PLSO Oregon Surveyor July/August 2020

Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon |  www.plso.org 17 Featured Article and alternatives might be. Leadership is finding that this results in more produc - tive work and better outcomes. While employees often want to work col- laboratively, noted one participant, they are often mired in “an Industrial Age bu- reaucracy that’s hierarchical and wants to get a singular decision as opposed to a collaborative decision.” To avoid this trap, another company described how they solicit anonymous employee ques- tions via a website and promise a 48-hour response. “They can be anything from, ‘What is the chief executive’s succession plan?’ to ‘Why can’t we have more pa- per towel racks in the bathroom?’ but they are constant and they come from all facets of the organization,” explained an executive. Strategy: Leadership Principles Over Directives The “strategy” area addresses the lead- ership and management theories that guide the operation of the organization. One company working with Toffler Asso - ciates’ help to cultivate a more adaptive working environment has asked its leader- ship to cede some of the strategy-making power—a difficult proposition and an ob - vious affront to old standards but one with great potential payoff. Traditional notions of leadership place executives in firm control of dictating an exact course of action for an organization. In this enterprise, however, executives are less focused on being the sole source of strategy and more focused on develop- ing a culture of innovation. “Create an environment where people love coming to work and give you their best every day because they feel empowered to cham- pion and carry the ideas of the goal line themselves,” advised one participant. The leadership of this organization is in- ternalizing the idea that it cannot dictate every initiative. Rather, management is primarily concernedwith determining and promoting an organization-wide guiding principle and vision, empowering each employee to fulfill it as he or she sees fit. As one executive said, “If you have a common vision and a common mission and the people can see how their work is linked to some larger good, then a real transition will occur.” Structure: Creating an Open Collaborative Workforce The “structure” area addresses the way different areas of the organization work together. In the Industrial Age, work environments were hierarchical—the chain of command was clear and linear, and each employ- ee did only the tasks that fell within his or her specific job assignment. An infor - mation-driven society demands that the workforce be structured more efficiently and in a manner that can better adapt to changing circumstances. To make the best use of employees and their talents, one organization is adopting a networked, open, and collaborativework- force structure. The model it is adopting involves relinquishing exclusive control of its talent in favor of a more inclusive model that draws on the best talent available—internal and external. Rath - er than being separated by department and job description, employees in this organization form networks made up of generalists and a smaller number of specialists. When necessary, this full- time workforce is assisted by a reserve of contingency workers—experts who are on-call and available. Contingency workers are called in when the organi- zation requires a fresh perspective and highly specialized expertise or skills that can’t be learned internally in the required timeframe. Adaptive organizations hire for in- terpersonal, teaming and leadership abilities—people who bring a range of ideas to discussions and tasks, not just specific competencies. Therefore, the emphasis should be on hiring first-rate minds. Proficiencies can be learned, but organizations today and tomorrow need thinkers who can work intuitively, seeing scenarios and patterns where only piec- es of information exist. Technology: Enabling Knowledge Transfer The “technology” area addresses how organizations use information systems, communications systems, and other tools to enable business operations. In this area, many organizations make the same mistake: viewing technology as in- frastructure rather than as an enabler of knowledge transfer among organization members. This creates a “work-around” culture in which members use technolo- gy but don’t leverage it in such a way that it can help truly lead the organization. One government organization has strug- gled trying to provide its people with the tools they need to perform effectively as the agency’s mission and environment change. For example, they had evolved their business model to allow employees to work fromhome or in field offices clos - er to their customers but have provided these workers with outmoded comput- ers and mobile phones, making it difficult to remain up-to-date on management guidance from headquarters. They also found that one particular knowledge management system was so vital to the organization’s strategy that losing it risked mission failure, but that their contracting and other processes were so archaic that they could only apply patch after patch instead of installing a state-of-the-art re- placement. “We needed a top-to-bottom assessment of what the roadblocks are to modernizing our IT systems and a plan for adapting them to be ready for what the future demands,” said an executive. In another example, a U.S. military orga- nization outfitted troops overseas with complex electronic interpreters that would capture speech and translate it into En- glish. The problem with these $10,000 machines, however, was that they only facilitated one-way communication—they didn’t translate English into the native language, so soldiers could listen to, but not speak to, nationals. Improvising in the field, a group of Marines developed a picture board that allowed military per- sonnel and nationals to communicate pictorially. Each board cost only $10 and improved communication substantially. In both examples, the technology in ques- tionwould have been immeasurablymore effective had its users recognized its true purpose: communicating knowledge ef- ficiently and effectively. Whether it is a case of too little technology (as with the outdated equipment) or too much (as with the ineffective translators), adap - tiveness suffers and success is at risk.  x