What is a healthy organisation?

Many people talk about organisational health in terms of pivoting, agility and effective planning and whilst these are a valid topics to cover, let’s focus on what really makes a difference.

In this series, I’ve already talked about making your organisation better before bigger, and I’ve also talked about how to get recruitment right first time (see these links). Getting ahead of your competition is so much more than trying to second guess the future, or how the next alleged recession will impact your organisation. Why alleged recession? Some of the most successful global organisations were founded in recession, and those willing to find excuses for their lack of progress will always find something else to blame.

A healthy organisation equals a profitable organisation.
Some think that organisational intelligence is what’s important, like gaining new knowledge and being smart. We are taught that smart organisations succeed, and doing smart things like implementing a new strategy will bring the success you want.

No matter how much harder you stamp on the accelerator, if your car engine has a misfire, there’s no way you’re going to go any faster, or get any further!

Some think it’s about marketing and technology, and lots of other things which are all really important and interesting of course, but real competitive advantage in a world where everybody has access to the same knowledge and information, is directly linked to how healthy your organisation is.

In our modern world, everybody has access to the knowledge and information required to succeed, yet so many organisations are unhealthy. They’re dysfunctional. There’s politics, there’s confusion, there’s infighting, and there’s turnover among good people that don’t want to be there anymore. Overcoming these challenges is the real competitive advantage.

Remember to read part 1 – Better before Bigger

The healthiest organisations are the most resilient, let’s get into what you can do about it.

  1. Make your leadership team more cohesive.

A cohesive leadership team is one that that is aligned. It doesn’t mean they agree on everything. In fact, they have to learn how to disagree constructively. This happens when there’s trust, openness and vulnerability. I’m not talking about trust in terms of “I’ve known you for years so I can predict your behaviour and I can predict what you will do” type trust, and I’m not talking about vulnerability in terms of “someone has a secret over you that no one else knows”. But trust that says “I’m humble enough and vulnerable enough to admit when I’m wrong, to acknowledge when I don’t know something, to admit when I make a mistake, or to even apologise or celebrate when your ideas that are better than mine”.

When people can be that emotionally open and vulnerable, that kind of trust creates the foundation for every cohesive team and the whole organisation. Without that vulnerability, deep trust isn’t going to be there.

When there’s trust, there’s conflict.
What? Really? Yes, and here’s why. Most people don’t mind if their idea isn’t taken forward as long as they feel heard. As long as everyone gets to be heard, even if they have conflicting ideas, you can build a healthy team. There’s nothing worse than everyone agreeing to the loudest person’s ideas in a meeting if they then go on to talk about not being listened to with their colleagues – a major reason why good people leave. Productive conflict means that everyone has the opportunity to offer their ideas and perspectives, and the decision making moves the organisation forward – See Bigger before Better

  1. Create organisational clarity.

Next to the first point where we began to make people behaviourally cohesive, now we are focussing on gaining clarity in the organisation. Some talk about Vision, Values and Mission, all good points to cover, but what does that mean if those in the organisation don’t have clarity of purpose. How do you create organisational clarity whilst building your cohesive leadership team? When you have agreement around the answers to these six simple questions, you will have organisational clarity.

Why does your organisation exist? What injustice are you trying to fix? It’s not to make money or provide jobs or products and services, but because what you do makes a difference in the world.

How do you behave?
Again, this is not about Vision, Mission and Values because it’s easy to come up with a list of values that no one can remember. This is about intolerance. What behaviours will you be intolerant of before taking action. If you have an organisation without core behaviours, you don’t know who to attract, and you don’t know who to repel. Every organisation should repel the wrong people and attract the right people. Here’s six example behaviours: Make it better, Take it personally, Collaborate, Remain open minded, Replace yourself, Stay fit.

What do you do?
For most this is pretty easy, yet you may be surprised to learn that not everyone in the organisation can deliver the same message. Remember, this is about clarity throughout the organisation, not just getting it right. Do you sell products, do you provide services, are you a training and education business? How will your customers know what you do if you don’t.

How will you succeed?
I’m asking these questions like this because ‘why you exist’ and ‘how you behave’ always come first in healthy, productive and profitable organisations. This goes far beyond the latest strategy or marketing plan. This is about how you implement success and how the way you succeed will give you a competitive edge. This is best defined using verbs and nouns, for example: Be better, Inspire our customers, Empower our people.

What’s your biggest current priority?
This is a question that sits at the top of every meeting agenda. It gives a real sense of purpose and momentum to your team meetings because everyone knows what’s happening in the organisation right now, and the meeting focus can be on what every person and every department can contribute towards the current organisational priorities. It also further strengthens the clarity we talked about earlier.

Organisations in crisis are usually very good at focussing on a single priority and developing a plan to recover. What we are talking about here is not waiting for a crisis to focus, but gaining a competitive edge with a single, organisation wide, priority to support growth.

Individuals and departments may have different tasks, but the message here is that everyone is pulling in the same direction.

Talk to me if you would like some help focussing your leadership team meetings.

Who must do what?
Now that your teams are behaviourally cohesive, you have clarity of purpose and you know what your top priorities are, you can start to think about who’s best at coming up with the idea, evaluating the plan, getting people rallied around, and pushing it through to the end. Regardless of what their job title is, you can organise who does what, what needs to get done, and who’s best to do it.

  1. Constant communication.

Most people understand the importance of a clear marketing message, but so many miss the importance of clear and constant communication (the clarity), of their purpose, behaviours and priorities throughout the whole organisation from CEO to the newest team member. Once you do the first two above, you’ve gained a competitive edge that most others will never achieve because they are still chasing the latest strategy and plan.

Gain clarity on the six questions I shared in point 2 and talk about them all the time because they form the core of your organisation.

Have the courage not to think that the success of your organisation is based on your intelligence or the tactical decisions you make, but it’s based on your character and your ability to build a healthy organisation through day-to-day and simple disciplines.

You don’t have to be the smartest person in the room, but you do have to have the security and vulnerability to surround yourself with people who are smarter than you, to keep it clear and simple and the integrity to keep it whole.

I hope this helps you focus – Get in contact and get some help here.

This is a series of four articles to help you get ahead of the competition.
See – Make it better before bigger – part 1
See – How to get recruitment right first time – part 2
See – The key to organisational health – part 3
See – How to unlock the power of focus – part 4


Work with me:
I help owners, founders and leaders create a scalable business that works without them, build a world-class team, and 10x profitability. Book a call with me here to see if we could work together.

Remember, there are only three types of people – those who make things happen, those who wait for things to happen, and those who talk about why things don’t happen for them. Which one are you?