field of leadership, Stephen Covey, once summed it up like this: “Leadership is communicating the value and potential of people so clear that they will eventually see for themselves.”

Whenever I work with others I experience how true this statement is and how much people need to be confirmed in their qualities and potential. We live in a society that is disproportionately focused on mistakes and imperfections. More than on potential. Early on in primary school, children learn how much “mistakes” their work contains. But which perspective is better for self-confidence, “two wrong” or “twelve right”? Whenever I ask people about their qualities, I always notice that they are much better able to name their ‘bad’ qualities and ‘weaknesses’ than to talk about their strengths and potential. But when we only talk about their talents, possibilities and ambitions, the relationship transforms: people feel understood, seen and recognized and a better energy is created. The energy of trust.

Team
At team level, the principle is the same as with individuals. I regularly apply the following to teams I work with to build trust and engagement: after we have developed a strategy or change plan, I ask the team members to imagine it is five years later. And that all ambitions and goals from the plan have been achieved. Then I ask the people to write an email to each other, also dated five years later, in which they describe three things:

  • why they are so proud of the organization;
  • what they value in each of the other team members;
  • what they value most in themselves.

It is arranged in such a way that everyone receives all emails at exactly the same time. They are invariably full of positive energy, ambition, enthusiasm and appreciation. The potential that people see together is very tangible1. When the team members have done this, there is always a noticeable increase in energy: there is more appreciation, trust and fun. And that is reflected in the cooperation and better results.

1 This approach is inspired by Benjamin Zander’s YouTube lecture “How to give an A” and the book “The Art of Possibility”, which he co-wrote with his wife Rosamunde (Penguin Books, 2000).

Aspiration
Through such a way of collaborating and forming ambitions – primarily based on possibilities and appreciation – you unleash an aspiration in the team. The aspiration to realize ambitions together, to realize goals, to grow. Aspiration is a much more powerful source of energy than resistance. Resistance lowers the team’s energy, atmosphere and agility. Aspiration increases energy, enthusiasm and decisiveness.

Now the team is ‘on the road’ to realize its ambitions. It is important to maintain the energy and to allow both the individual employees and the team to come into their own. In addition, they benefit more from a facilitating manager who supports, advises and coaches them than from a controlling micromanager. But managers who have arrived at this point will have little interest in the arduous path of micromanagement, which saps too much energy and fun from all involved.

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The Blessings of Micromanagement

Micromanagement can be defined as a management style characterized by the need for extreme control and attention to detail. In general, this style has a negative connotation, especially because the attention to details gives the employees of the manager in question a constant pressure – ‘is ​​it never good enough’, ‘is it never finished’? – and a perceived lack of freedom.

Extreme attention to detail also carries the risk of losing sight of the big picture and more important priorities. And, last but not least: work as such does not become more pleasant when people are ‘micromanaged’.
Is there nothing positive to report about micromanagement? It just depends how you look at it…

Eleven Madison Park
There is an interesting documentary series on Netflix: Seven Days Out. This 2018 series documents the events – and the accompanying excitement, setbacks and dramas – seven days leading up to a major event in sports, fashion and aerospace, among others. One of the episodes is devoted to Eleven Madison Park, at that time voted the best restaurant in the world and in possession of three Michelin stars. The owners, Chef Daniel Humm and General Manager Will Guidara explain that they are driven by the ambition to be the best restaurant in the world. The documentary records how they work in great detail to prepare the restaurant, seven days before its reopening after a renovation. Halfway through the episode, Guidara gives his view on their quality ambitions: “We see excellence as thousands of perfectly executed details. If you can focus on every single detail, and not on the whole, then you start to get somewhere.” To illustrate this, Guidara gives a concrete example: “Every plate in the restaurant is placed in such a way that the logo at the bottom of the plate is turned towards you”. In such a way that if you turn the plate over, you see the logo of the tableware neatly upright. Will Guidara says about this: “Does anyone notice? No. Why does it matter? It means that when we put up signs, we do it with more intention .”

Intention as a driver for quality and perfection to a level that no one notices anymore. Except maybe that one person wondering what the tableware brand is… anyway, the micromanagement of the owners of Eleven Madison Park has created one of the most successful restaurants in the world.

Pixar Studios
Pixar Studios is also a good example of micromanagement. Pixar is one of the most successful film studios and an organization in which creativity and quality are embedded in the organizational culture. All aspects of every film are meticulously scrutinized and produced, from idea to realization. For example, production teams hold daily review meetings in which the development of an animation film is discussed. The team members are expected to assess the work of their colleagues in great detail and without restraint: what is wrong, what is missing, what is unclear in the animations? And every few months, the progress of production of the entire film is reviewed higher up in the organization. According to the same principle: what is not good, what is missing, how can it be improved? All this with one goal: “to make a great film, with great people”. Because that’s Pixar’s mission. And with results, because Pixar’s films are all blockbusters and have won many awards.

Thrive because of micromanagement
How come in these examples the teams and organizations do not perish because of micromanagement, but thrive because of it? That’s because micromanagement focuses on the quality of products and services – not the way people do their jobs.

Conscious culture
This requires a corporate culture in which it is clear to everyone that the quality of the end result is what matters most. Every aspect of the product or service is evaluated in detail and (continuously) improved. It also means a high degree of psychological safety: it is safe for people to speak out and experiment. Or to make mistakes. “Fail early, fail fast.” is one of Pixar’s mottos, because when it’s safe to make mistakes, progress is made faster.


You can micro-manage things, but not people
Quality is about details. And the higher the quality ambitions of your organization, the more attention should be paid to ever smaller details. In the case of a restaurant, it may concern the placement of the crockery, in an animation film it may be about the detail of a shadow in the drawing. Because extreme attention to the details of a product leads to extreme quality.

That is the area where micromanagement pays off. This can only be done sustainably in a working environment in which employees are involved in the ambitions of the organization and at the same time can give substance to their work in their own way. In other words: a thousand perfectly executed details give you distinctive character. People give up on people who try to micro-manage them. But things can micro-managed just fine.

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Avoid the Beethoven mistake

Companies that have the most agility and resilience create differentiation. This requires responsive organizations that effectively anticipate changing (market) conditions and adapt organically. For this to be possible, a number of principles apply. These relate to employees, teams, departments and the way in which they work together. To become more responsive, a culture and behavioral change is often required. It is often assumed that realizing this change is closely related to structures and processes. But nothing is less true.

The Beethoven Mistake
In his book “Our Inner Ape”, biologist Frans de Waal discusses the relationship between the behavior of great apes and humans. He explains that for a long time people’s morals were explained by religion or culture and not by nature. Because by nature people would have no morals. But we now know that even great apes have a moral sense. According to De Waal, the earlier assumption arose out of confusion: because natural selection is a cruel and ruthless process of elimination, it was argued that it must produce cruel and ruthless creatures. In other words: the process is confused with the result. De Waal calls this ‘The Beethoven mistake’: Beethoven composed great and unparalleled music. You wouldn’t expect such a person to be unkempt and sleazy and living in a dirty and smelly house. Yet that was the case.

Confusion of process with result
In doing so, De Waal points out a fallacy that is often made in change projects: the tendency to develop structures or processes in the assumption that the intended behavioral change will arise naturally from this. But processes and structures are inconclusive about the success of cooperation between people.

Why is that?
Processes and structures work according to the laws of logic. You can set up a mechanical production process in such a way that the quality is statistically almost perfect. Six sigma is based on it. But people function according to ‘psychologica’ with their motivations, conditionings and (unconscious) beliefs.

As a result, collaboration in organizations is always a bit of a ‘black box’. You make agreements about objectives, responsibilities, tasks, way of working, et cetera. But just like with a football team, it is not yet certain how the match will develop and what the exact result will be. The outcome is largely determined by responsiveness: how events and setbacks along the way are dealt with.

Responsiveness and motivation
Effective behavioral change occurs when teams are given the space and freedom to determine the implementation of the plan themselves, based on a shared vision and goals. People are motivated to do this when their work matches their ambitions (am I doing what I want to do?) and talents (am I doing what I can do?). It is important that there is room for personal interpretation and a certain degree of autonomy.

Motivated employees connect easily, take responsibility and come up with solutions to problems themselves. As the production manager of a factory once put it: “If I let the employees focus on delivering the products to our customers on time, they are smart enough to order the necessary parts on time.”

Breeding ground to inspire change
It works the same way with behavioral change: the task of management is more facilitating than guiding. Aimed at the right breeding ground for change. One that brings people together and inspires change.

This requires managers to let go of control of the process and focus on the motivation of the people in the team and their mutual relationships. Employees need growth and inspiration and derive their meaning from the extent to which they are challenged and contribute to success. Not following processes ‘as such’. Successful managers understand this and focus on the emotional dynamics between people. As a result, they bring people together and create the right atmosphere. The creativity and connection that arises as a result often produces astonishing results. It is not without reason that there is increasing interest in working with self-managing teams.

Realizing the unique potential
In nature, the simple rule is that organisms exist by surviving and reproducing. How they accomplish this is left open. That is why nature has such a great diversity. The same law applies to responsive organizations: successful behavioral change ties in with the unique potential of an organization and can take many forms. Good processes and structures are of course helpful, but not decisive. Or, as De Waal puts it: ‘the process does not specify the path to success any more than the interior of a house in Vienna tells us what kind of music is coming out the window’.

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Responsiveness and the communication dilemma

Personals advertisement
“Man, 39, is looking for a girlfriend to share joys and sorrows with. I am sporty, I have humor and I like good food with a good glass of wine and a nice conversation. “

What’s wrong with this ad? It conveys what the advertiser in question thinks the partner of his dreams wants to read and therefore hardly shows what kind of person he really is. The keywords with which that happens – like sporty, humor, good glass of wine … – are so generic that it will be almost impossible to get the correct image for the advertisement. If someone responds, it will be out of curiosity rather than a convincing feeling that this is really the one. The chance of a good “match” has been significantly reduced.

Suppose the person had written the following about himself: “Because I believe in a healthy mind in a healthy body, I lift weights and study philosophy (the 19th century, John Stuart Mill is a particular favorite). I am a fan of Seinfeld, I love red Bordeaux and prefer to walk through the woods early in the morning.” Now a more concrete picture of the person in question emerges – because generic terms such as ‘sporty’ and ‘humor’ are made specific. This makes the unicity of the sender more visible and increases the chance that the ad will catch on with the right potential life partner.

Personals ads in business…
Unfortunately, a lot of business communication gets stuck at the level of a personals ad. All too often, a connection is made with fashionable and generic terminology that sounds good, but says little about the organization. And that is often a lost opportunity, because every organization is unique. And that unicity appeals to certain types of leaders, employees and customers.

To test it, I invite you to study the job advertisements in any medium. See how often you come across generic terms that are not made specific: good communication skills, open, professional. These terms mean something different in different organizations and in different situations. For example, the term ‘academic level of thinking’ is charged differently for a scientific research institute than for a company that markets consumer products. “Open” means a different kind of informality for an advertising agency than for an asset manager at a merchant bank. The disadvantage of the use of generic terms is that they lead to “hail shooting” and a waste of time, money and attention.

Communication dilemma
Convincing communication, internal and external, is always authentic. Do you want to convince by communicating in the way you think it appeals to your target group? If you organization has encounters success and there is a lot of positive things to say, then that is of course no problem. But organizations struggle with numerous issues, events and plans that do not go (completely) according to plan, but about which clarity is desired. Especially internally. “What are we really doing in the field of sustainability?” “Why is there still no clarity about our reorganization?” “How do we deal with these unexpected setbacks?”

These are all questions to which certain – internal and external – target groups – would like a clear answer. But what if that answer is not (yet) there? Or if arriving at a solution is even more difficult than expected?

Attractive and credible
Responsive organizations usually have little trouble with authentic communication. They face the facts, act on them, and rely on their own strength. By consistently and clearly showing who they are, they avoid the communication dilemma. Their message is genuine, natural and powerful. And it automatically becomes attractive and credible for the target group. That strengthens the bond and reputation with their target groups. Especially when there is not only good news to report.

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Responsiveness is more important than the plan

Where will you be in five years?
A question that many entrepreneurs, career tigers and top athletes ask themselves is: “Where do I want to be in five years’ time”? Asking this question will help you plan your future and take the necessary steps to get there. Or so is the assumption…

“Life got in the way”
Yet I know very few entrepreneurs who at any point have arrived at the place they had thought of for themselves five years earlier. There are always events and developments that influence the direction and the result – both positive and negative. Life came between them and their plans.

Relative value
Of course your organization has a vision. But that vision is not limited to time. It is about what can be improved in your market, how products and services can be marketed in distinctive ways, the possibilities of technology, new value propositions. And with that vision comes an ambition. Call it a mission: market leadership, most innovative company, best employer. You name it. It’s good to make that ambition “SMART” (Specific, Measurable, Acceptabel, Realistic and Time-bound). This is your potential! And people will get excited about it. But the answer to the question “Where do you want the organization to be in five years’ time” has relative value. For example, if you are an ambitious hospitality entrepreneur who wanted to open your restaurant in the spring of 2020. Or someone who envisioned to open their online brand of consumer goods. In either case, the strategic plan doesn’t make much sense anymore – for one entrepreneur the COVID 19 outbreak could mean bankruptcy, the other one is growing faster than he had anticipated. In any case: for both entrepreneurs it means finding an answer to the circumstances and events now. In other words: it’s about being responsive. Either by changing your business model – delivering meals at home and setting up the processes and logistics for this – or invest in scaling up your operation and finding a solution to the financing problem that this creates.

The dot on the horizon versus now…
Entrepreneurial life is full of unexpected events and developments, opportunities and threats alike. But what is more important then? The best possible response to events and developments? Or sticking to that “dot on the horizon”? The answer, of course, is the best possible response right now. Because that’s what the future of your company hinges on!

Doing business in the present moment
No company can afford anything else: if reality “happens” to your company, responsiveness is required. Because you do business and manage it in the present moment. By responding to and anticipating change. By improving and innovating. And that takes you and your organization somewhere. Very often this is not at the predetermined end point. The journey turns out to be more important. And if you are able to look at it that way and take your organization along, the journey will also be a lot more fun and adventurous. Full of unexpected windfalls.

John Lennon once sang, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” That does not apply to responsive organizations. They are of course inspired by their ambitions and strategy. But these are not set in stone. As Daniël Ropers, former Managing Director of Bol.com, put it: “Responding to change is really more important than following a plan!” (‘The Responsive Entreprise’, by Rini van Solingen en Vikram Kapoor, Publisher Boom, 2016).

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The art of letting Go

In one of the previous blogs we discussed the transition in the field of management: from so-called “directive” to “facilitating” leadership. Managers are not the people who tell the team what to do, “make it perform” and “get the results.” The starting point is that the team can do that very well itself. Provided a number of conditions are met. For example, there must be clarity about the objectives, the team must be complete and there must be a clear division of tasks. The focus is on every individual coming into his or her own and that there is psychological safety so that the team can develop freely.

What often comes up in discussions about facilitating leadership is that managers should be able, and dare, to “let go”. Does this mean that you are not interfering with anything anymore? That you let everyone have their own way, and see what that leads up to?

That is by no means letting go. But for managers who are used to planning, directing and controlling it may feel like that. Because it’s a habit. And habitual behavior is persistent: even though you believe that working differently is good, it feels uncomfortable, and maybe even scary, because you’re not used to it. Which is why it is a good thing to consider what letting go exactly is in a management context.

To this end, we make a distinction between “desire” and “intention”. They are two states of mind, or attitudes, that are very similar but differ in one important aspect.

Desire
With a desire you are attached to the result you want to achieve. That means that you experience positive emotions when that result is achieved and negative emotions when it is not. Compare it to a child who has set his sight on the latest game console for his birthday: the greater the desire, the greater the joy or disappointment when the wish is or is not fulfilled. The intensity of the emotion is directly proportional to the intensity of the desire.

Intention
When you are not attached to the result you want, then there is an intention. When you act from intentions, your attitude is open to the results that emerge. You do have a result in mind (the intention), but you are not emotionally affected by the actual result because you are not attached to it. This makes you accept the result as it is. You do not resist the outcome. But that does not mean that you are apathetic or that you will give up. Because you remain open and curious about further possibilities and what to do next – and as a result you create agility and creativity …

In daily management practice, many things are not going as well as planned or budgeted. Viewed from the perspective of desire, they all harbor disappointments.

Disappointment is a form of resistance to reality. People who act from intentions do not have that resistance. They accept the results and will therefore look at them more freely. As a result, they are better able to see how things can further be improved: the lack of desire and resistance automatically means an open mind and a creative attitude: “OK, this is what we have achieved, why and how do we make it better?”

Management
The difference between “directive management” and “letting go” is comparable to this. You put together your team. Obviously there are objectives. You want to go somewhere. And you give the team the autonomy to decide how they are going to achieve that goal and what actions they will to take. If necessary, you give advice. And you coach the team members. But then you “release” them to do the work. And you wait and see what the results of their actions are. With an open mind: your intention on the goal, and accepting what is to come.

Attitude
The difference between both management styles is a small difference in attitude. There is no difference in ambition level. The attitude of “letting go” ensures that the team can freely do what it does best. It leads to a world of difference in spirit within teams, motivation of those involved and responsiveness of the organization.

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