Are we as good or as lackluster as our metrics deem us to be? Organizations often lean toward celebrating success or chastising themselves when in fact their performance is being dictated by uncontrollable circumstances. To determine the “uncontrollable” an organization must understand their ecology.
Ecology is understanding the environment in which you live predicting interactions and their influence on your strategy. One must map the parts from the largest to the tiniest connecting them with what is known. How do they influence each other? What is happening in their environment that will force them to act in a manner that is positive or negative to your desired results? Are trends emerging that will create wide industry upheaval or lead the industry to new levels? Will these trends be local, national or international? How does your environment affect your thinking, your personnel and your competitors?
It is not possible to observe and track your entire ecosystem. Therefore, once the parts of your ecosystem have been mapped, decisions must be made to prioritize “WATCH LISTS.” Which part will have the greatest impact on your strategy and its execution? Who should be the watcher and what events should they share? Who should they share with, when and how? How will decisions be made to alter execution or the strategy that drives execution? What path will lead to performance when chaos reigns? When will we revisit the “WATCH LIST” to determine if those on the list matter or don’t matter? Should new parts be added? Should old parts be deleted?
These questions are important when determining performance, or lack of. Is performance because of me or in spite of me? Knowing the answers will lead to watching uncontrollable ecosystem parts. Organizations that know their ecosystem are prepared to act, not react, to uncontrollable parts and their influence on performance.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
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