Reinvention is one of my favorite words these days. It actually started doing this rumba in my brain over a year ago, but back then I was pretty good at tuning out the music and ignoring it.
Not anymore.
I’ve become increasingly bothered by business people in my corner of the world settling for good enough that definitely is not good enough. It’s particularly annoying in regard to workforce discussions, with wannabe entrepreneurs and business owners complaining about labor and talent shortages, aging boomers and other workforce demographics making things tough on them and their prospects. The “oh woe is me” whining is driving me crazy.
Yes, I know the problems are real. However I have no patience for those who refuse to see that they must make some pretty revolutionary changes in their own business models and operational m.o.’s if they are ever to see that proverbial light at the end of the tunnel.
The workplace labor and talent shortages we’re all experiencing in business aren’t going to miraculously get filled up if those “shortages” don’t start to look and feel much different. Our math in the “lose one, replace one” equation no longer computes; many of our old jobs have to be redesigned or reinvented for anyone to want them.
If you find you’re nodding your head right now, I’ve got a Reinvention Challenge for you. Are you feeling restless, rebellious, and perhaps even revolutionary? Great!
You can rid your workplace of the status quo, and lead the way with an organizational revolution which will turbo-boost your company with engaging, new-lease-on-life work at the same time, if you are willing to put some old standbys out to pasture. Here are the 3 sacred cows on my hit list:
Organizational Charts
Organizational Charts proliferate hierarchies, and hierarchies mean there is too much protocol getting in the way of more productive relationships. The organizations which will thrive today must be more fluid and flexible, where people have the freedom to enlarge their circles of influence when they are willing and able to. People must feel they can readily team up in partnerships up, down, and all around them without worrying about delineated reporting structures. You needn’t fit your square peg in the right square box if there aren’t any boxes to pigeon-hole you in the first place.
Annual Performance Appraisals
I’ve ranted before about how poorly annual performance appraisals are done by most managers and won’t repeat those arguments now (although they still exist and are far too rampant). There are two specific ways annual performance appraisals sabotage business today by inhibiting reinvention; a) “annual” is way too slow, and we are all moving must faster than that, and b) nine times out of ten appraisals are somehow connected to compensation structures, and hence those aren’t being reinvented either. Capped out at a 3% increase in your annual review? So do you stop performing well after that? Or perhaps your window of opportunity isn’t included in this next one on my list…
Job Descriptions
Job Descriptions give us low ceilings when the sky should be the limit. Look around you. With few exceptions, you’ll probably notice that most people at work are not fully engaged in their jobs 100% of the time. The world has changed all around us at an amazing pace, yet the vast majority of our jobs have not changed, and we’re bored with them. The job descriptions which map out recruitment efforts in most companies are still structured around sets of qualifications which are old and unexciting, and frankly, they don’t matter any more. Experience in old qualifications don’t necessarily equate to the capacity-stretching performance needed today, and they certainly don’t light our fire any longer.
So what do you say? Brave enough to put these on your hit list too?
Be a revolutionary and do some reinvention with me. Turn up the music and let’s rumba.
Article References:
The 3 New R’s: Restlessness, Revolution, and Reinvention
Everyday Performance Reviews
Adding Value to Performance Reviews
5 Questions for your Performance Appraisals
No Room for Mediocrity
Rosa Say is the author of Managing with Aloha, Bringing Hawaii’s Universal Values to the Art of Business and the Talking Story blog. She is also the founder and head coach of Say Leadership Coaching, a company dedicated to bringing nobility to the working arts of management and leadership.
Rosa’s Previous Thursday Column was: Learn to Love Projects.
