Like many Americans, we’ve become hooked on watching Marie Kondo’s Netflix series Tidying Up. It’s fascinating to see how Marie (a Japanese “tidying expert” who exudes peace, energy, and joy) works through a translator with American clients. Her principles help them become more mindful and create a more meaningful and joyful space to exist in the present and grow into the future.
This got us thinking about the implications for business — if you are leading a company that’s going through transformation and game-changing growth, you might well be facing an opportunity for a similar “tidying up” experience…
For instance, one of the big challenges facing every successful company is developing a talent strategy for your company that supports successful growth. However, unexpected issues can seemingly come out of nowhere, making it common for official roles, titles, accountabilities, and job descriptions to look nothing like what is going on in real life. This is not very joyful for anyone.
The confusion, excessive conflict, missed goals, and burnout that happens as a result of this situation is one of the most overlooked areas for excessive turnover and what is traditionally known as company “growing pains.” This comes from focusing mainly on a talent strategy designed for immediately foreseeable needs.
These days, “disruption” is a constant threat. However, this also brings unprecedented opportunities for company growth. Leadership teams that develop bold strategies that anticipate the disruptive risks and opportunities on the horizon are going to be the ones whose companies will keep winning.
So how can you begin “tidying up” your organization to stay first, fast and foremost?
- First, frequently assess how your talent strategy relates to your company strategy for tomorrow as well as for today. As a starting point, make sure your entire leadership team is positively reinforced for challenging assumptions about what is and is not happening (many leadership teams are surprised by how different reality is from their organization chart).
- Second, on a frequent basis, make it a point as a leadership team to have strategic conversations about the roles and functions you need not only for today, but also for what you’ll need to identify to address emerging trends. This will give you a head start in developing new strategies and getting the best talent in place.
- Third, reinforce conversations about shaping your organization’s culture for the future. Which processes and practices do people need to let go of in order to solve new problems? How can teams work together in new ways that enable people to apply their knowledge, skills, and abilities for the best possible outcomes?
When you and your leadership team make it a practice to regularly “tidy up” so that your culture, business strategy and talent strategy supports the future as well as today, growing pains will ease. You’ll also be able to more quickly take advantage of whatever comes your way along the journey of growth. And that will be more joyful for everyone.
