Can Organizational Culture and Structure Drive Performance?

Back in the early part of this century, I began toying with alternatives to the traditional, hierarchical, organizational structure.  Working with startups at the time, I had an organizational tabla rasa…a blank slate, upon which to work.  We were not encumbered with legacy systems, organizational silos or calcified fiefdoms.  We could organize our work around value creation for our customers.  As Knowledge Workers, how we organized our work would immediately effect our ability to execute and drive the valuation of our early stage company.  This idea eventually evolved into Virtual Startups, of which I’ve been involved in more than a few.

A little backstory on my perspective at the time….Coming from a highly acquisitive corporation, I was accustomed to wrestling with and/or managing around multiple organizational silos.  I experienced this from the vantage point of running the Scientific Service business for STERIS, which in many instances, touched upon each new acquisition in some way, shape or form.  Service was often left to try to knit these organizations’ value propositions together.  Each acquisition was, in many cases, a collection of silos that were the result of traditional, rigid, hierarchical structures.  It wasn’t a lot of fun, but it sure was educational!

This brings me back to my epiphany on organizational structure…why not tip these silos over, onto their sides?  Organize the business around value creation for the customer.  But more importantly, organize around the customer in a more streamlined and collaborative environment where structure wasn’t introducing friction to execution.  Value creation should flow through the organization, like a conduit.

Out of shear curiosity, I looked up the etymology of the word conduit.  It originates from the Latin, conducere, which breaks down into:  “con”, meaning “together” and “ducere”, meaning “to lead”.  To lead together.  Yes, indeed, for that is the brass ring of organizational development…leaders that emerge throughout the business, at all levels, in order to move the business forward, together.

That’s what we help organizations do.  Working with PeopleProductive, we provide you with an independently validated, statistically robust platform to measure the productive value of your organizational culture (what your culture is delivering in terms of growth, productivity and profitability).  In addition, our customized assessments reveal how your leaders and managers are shaping your culture for collaboration, productivity and growth.  We then deliver assessment-guided, self-paced, leadership development modules via the platform that close the skill gaps within your team.  These learning “sprints” are anchored to your organization’s real-world, quarterly objectives.

For more information on how we might help your organization develop a high performance organizational culture, please don’t hesitate to reach out!

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