Layers
Blueprint
How organisations work, why they don’t and what you can do about it
Make things clear to make things happen
It’s convenient to think of an organisation as its assets. The building, whatever’s in the bank, the IP, everything that makes its mark on the balance sheet. Stuff. Oh, and the people fit in there somewhere.
Or maybe we think in terms of outputs. About the products despatched and the services delivered.
Layers takes a different view. Layers imagines an organisation made entirely of people doing things.
What are the Layers?
The Layers Blueprint is a systems thinking template that shows how an organisation works. It offers a visual way of understanding an organisation with elements describing its operations and strategy in relation to its vision and purpose.
The twelve building blocks in the blueprint are separated into five kinds of action – that every organisation performs in its day-to-day operations – and three supporting layers of beliefs, focus and strategy. Together they describe how an organisation aligns behind or undermines its effectiveness.
The deeper the layer the greater its influence and the longer its wavelength of change.
The action layer is the most volatile and subject to continual external and internal pressure, tactical manoeuvring, drift and bubble-up initiatives.
Focus is bigger picture and potentially transformational, strategy is the best guess at lumpy decisions and imperatives you believe will make that picture a reality, and all the while, everything is consistent with the eternal beliefs of the organisation.
In other words, actions should execute and be in line with the strategy which in turn is designed to deliver whatever product, organisational or corporate objectives the company honestly sets it sights on.
What goes wrong?
Or maybe the question is, what brought you here?
I don’t have any data to back this up but I suspect most organisations never make a serious attempt to clarify or set out their thinking.
They’re eternal tacticians.
Which might be expedient in the moment but it creates problems when it leaves everyone on the team to kinda-sorta work it out on their own.
Maybe everything coalesces, maybe not. Either way, bubble-up initiatives and the flywheel stutters.
The second most common problem is not dealing in reality. Lack of data is a problem we’ve all suffered, and them’s the breaks, but not looking for data is needlessly damaging. Or looking, and then ignoring what you find. Or reacting to every data point without standing back to see the greater picture they uncover. Whatever. A robust plan has to understand and deal in reality.
The best way to achieve this by the way is to involve your team. They’re health-checkers and idea-adders and you’ll have a better chance of pulling off the middle- and end-games if they’ve been involved in the process along the way.
Let’s assume that you’re in the enlightened minority. You’ve set out your thinking, it’s firmly based in reality and you’ve involved your team.
Even then, when stress enters the system — from the outside in the form of market or technology shifts, or from all the normal internal pressures like funding issues, new people, disagreements and politics, lack of clarity — the building blocks come under tension and can start to shear apart.
Leadership is about keeping everything on track despite the setbacks.
The last of the common problems occur when we forget the plan or keep it a secret.
Forgetting is seductive because you get to change direction on the fly – one of the privileges of your position. But the cost of confusion can quickly outweigh the benefit of nimbleness.
“Secret” means failing to communicate the substance or importance of the plan. And communicate it again. And again. And always.
The impact of these last two is the same as the first – everyone acting on their own initiative, inventing tactical manoeuvres, carrots and sticks … changes in management.
Where should I start?
Every change initiative comes from the Improve Everything block. Take action there. What do you want to improve, to achieve what end, to enable what outcome? Set out your thinking as one of the Focus blocks. A new product, look right. An improved process, look left. Work from there.
Start with whatever’s causing your current frustration. If projects take too long, start there. If your fundraising is stilted, work out the reality of why. If your product isn’t making an impact, listen to your customers. If the organisation is a collection of silos, align their leadership behind a common cause.
[ learn more about the 12 Building Blocks ]
Whatever you tackle … deal in reality. Set out your collective thinking. Communicate it, and over-communicate it. Manage variances. Revisit it on a meaningful schedule. Continue to test everything against reality and always communicate some more.
What kind of company do you want to build?
Company building is first an act of imagination, and then an act of will.
- A company where your team skip in to work, ready and willing to take on the challenges of the day whilst working toward goals they care about.
- Where customers are so pleased with their decisions that they quietly appoint themselves as guerrilla evangelists.
- Where owners and partners are glad they got involved, handsomely rewarded for their involvement and support.