Applied Strategy – Practitioner – Have We Missed the
Boat on Planning?
“Practitioner’s Perspective – Have We Missed the
Boat on Planning?” by Melanie P. Cohen
This article was
written with the intent to inform the public that the old business model from
the twentieth century is outdated and does not apply today. Melanie P. Cohen describes the twentieth
century as having “the image of a proper organization [being] the pyramid,
bureaucracy and the division of labor.”
Modern companies are not set up like this any longer, at least not very
many of them. Companies of modern day
have easy access to new technology that is ever changing the business
world. Because of this easy access to
technology, employees are no longer taking orders from above like a military
boot camp, but instead opting for a “more horizontal, collaborative”
environment. This is very important to
any organization that wants to be successful in today’s times and especially
important to employees in the public sector.
For employees to be happy, they need to feel involved and be able to
contribute to the cause of the
company, not like a cadet under the watchful eye of a drill sergeant.
The author says that “planning
is a systematic arrangement of elements. Strategy is a complex of adaptations
that serve to achieve evolutionary change”
She says that planning is like straight line thinking, inside the box, whereas
strategy is being innovative, thinking outside the box, and not simply doing
what worked yesterday.
This article stresses
that the problems with the government today are not going to be fixed by those
are the top. Melanie thinks that a
policy of “innovative lateral thinking” is needed because ideas don't always
come from the top but often times from employees within the inner workings of
the organization. To solve the problems
of today the author thinks we need to think outside the box and come up with “creative,
intuitive” solutions and to use what she calls strategy, and not the old outdated
planning.
“The future demands
that we focus on taking action, on creativity, on working within a complex web
of relationships, on integrative thinking, on thinking in general (not just
doing), on distributing and sharing responsibility, on looking beyond, and, most
importantly on building something different tomorrow – not only incrementally
improving on today.”
Cohen, Melanie P. Public Administration Review;
Dec2010 Supplement, Vol. 70, ps227-s228, 2p
I agree with the author that strategy does not always come from the top. There are many smart individuals out there that may be smarter than the ones at the top. Sometimes I feel that top leaders have made it to where they are because they were either born into that line and/or have had help from people in that line of work. I strongly feel that employees in any job need to speak out and take credit for their work. Afterall, they are the ones that designed the strategy needed to make a company a success.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the two of you that good ideas don't always come from leadership. I feel that it is beneficial to get insight directly from the individuals who work on the floor and are hands on. There are many times where leadership does not know exactly what goes on in production yet makes the decisions on how things should be done. This can waste energy, time and resources if changes are made in the incorrect areas. Workers can identify problems and notify leadership to make processes more efficient.
ReplyDeleteThere have been times when I have had ideas to cut costs or make things run smoother, but have never been in a position where I felt it was okay to voice my opionion. It would be nice to work in an organization where everyone can provide input to better the company. The people at the top do not always understand strategies that could make things at the lower level run smoother.
ReplyDeleteNew technology has played a great part in the shift away from vertical work environments. For a company to remain competitive in today's market, it must listen to all of its workers, not just the top managers. Workers that participate in the hand-ons tasks can bring valuable information to top mangers because they are with the product until it is shipped to the end consumer.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure where but I have read about several companies having the corporate level bosses go down and spend the day with the hourly workers to get their input on what can be done to help improve the company. Like someone else said, the best ideas won't always come from the top and how is upper level management supposed to know what changes to make if they're not involved on the ground floor with everyone else?
ReplyDeleteI saw something like miguel talked about. It was some show on TV where the CEO or owner would act like a new hiree and see stuff from the inside!!!! It great, I watched the "Hooters" one and the "Subway" one as well.
ReplyDeleteBased on alot of things I have read in the past several years, the horizontal collaborative environment seems to work much better in today's times. Things change and people change is something that has be taken into consideration. In today's time people are becoming more and more independant and value having a voice in the decision making process. I feel an organization can go further when they show value in their employees opinions. When people feel valued and respected they will produce better quality work.
ReplyDelete