Throughout my decades of consulting and observation, I have observed four factors that I call "GRIT."
Take heed of these, and you're most likely in good shape. On the other hand, ignore these at your own risk.
The GRIT Factors
When analysing what's going on in a company, there are four factors at play that create GRIT - in healthy organisations, these are naturally tended to and require little effort.
However, unhealthy systems of work neglect one or more of these, with dire consequences:
Goals
The first factor of a healthy system of work is that people have clear goals: things we want to achieve in the future. That can be the personal goals, team goals, business goals.
Best case, everyone has all of these - and all of them align.
Worst case, people have no goals, in which case they will show up just to get paid.
The worst case scenario lends itself to all kind of doomsday scenarios for a business owner: nothing getting done, people wasting their time with unfruitful conflict, or people leaving to make more from their life.
Relationships
The second factor of a healthy system of work is that people have positive relationships with the people around them. That includes their team, other departments, business partners and customers.
Best case, everyone has sustainable, sufficiently close relationships that make their network resilient.
Worst case, people's relationships are toxic or adversarial.
I don't think it requires further explanation what happens when the customer is treated like an enemy - but many organisations seem to be entirely oblivious to the cost in time, effort - and ultimately money - that is wasted with infighting.
Improvement
The third factor of a healthy system of work is that people continuously pursue improvement at all levels: make work faster, easier, better. Reduce risk, friction, cost. Make customers happier. Go home with less stress and more happiness.
Best case, the system of work makes that a natural part of the work, and everyone actively contributes.
Worst case, processes and tools deteriorate and everyone is looking the other way.
It's easy to figure out what happens when improvement is not part of people's thoughts or actions, but that's the reality in many organisations: The tyranny of the Urgent makes improvement fall over the edge until the cost of fixing things has reached frightening levels, and people are scared to even get started.
Tomorrow
The fourth factor of a healthy system of work sounds very abstract - "tomorrow" - so let me make it a bit more tangible: Tomorrow, a competitor may arrive on the market. Your business model may get disrupted. A key player in your team may move on. Are you prepared?
Best case, the company is constantly and persistently putting efforts into being prepared for the uncertainties and inevitabilities of tomorrow, and people are not scared to look into the future.
Worst case, everyone knows that the business is heading downhill, but people close their eyes to this uncomfortable reality. And with every day, the looming specter of Tomorrow becomes more threatening.
It doesn't take a lot of imagination where a company is headed when they have no plans for Tomorrow. And yet, few can articulate a clear plan.
Building GRIT
Building a company with GRIT is easy if that's how you've always done it. But if you've never done it, it's staggeringly hard. In fact, it seems insurmountable. So I'll give you a few pointers for getting started on the journey of building GRIT.
- Itemize the most important Challenges, Opportunities and ongoing Activities in each sector.
- If a sector has few or no items in it, it's a blind spot. Take some time to think!
- Ask yourself, "How can we improve our situation?"
- Take action on the first item and see where it leads you.
Now, that wasn't hard, isn't it?
From now, you may frequently revisit your GRIT matrix, see what pops up and whether you're making progress.
By taking GRIT building serious, you will see a significant reduction in risk, stress and fear - and significant boosts in sustainability, employee satisfaction and business outcomes.
Give it a try!
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