Organisations exist to accomplish things individuals can’t achieve alone. But this creates a new problem — how to coordinate diverse teams of talent to work together effectively? A significant step forward is involving talent in the strategic thinking process and empowering them to decide how to act.
But leaders must also communicate clearly about the resources available and the timing by which actions need to completed. However, communication is a two-way process — talent must be allowed to make requests for requisite resources and negotiate feasible timings. Negotiations are a key leadership skill.
We must also remain modest about our ability to make detailed operational plans. A thousand unforeseen issues will arise along the way that talent will need to overcome. But they won’t if they’re heads down meeting a plan’s rigid KPIs that their bonuses and promotions depend on.
Making Agreements
Operations can be divided into parts. Talent is tasked to take responsibility for their part — including developing effective connections with others on whom their success depends. The role of the leader is to agree with talent what is expected of them — then give them the space to decide how they will do it.
Making agreements with talent takes more time than telling them what to do. But if we want talent to take accountability we must negotiate openly — not hide behind made-up figures and inflexible targets. We need to give talent what they need to succeed — including the flexibility to discover better ways of doing things.
Progress checks should be regular enough to provide talent timely support, but infrequent enough that talent can focus on outcomes — rather than preparing their next status report. And if we want extraordinary results, talent also needs the freedom to fail and recover without leaders ever losing confidence in them.
The Leader’s Role
Leaders must lay down one critical boundary: action that talent takes must always be on a scale that recovery from failure can be achieved independently and quickly. If recovery takes time and requires leadership involvement, then leaders must be informed in advance so they can decide whether to take on this risk or not.
As we act, we remain constantly aware — drawing on new information we didn’t have before: what’s working better than expected, or worse? What should we do more of, or less? Are the resources deployed sufficient, and can we redirect some elsewhere?
Leaders must orchestrate multiple lines of action in pursuit of the business’ missions. Leaders who find this too complex are usually those who’ve wasted resources micromanaging how talent performs. These leaders must learn that, leaders lead — talent plays.
Quick Test
If action has stalled on a cross-functional initiative in your organisation, gather the talent involved and ask:
Then see if they can resolve these issues themselves.
What Next?
Tactical choices: who must do what, by when.
To follow this series join the Telegram channel t.me/wardleymapping
Or subscribe to the blog https://powermaps.net/blog
If you found this post useful consider sharing it with others.
And if you’d like to think and act strategically in your organisation explore more here: https://powermaps.net
But leaders must also communicate clearly about the resources available and the timing by which actions need to completed. However, communication is a two-way process — talent must be allowed to make requests for requisite resources and negotiate feasible timings. Negotiations are a key leadership skill.
We must also remain modest about our ability to make detailed operational plans. A thousand unforeseen issues will arise along the way that talent will need to overcome. But they won’t if they’re heads down meeting a plan’s rigid KPIs that their bonuses and promotions depend on.
Making Agreements
Operations can be divided into parts. Talent is tasked to take responsibility for their part — including developing effective connections with others on whom their success depends. The role of the leader is to agree with talent what is expected of them — then give them the space to decide how they will do it.
Making agreements with talent takes more time than telling them what to do. But if we want talent to take accountability we must negotiate openly — not hide behind made-up figures and inflexible targets. We need to give talent what they need to succeed — including the flexibility to discover better ways of doing things.
Progress checks should be regular enough to provide talent timely support, but infrequent enough that talent can focus on outcomes — rather than preparing their next status report. And if we want extraordinary results, talent also needs the freedom to fail and recover without leaders ever losing confidence in them.
The Leader’s Role
Leaders must lay down one critical boundary: action that talent takes must always be on a scale that recovery from failure can be achieved independently and quickly. If recovery takes time and requires leadership involvement, then leaders must be informed in advance so they can decide whether to take on this risk or not.
As we act, we remain constantly aware — drawing on new information we didn’t have before: what’s working better than expected, or worse? What should we do more of, or less? Are the resources deployed sufficient, and can we redirect some elsewhere?
Leaders must orchestrate multiple lines of action in pursuit of the business’ missions. Leaders who find this too complex are usually those who’ve wasted resources micromanaging how talent performs. These leaders must learn that, leaders lead — talent plays.
Quick Test
If action has stalled on a cross-functional initiative in your organisation, gather the talent involved and ask:
- What outcomes are we trying to achieve?
- Are there any issues hindering our efforts?
- What do each need from the others to move faster?
Then see if they can resolve these issues themselves.
What Next?
Tactical choices: who must do what, by when.
To follow this series join the Telegram channel t.me/wardleymapping
Or subscribe to the blog https://powermaps.net/blog
If you found this post useful consider sharing it with others.
And if you’d like to think and act strategically in your organisation explore more here: https://powermaps.net
