“If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking”…George
Patton
Regardless of the industry we play, at one time or the other, we may
have asked this pertinent question: how can we discover more opportunities for
business growth? That question goes to show that organisations are looking for
one opportunity or the other to improve their results.
In reality growth opportunities are not magical; they abound in the
things we see every day, things we discuss about and things we do.
Interestingly, we all live in the same environment, see what everyone sees,
hear about the needs of people the same way others do. As an organisation, your
ability to think and act differently what others have seen from a ‘generalised
perspective’ should be your focus and that is where opportunities for growth
stem from.
Discovering the right opportunity at the right time will lead to the
growth of one’s business. What will fuel the discovery is one’s ability to
think differently. So the key question to ask is: is your organisation ready to
discover opportunities others would have seen but were not able to see it as
one due to their limited way of thinking? Like Albert Szent-Gyorgyi said
“Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody
else has thought”.
This is true and it gives a competitive edge. Szent-Gyorgyi was simply
encouraging individuals and organisations not to join the bandwagon and conform
to what everyone else is doing but rather to sit back and think of how to do
things differently. Remarkable results always come when an organisation stands
out from the crowd and not conforming to their old ways of doing things. Interestingly,
we have countless areas of opportunities in and around us.
When we see or hear about a customer being treated poorly, processes
being too cumbersome, approvals taking longer time than
necessary, heavy bureaucracy,
lack of customer feedback
system, lack of employee welfare, etc., what comes to
our mind? Someone might see it as mere problems that will fizzle out with time,
another will see it as a time to sit back, think and do things differently for
his or her own organisation. The later is more positioned for growth.
Truly, leaders have a major role to
play in helping their organisations stand out. They are also expected to build
more of future businesses for their organisations and concentrate less on day
today managing of the businesses. But having leaders that will help their
organisations stand out and to also build future business may not be possible
without a commitment to be more strategic. They must be committed to be more
strategic in both their thinking and their actions. Apart from the leaders, the
collective employees must also learn how to be more strategic in their thinking
and actions.
Naturally people were not born strategic thinkers; we were born with our
‘biological thinking’. This is why often times we hear bosses telling their
subordinates to be more strategic. Any time I hear such comment, I always pause
to ask myself: how will they become strategic if they have not been
taught? Strategic thinking is a broader, disciplined and more
innovative way of thinking and is being learnt as a skill. One major barrier
that will always come in the way of discovering new opportunities for the
organisation is the silo mentality.
This happens when individuals or certain units/departments in an
organisation decide not to share useful information or collaborate with others
in the same organisation. Apart from hampering new opportunities, it affects
productivity, reduces efficiency and employees’ morale and at the end of the
day the organisation suffers. There is no way an individual or unit with such a
silo mentality will proffer any opportunity for business growth.
Traditionally, organisations have
encouraged analytical way of
thinking, where the
parts(including some units/departments)
are primary and the
whole (the entire organisation)
is secondary.
Silo mentality festers because people in the workplace
are jostling for resources, recognition and approval at the expense
of others and the entire organisation. But really, forward looking
organisations have moved from analytical way of thinking to systems thinking –
where the whole (the entire organisation or country) is primary and the parts
secondary. Importantly, in systems thinking, cross functional
teamwork is encouraged and this is where discoveries for opportunities
are hatched. There is no ‘either/or’ solution to discovering new opportunities
but so many ways.
Points to ponder: Is it possible to see growth
opportunities in an organisation where people are concerned about themselves,
units or departments as opposed to the entire organisation? What do you think
your organisation can do urgently? When you tell your subordinates to be
strategic what do you actually mean? Do they understand what you meant and do
they also know how to be strategic in their thinking and actions?
Final note: What will stand an organisation out is its
ability to see what others have seen but decides to think and do things
differently. To be able to foster business opportunities and encourage
information sharing, organisations must
deal squarely with the
‘Silo Mentality’ inherent in
some organisations. We should always ask ourselves this question: at the end of
the day who should wins ‘I’ or the ‘organisation’? Off course the organisation
should win. That means we should collectively join hands to make our
organisation win.
Source: Business Vanguard
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