Action Research Solutions to Organisational Problems Often Lie in Unsuspecting Corners
I recall an action research where a leadership pipeline was to be created for a manufacturing organization having aggressive plans for business growth. The widespread problem consultants and other stakeholders agreed (without questioning) was a lack of commitment from the business leaders. It was promulgated that the business leaders had mastered the art of making presentations; they will showcase as if all is hunky-dory while the ground realities will depict the opposite of what was projected. How can well-meaning and qualified business leaders work in ways that are bordering on deceitfulness?
I did not suffer from the boiling frog syndrome that others experienced. Hence, I was disinclined to believe that the highly qualified and talented business leaders lacked commitment. However, it was important to find out the cause and address it lest it would have hampered the leadership pipeline creation initiative. Did you know where the problem lay? It was not in the lack of commitment of the business leaders but in the massive complexity in the processes of the organization that sapped a lot of time of the business leaders. There were many activities they were to perform that did not add any value to the business performance but continued unquestioned. Hence, by redesigning the organizational processes, we were able to release a lot of time of the business leaders and they were then able to focus on the leadership pipeline creation.
Releasing time? Yes, our action research revealed that one way to effectively manage time is to redesign processes so that more value-added tasks are carried out, having a heightened impact on business performance.