Organisations that can respond quickly and adaptively to the changing environment are those that will survive, and even thrive when others fail. We are in those strange and uncertain times now, and examples abound of leaders that have been able to keep their organisations moving forward.
A very recent report from McKinsey & Co offers advocates for leaders to drop the old command and control style of leadership, and adopt the network of teams approach, which enables organisations to quickly respond and adapt to their changing circumstances. You can find the report here.
As the authors note, often waiting for decisions and approvals can cripple your organisation during these times. But as leader, you can’t do everything, so this is where creating a robust network of teams comes in, that is empowered to operate outside of the current hierarchy and bureaucratic structures of the organisation. These teams are able to make faster and better decisions.
The report proposed 4 steps that leaders can take to create a cohesive and adaptable network of teams. These appear in summary form below, and I highly recommend reading the whole report to get the details of the process.
- Launch teams fast and build as you go
- Get out of the way but stay connected
- Champion radical transparency and authenticity
- Turbocharge self-organisation
Other benefits from establishing a functional network of teams include infusing the organisation with a common purpose, highlighting empathy, communication and clear decision-making, and pointing the way to what the organisation can become in the future.
To conclude, the authors finish the article by challenging leaders to take this opportunity to reflect on what kind of organisation, culture and operating model they really want the organisation to be, and to start doing that now.