MAY 2015 / NO. 2
TAGS: EMPLOYEES, US, EUROPE, BLUE OCEAN LEADERSHIP, MANAGEMENT

Only 30 percent of employees are actively committed

“Only 30% of employees are actively committed, 50% merely put time in, while the remaining 20% act in a counterproductive way, negatively influencing their co-workers and driving customers away through poor service”
What a statement! This comes from Gallup’s study “State of the American Workplace 2013”, published in HBR in May 2014. Is the situation any different in Europe? We think the percentages are more or less similar for Europe. How can this be changed? It is about Blue Ocean Leadership, meaning those acts and activities in which leaders are investing time and effort that should be eliminated (1), those that should be reduced well below their current level (2), those that should be raised well above the current level (3), and considerations of what acts and activities are not currently undertaken (4). It is interesting to see what activities middle and senior managers should ‘raise’, what they should ‘create’, and which are new to them.
Middle managers:
  • ‘rise’ well above their current level: creating a safe environment for learning (1), explaining the strategy clearly (2), empowering frontline managers to stretch themselves (3) and coaching people (4)
  • ‘create’ what they currently don’t undertake: setting performance goals together (1), sharing best practices across teams (2) and aligning rewards with performance (3)
Senior managers:
  • ‘rise’ well above their current level: dealing with poor performance (1), coaching and motivating direct reports (2), communicating the company’s vision and what it means to people (3), creating a compelling strategy (4), and explaining the strategy clearly (5)
  • “create” what they currently don’t undertake: analyzing future trends and their implications for the company (1), developing an agenda for change (2) and removing bureaucratic blockages (3)
Blue ocean leadership confirms that senior management must take the lead in the creation of a compelling strategy as well as explaining this strategy across the company. Creating a strategy and making choices differently than key competitors are the most difficult things in management. Can senior management do this, however, since ‘strategic intelligence’ is missing in the majority of organizations. To briefly explain strategic intelligence: this is the difference between industry versus landscape analysis, between forecasting and foresight, between mere facts and perspectives over and above the facts, and it is about the courage to act!
Another activity, according to blue ocean leadership, that senior management should perform as a new task, is to create the means “to analyze future trends and their impact”. To address this issue, we recommend to thinking beyond mere trends towards more robust Black Swans, Grey Swans, scenario planning, strategic war-mapping and ‘strategy under uncertainty’.
This is where strategic intelligence makes the difference, and overcomes boardroom statements such as “Why didn’t we see this coming?”
“Blue Ocean Leadership achieves a transformation with less time and effort, because leaders are not trying to alter who they are and break the habits of a lifetime”
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