For instance, when a rogue event occurs, we remind our employees of our founding mission. This was done by the leaders of a major banking firm when they faced (unexpected) competition from another major bank that was dramatically changing several of its banking services. A major initiative in this bank focused on the founding story of the bank. Core values are represented in this founding story. The leaders of this bank recognized that they were about to introduce major changes in their own operation to counter their competitors’ new initiatives. They wanted to be sure that these changes were still aligned with the founding values. Reminder of the founding story served as a trim tab for this bank and it yielded some benefits. However, this stabilizing initiative soon lost energy. Employees were not particularly interested in studying the bank’s history when they had to learn new skills and acquire new knowledge that was aligned with new ways in which this bank needed to operate (if it was to survive).
A stabilizing trim tab was also introduced by the leaders of a utility company. Retired employees at all levels of the organization were invited (as volunteers) to mentor newly hired employees. The retirees provided a stabilizing history, knowledge of the business (at all levels), and a diverse set of skills that helped guide and support the transition of these employees into their new jobs. Once again, this trim tab intervention was of limited value. New employees politely listened to the “old timers” but paid more attention to the “new stuff” they had to learn.
We find that stability is rarely gained when engaged indirectly through a trim tab intervention. Conditions of volatility usually require that direct action be taken to “right the ship.” This typically means that leaders of the organization introduce New Structures and Processes without relying on trim tab countermeasures. Volatility produces stress and there is no escaping it with history or foundational values. We might set up a matrix structure that enables our organization to rely on existing functional departments (finance, marketing, production, etc.) while also readily establishing new product or service lines. We can also introduce organizational processes that acknowledge both the value of stabilizing expertise found among those employees who have worked for many years in the same job, and the value of emergent expertise to be found in job rotations and in ad hoc task forces (made up of both old and new employees from different divisions and levels of the organization).
At an even deeper level, Stability and Serenity are to be found in the way an organization or community plans for its future. The inability to avoid stress under conditions of volatility requires that we do some planning for rogue events and black swans—rather than ignoring them. Contingency Planning is required. This mode of planning requires (as the name implies) that we plan for various contingencies—some positive and some negative. I have written about a related planning process, Pre-mortem Reflection, that has been advocated by behavioral economists. (Bergquist, 2014)
While we are accustomed to doing “post-mortem” assessments after a project is finished, Daniel Kahneman and his colleagues (Kahneman, 2011) propose that we engage in slow and critical thinking prior to the initiation of a project. While optimism is valuable as fuel to get a project started, it is also important to recognize the potential problems and barriers associated with enactment of the project. This pre-project reflection not only helps a project team prepare for potential challenges (contingency planning), it also helps to reduce the depth of a change curve that inevitably accompanies major new projects or changes in an organization’s operations (Bergquist, 2014).
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