Organisational Psychotherapy and the Bottom Line

The core of the Rightshifting message is:

For those interested in bottom-line results, the results of the holistic (Synergistic) approach always dwarfs the results of the Analytic approach.

A system of local optimums is not an optimum system at all; it is a very inefficient and ineffective system.

Because of interdependence and variation, the optimum performance of a system as a whole is not the same as the sum of all the local optima.

If all the components of a business system [i.e. the organisation’s silos] are performing at their maximum levels, the system as a whole will not be performing at its best (or anywhere near its best!).

And that’s why, if we’re truly driven by bottom-line results, we might consider doing everything we can to move to a holistic (a.k.a. Synergistic) approach.

The Main Blocker

But what’s the main blocker to our moving in that direction? All senior executives in a company may agree in principle that a holistic approach is desirable. And yet, so infrequently do companies actually take concerted action to make this happen. Why is this?

True Consensus

Absent a “True Consensus”, action will be unlikely.

What is a “True Consensus”?

A “True Consensus” is when ALL top managers agree on the exact SAME action plan, with each and every top manager regarding his or her components of the joint action plan as his or her own baby.

So, how to reach such a true consensus? It can, so often, look like an impossibility.

What are the real obstacles (barriers) to a “True Consensus”?

For the most part, the real obstacles are the behaviours of key people. Not dysfunctional behaviours, though, but the outstanding, positive behaviours that have got the company to the successful place it occupies today.

These key people include: the Dominant Impatient Visionary (a.k.a. the engine of the company),  the Smart Conservative, and others who extrapolate from past experience.

Note: for expanded definitions of these character types, see later posts in this series, including:

Obstacles to True Consensus – The Dominant Impatient Visionary

Obstacles to True Consensus – The Smart Conservative

Obstacles to True Consensus – Extrapolating From the Past

Obstacles to True Consensus – Solutioneering

Facilitating a True Consensus

How, then, to bring these key people closer together in such a way that they can arrive at the necessary True Consensus? And at the shared Action Plan? And keep them aligned and on course as that shared Action Plan unfolds?

Here’s where Organisational Psychotherapy can help. Organisational Psychotherapy increases the quality and effectiveness of the dialogues between a company’s key people. Dialogues without which the building of a True Consensus will most likely fail to get off the ground, stall or dissipate.

Over To You

How will you and your peers go about building the True Consensus necessary to unlock the power of the holistic approach in your company? Could you use those hugely improved bottom-line results? Or is your current self-image, and set of assumptions, beliefs and tropes, more important to you than bottom-line results?

– Bob

Further Reading

Beyond the Goal ~ Eliyahu M. Goldratt (Audiobook only)