Legendary leaders know, in an organisation, three mutually reinforcing elements define fair process. There is engagement, explanation and expectation. In a heroic book titled Blue Ocean Strategy, W. Chan Kim and Reene Maubogne write about the 3E Principles of Fair Process or Intellectual and Emotional Theory. People in a school, company, church or family — want to have a sense of identity, ownership and belonging.
Engagement means involving people in the strategic decisions that affect them by asking for their in-depth input. Allowing them to refute the merit of one another’s ideas. This sharpens everyone’s thinking. It builds collective wisdom. Engagement results in better strategic decisions by management and greater commitment from all that are involved to execute decisions. Explanation means that everyone involved should understand why final strategic decisions are the way they are. An explanation of the thinking that underlies decisions makes people confident that managers have considered their opinions and have made decisions impartially in the overall interests of the organisation. An explicit explanation allows employees to trust managers’ intentions even if their own ideas finally bomb into oblivion. It also works as a fabulous feedback loop that enhances learning. Expectation clarity requires that after a strategy is set, managers state clearly the new rules of the game. When people stand to understand the expectations, they manifest at their best.
Using fair process in strategy making abuts both on intellectual and emotional recognition. It proves through action, that there is an eagerness to trust and cherish the individual as well as a deep-seated confidence in the individual’s knowledge, wisdom, talent, gift, expertise, experience and exposure. Emotionally, individuals seek recognition of their value, not as ‘labour’, ‘personnel’ or ‘human resources’, but as human beings who are ravenously hungry for full respect and dignity. Appreciated for their individual worth regardless of their hierarchical levels
Intellectually, individuals seek recognition that their ideas count after and given thoughtful reflection. Stakeholders like it when others think enough of their intelligence to explain their thinking to them. When individuals feel recognised for their intellectual worth, they become willing to share their knowledge. In fact, they feel inspired to express, impress and confirm the expectation of their intellectual value. In Fredrick Herzberg’s classic study on motivation, recognition stood out as a strong intrinsic motivation: causing people to go beyond the call of duty, and engage in voluntary co-operation. The violation of fair process, and with it, the violation of recognizing individual is intellectual and emotional abuse.
If individuals feel that their knowledge do not count, they eventually suffer from intellectual indignation. This makes them to shy away from sharing their bright-eyed insights and ideas. Ostensibly, they choose to hoard their best thinking — imaginative, creative, innovative and ingenious insights. In addition, they reject others’ intellectual worth as well. A very tragic quid pro quo. You do not value my ideas. I also do not value yours. Meaning, the need to belong to something, to be part of a bigger purpose than self — is such a deep-seated need in most human beings. People are not happy when they feel they are out of the bigger plan. Be it in an organisation, school, church, or family.
Therefore, managers of institutions should strive to involve people. For an organisation to scale prodigious heights, all stakeholders must surge to the stage and play their royal roles. When the leader begins doing it alone, things begin going south. Avid reading and research shows that rejection or the perception, or threat of it; causes the reign of pain. When people own an institution, or organisation, even something that seemingly looks small like choosing a yummy meal that they love, and which gives them identity; their performance steps up. When people work in an environment, which allows them to grow in ways that crown their careers and personal lives, enthusiasm and ownership become by-products. Their contributions towards keeping the relevance of the organisation becomes better.
Finally, in order to disrupt the market, you should give your customers an unforgettable experience. Convert customers and clients into ambassadors. But to succeed in doing this, you must first give your employees a sense of identity, ownership and belonging. Give them a sense of purpose and mission. Let them be in a place where they know that their contribution can count. In deft management practices, legendary leaders understand the power of identity. Therefore, they allow people to be part and parcel of the transformation process. This calls for joint effort. It is not a one-man-show. It is not just a top-to-bottom thing.
The leadership at any place should create an environment where a cleaner can tell you with pride that it was his/her idea to put a flowerpot in a certain place. There are things that the best places of work have in common. These include amazing communication, clarity of goals, strong people-development programmes, a legendary leader and a place where every person has a voice — that is, has a sense of belonging and ownership. Captains of corporates like blue-chip companies know this fantastic fact: satiated employees create wealth for companies. They are not just satisfied because the company is wealthy, but the company is wealthy because the people are satisfied.
© Victor Ochieng’
The writer rolls out leadership talks and training services. He speaks in conferences of Principals and Deputies. He trains Student Leaders.vochieng.90@gmail.com. 0704420232
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