The Functioning Form blog has a post Lessons From The Tipping Point that really got me thinking about the leader’s role in setting and shaping the organisational context. The post provides a very good summary of Malcolm Gladwell’s book “The Tipping Point“. The post summarises from the book “The Power of Context” as follows:
- The Power of Context says that human beings are a lot more sensitive to their environment than they seem.
- Context says you don’t have to solve the big problems to enact change. Little things can make a big difference.
- When people are in a group, responsibility for acting is diffused. They assume someone else will make take action or that no action is needed.
- In smaller groups people are a lot closer. They’re knit together which is important if you want to be successful at community life.
- We are actually profoundly influenced by our surroundings, our immediate context, and the personalities of those around us.
- Merely by manipulating the size of a group we can dramatically improve its receptivity to new ideas.
The last thing a fish is likely to discover is the water it’s swimming in. Like the fish, we take context for granted, even though context has a huge impact on our world. Leaders set the organisational context in which action takes place. Like fish many of people in organisation don’t see the context in which they act. Leaders have the role of setting and shapeing a context that encourages initiative and right action by followers.
“Hay Group research has shown up to 30 per cent of variance in business results can be explained by differences in the work climate created by managers. “Managers who are able to create an all-around engaging work climate can have an invaluable effect on an employee’s commitment to a company and the productivity a group of employees can generate” – Management-Issues
Without a proper context people fail to act. Take for example time when an organisation is planning to re-structure. How do the people respond? In my experience, as employees are anticipating structural changes, they become passive, failing to make important decisions resulting in postponed action. In this case passivity is the result of an uncertain context! Context shapes behaviour…
Like fish, People may not consciously be aware of their context, but if you remove it the effects are clear. The bottom line is that people need an appropriate context in which to act. Context matters! So what type of context is being created by your leadership? Are you creating a context that:
- Moves people towards a shared vision?
- Do people know what’s important?
- Is your example guiding people’s behaviour?
- Do your conversations focusing people on what matters?
If you don’t actively shape your organisations context someone else will….!
Technorati Tags: Context, Management, Leadership, Focus, Business, Vision, Conversation
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