Organizations as living organisms?

Do companies have DNAs and 'personalities'? Sometime ago, my boss chewed my head off when I opined at an offsite that we couldn't execute on something because it wasn't part of our DNA. But I do believe that organizations like humans have some fundamental building blocks and the resulting 'personality' - how it behaves or does not behave to stimuli is the result of both 'nature' and 'nurture'. So I was pleasantly surprised (and validated) when I came across a book titled 'Results' authored by two Booz Allen Hamilton consultants, Gary Neilson and Bruce Pasternack, which espouses just such a theory of Organizational DNA and personality types.

Unlike me just dropping a 'concept' at an offsite, Gary and Bruce have done an exceptional job at arriving at four fundamental (though maybe not irreducible) primaries, which like in the case living DNA, are the building blocks of an organization. These are decision rights, information, motivators, and structure and how these are architected in an organization, how they interplay and how they come together to respond to external and internal challenges is what makes a company able to deliver consistently on its commitments. The authors then postulate seven organizational types and how they stack up against the four building blocks. The book is based on hands-on consulting experience, research and over 30,000 surveys, and does a pretty good job of giving real life examples that resonate with many of our own professional experiences and therefore makes the theory credible to a large extent. But what I liked about it is its simplicity.

Whether at the end of it, you agree with their proposition or not, I found it a reasonable read and a great framework to analyze some of my company's failings and dysfunctions. I recommend a read, and for those who don't like business books which take 200+ pages to say something simple, go to www.orgdna.com and read the 3 pager. You will also find it interesting to take the 5 minute survey that will return a result on your organizational type.

PS: Here's a PJ ('poor joke' for the uninitiated) that I heard on a radio ad (paraphrased without the ad content)...
A man is surprised that his wife filed a divorce and his dad disowned him after he had given her a huge rock and an SUV to him. Wow...how couldn't they like that? He says, ' I can't understand it either... the granite paperweight keeps all our bills down and the 'slightly used vacuum' sucks up pretty well.'

Gotta run before those brickbats that you are throwing gets me....till the next one.

Bidding Adieu to a House Guest

For a little over 3 weeks now we have had a rather handsome, black haired 64 pound heavy male with patches of tan staying with us as our house guest. Its been a while since my wife, Nalini and I had any living organism stay with us for so long, and as can be expected it affected our lives, schedules and even pillow talk. Compared to our age (which I have no intention to divulge), he was almost a toddler, but man did he engage us. He knew what he wanted, when he wanted it and as we found out within the first day a critter of habit and routine...though he was willing to break it for the sheer promise of some extra food be it cookies, carrots or ice cubes.

He wanted us both to be in the same room in animated conversation or playing with him, or cuddling him when he fancied it. He loved his walks where he was eternally curious, persistently naughty, and engagingly friendly with every moving leaf, smiling child, or tentative adult. We woke up each morning waiting to see him and went to sleep talking about him. And he returned the attention multifold with an enthusiasm and pure joy that is only best experienced, not described. If you are wondering who this gift to humanity is, he is Simba, the 7 month old German Shepherd pet of our goddaughter Ria. We took on the task of dog-sitting him while the family vacationed in India, little knowing the enormity of the undertaking but surprised at the returns.

Ria's father is back today and Simba (I wonder if a lion's name gives him an identity crisis or an inflated ego!) will be returning home tomorrow. Its time to bid adieu to a loving specimen of nature. Over the next few days, though our lives will totally be back in our control, I suspect that our walks (if we get of our butts at all) will be lonely, the house ghostly, but our lives are now richer because of him.
Goodbye Simba...you are welcome anytime for a sleepover.

PS: Everytime I took him for a walk, I remembered Seinfeld's joke. Imagine the Martians studying us from above, and they observe this rather tall man being pulled by a four legged creature and picking up after it has done his business...the conclusion of their study would be that the Earth is ruled by four legged hairy creatures with two legged critters as their slaves!!

Till my next rambling....

Satisfaction

An article on job satisfaction by Subroto Bagchi (COO of Mindtree), triggered a train of thought on satisfaction in general. A while ago, I read that satis in Latin (and most probably in Greek and Hebrew) means 'enough of' or 'sufficient'. It would therefore seem to indicate that satisfaction is nothing but the feeling at the end of having taken 'sufficient action'. So why does it seem so difficult to attain, considering that most of us are working our butts off or in this context taking a hell of lot of action.

I submit that the problem for at least me has been figuring out what my actions are oriented towards achieving without which I have no real way of knowing what is sufficient. And that ladies and gentlemen, is what I have resolved to do for this year - figuring out both the cause (what I desire out of life) and experiencing the effect (satisfaction). Along the way here, over the past few months, I had a realization (which most people have figured out as a given early in their lives!!) that the actions that I take in life cannot be of only the kind that adds up to that sufficiency. At the risk of being gross, the pleasure derived from taking a dump is accompanied by the not so pleasant task of wiping your behind!!

Before I end, however I have one comment on Subroto's article. His main thrust seems to be that the onus of finding satisfaction is solely and squarely on the individual, with which I am in agreement. But that does not absolve the organization of creating the environment, the motivators and opportunities that align with individual aspirations...the great companies are those that have figured out how to do it day in and day out.

Wishing all of you a 'satisfying' New Year....