SKILL: Cluster 1a: Dealing with Complexity
EQF LEVEL (INTERNAL REFERENCE): EQF4
Keywords
1 COMPLEXITY
2 INTERCONNECTION
3 SHARING
4 REDUNDANCY
5 RECONFIGURATION
6 SIMPLICITY
Introduction:
By the end of this LU you will learn what skills are useful in order to properly manage contemporary business complexities and the 6 rules of Smart Simplicity.
Content
An increasing number of managers and entrepreneurs have to cope with the complexity of the soft part of companies, i.e. processes and people. There is a misconception that management problems should be solved scientifically, analytically through cause-and-effect linkages, but this view is now outdated.
It must be acknowledged that structural responses are not enough; the complexity of the company is part of a wider dynamic and changing landscape and, therefore, what we should do is act through our creative intelligence as people. We need to recover our personal skills, our ability to relate to people, in a spirit of collaboration and a new division of power.
So what can you do to improve business complexity? The following are 4 the organizational macro-capabilities we suggest.
- INTERCONNECTION: Connecting individuals allows you to anticipate trends and provide quick responses. We need to avoid top-down systems and connect the center with the periphery, because when complexity increases, the response comes from the periphery, not the center.
- SHARING: Basing an organization not on procedures but on values and purpose allows for a shared vision, for the parties to move harmoniously and quickly toward common goals.
- REDUNDANCY: Organizations need a surplus of functionality, knowledge, information and relationships. If you want to reduce physical redundancies, such as physical space and inventory and labor hours, you need to increase intangible redundancies on the cognitive, informational, functional, and relational fronts. It means that people need to acquire and maintain information, create and maintain relationships, develop knowledge, and be able to perform functions in greater quantity and quality than is strictly necessary. Intangible redundancy is a source of quality, not waste, and ensures long-term sustainability.
- RECONFIGURATION: This is linked to relations with the outside world and to the need for speed with which organizations must be able to respond to the dynamism of the markets, by picking up on weak signals, in order to beat their competitors and arrive ahead of others. What is needed is the ability to reconfigure, to learn to organize one's own set of capabilities in order to reconfigure them when necessary, in co-evolution with the environment.
These skills can be implemented by small and large organizations alike, with different degrees and types of difficulty, but they remain 4 "good antidotes" to complexity. At this point, we must ask ourselves how these suggestions are put into practice. We are helped by the book by Yves Morieux and Peter Tollman Smart Simplicity. Six rules for managing complexity without becoming complicated. It is precisely in these rules that practical solutions to business complexity are encapsulated. In short:
- Understand what employees do
People need to understand not only their own work but also the work of others.
- Strengthen "supplements"
Key figures who work cross-functionally in the company help to achieve a high level of cooperation.
- Increase the total amount of power
More overall power, distributed differently to engage and empower everyone
- Increase reciprocity
Recognize interdependencies and the usefulness of cooperation in getting to the bottom line.
- Extend the shadow of the future
Multiply sources of feedback/feed-foreward, not on a scheduled basis and moving away from top-down logic.
- Reward those who cooperate
Find incentive systems for those who are useful to the group and do not act solely for their own benefit.
TEST
Select the correct statement from the following:
- Management problems must find solutions based on emotional intelligence and collaboration
- Management problems must be solved by acting analytically on cost, time and resources
- Management issues need to be delegated for a better division of power
Find the best definition of redundancy
- All workers must be able to perform functions in greater quantity and quality than is strictly necessary
- Roles within a company need to be duplicated so that there are multiple people who can work on the same task
- Training programs should be provided for management personnel to keep them up to date and to acquire skills other than the basic requirements. Identify the six rules of Smart Simplicity
- Understand what employees do
- Reward those who cooperate
- Provides training programs for staff
- Provide for management-worker discussion meetings
- Strengthen "supplements"
- Reduce working hours for a better work-life balance
- Increase reciprocity
- Delegate complexity reduction to companies outside the organization
- Extend the so-called shadow of the future
- Increase the total amount of power
Language Point
Read the following sentences:
- At this point, we must ask ourselves how these suggestions are put into practice.
- It must be acknowledged that structural responses are not enough…
In both sentences there is the modal verb ‘must’. When and how do we use ‘must’
Must is used
- to express obligation which comes from the speaker and therefore expresses the speaker’s feelings - I must remember to get a present for Paula because it’s her birthday today.
- to talk about rules - we must wear a uniform for work; you must put on the seat belt in the car
- to give orders - you must go to sleep now
- to give advice or to recommend something - You must get one of these new smoothie-makers – they’re great!
- to speculate about the truth of something - She must be mad! You must be joking
Must can only be used for present. When the past is involved, you use ‘have to’.
Must in the negative form is used to forbid someone from doing something - You must not (mustn’t) cross when the light is red.