Why we need special people in Operations
Special People
When I am engaged in a turnaround, either as a consultant or interim-executive, people ask me why I almost always bring in two “outsiders” to help me out and what their delegated level of authority and responsibility is or should be. Since one commitment of a good operating executive is to communicate things as soon as they come to his or her attention, and one of the core values of any good operation should be Clarity (see The five Temptations of a CEO), I thought I would explain the role of two special people: the Organizational Consultant (OC) and the Communications Consultant (CC).
There is an old saying that goes something like “When you are up to your ass in alligators, you forget the initial mission was to drain the swamp.” When the alligators are snipping at us, we occasionally forget that the behavior we exhibit is the behavior our people will imitate. The OC’s role is to be the independent challenger of our behavior as an executive team, the coach to the senior team on an individual basis when needed, the facilitator of choice for “tough” meetings, and the provider of feedback on the assessments for all new associates. The OC’s mission is to help us design, develop, and foster the environment of the top notch organization we aspire to be. When it comes to our behavior as an organization, her questioning authority is unlimited. Even though she does not set our values; nor is it her role to do so; she is well aware of them. Anytime she feels we are violating those values she has the right and the obligation to call any one of us on it. Her job is to call “bullshit” on our behavior. Even though it is not her role to be the “hall monitor”, I expect her to let me know when I do it, or I am allowing or enabling one of our executives to behave in violation of those core values. I am not asking you to behave differently only when she is around, but rather to ask yourself on a regular basis what she would ask you if she was observing your behavior. Please do not confuse our OC with the HR consultant roles so frequently associated with Facilitators and Organizational Development consultants. Even though our OC has the credentials for those positions, her role is more important than that.
The Clarity theme is also the reason for our resident Communications Consultant. He is the compiler, ghost writer, and chronicler of our various strategic business documents, the “acid test” on our internal and external communications documents, and the challenger on any un-clear communications. His mission is to push us to a level of articulation, clarity, and consistency in our publications that is comparable to any high performing organization. His authority to question and push back on language and clarification is unlimited. If he cannot understand our communications, whether business plans, system plans, employee and customer communication, or just informal communications practices, he will push back and ask for clarification. After all, if we can’t explain it to him, we can’t explain it to anyone. Even though he is not responsible for our marketing and communications per se, he has more experience in this field than any of us and we need to listen to his advice. I am not asking you to have him review every document you create, but if a document is to be shared with the team-at-large, customers, or the outside world; or if a document will set, or be viewed as setting, strategy for the organization, please, at a minimum, share it with him. Please do not confuse him for a “tech writer.” If we leverage his experience as a senior communications executive, as well as a many-times-published author we should present a very consistent and well articulated message to everyone that wants to know about us.