Impulses for organisations – Part 18

The online world offers plenty of impulses for collaboration within organisations. However, most of these insights and experiences are only visible for a short while before disappearing into the depths of social media platforms, never to be seen again. In Part 18 of our series on impulses in organisations, I would once again like to ‘showcase’ the perspectives of experts on the t2informatik Blog. This time, we’ll be looking at completing tasks quickly, leadership and humility, results when using AI, and organisational debt.

Let’s get started with these valuable impulses!

Linda Janke¹:

Is precastination allowed?

Yes, the word does exist. In real life and in the Duden dictionary.

Many people are familiar with procrastination. When faced with unpleasant tasks, we gratefully allow ourselves to be distracted.

I suspect that many assistants find themselves more in the realm of precastination. Tasks are best done quickly – and preferably yesterday. That sounds good at first. Every ticked-off to-do item releases endorphins, doesn’t it?

However, precastination quickly becomes a trap through which we sabotage ourselves when we tackle the easy, quick tasks first. Ticking things off simply feels good. Too good, sometimes.

The tricky part: the list as a whole seems to get shorter, which feels good. But all the rest – especially the more complex and, of course, the unpleasant tasks – remain. And remain, and remain, and remain.

In the worst case, the more we put them off, the more they end up blocking us. The hastily answered email is just a particularly well-crafted detour.

What’s more: not everything that’s done straight away is actually a priority. If we get started straight away anyway, we pay for it with time that’s then missing elsewhere. This comes back to haunt us twice over: with the tasks that are left undone, and with the breaks we might not take, even though we need them.

What to do? The to-do list is usually drawn up in the morning. Anything that comes up during the day is assessed: does it really need to be done now, or can it wait?

To stop pre-crastination from turning, I put everything into Outlook tasks and schedule them.

Vanessa Steffen²:

Good leadership requires humility

I’ve seen many leadership programmes over the last few years. Typically, before and during these programmes, there are discussions about the skills leaders need.

There are frameworks, workshops, books, videos, great models and, of course, certificates. Lots of certificates. We do love them, don’t we? 😉

One word has cropped up particularly often in recent years: ATTITUDE.

What I hardly ever hear, however, is: HUMILITY.

Yet that is precisely a key skill. Humility here does not mean making oneself small, but understanding that, as a leader, you are not the most important person in the ‘room’. The people in the team are! They are the ones who build products, look after customers, develop systems and solve problems.

The role of leadership is to create the conditions in which others can do their jobs really well. This requires me to acknowledge:

• I don’t have to know everything better.
• I don’t automatically have the greatest expertise.
• Ideally, my team includes people who are significantly better at their field than I am.

And yes, it’s perfectly fine to feel a little humility about that.

Many organisations would function much better if managers were less concerned with how they come across and more with how they empower their people.

Dr Joël Krapf³:

Who delivers the best result?

A: An expert
B: Artificial intelligence
C: An expert using AI
D: An amateur using AI

The answer:
An amateur using AI.

As demonstrated and explained by Garry Kasparov in his book Deep Thinking (2017).

Kasparov is a household name to many. He was the world’s best chess player for 20 years. And he suffered a sensational defeat against IBM’s computer Deep Blue.

In 2005, this very same chess grandmaster organised a freestyle tournament. All manner of combinations were allowed to compete:

• Players controlled entirely by computers.
• Amateurs with computers.
• Grandmasters on their own.
• Grandmasters with computers.

In the end, the winner was:
An amateur with a computer.

Why:
He knew best when he could trust the computer – and when he couldn’t.
The grandmasters mistrusted the AI too often and lost.

This phenomenon is called ‘overconfidence bias’ and also prevents many experts in the professional world from achieving better results.

What can we learn from this for the application of AI:

The productive application of AI does not automatically come more easily to those who are already experts in a field. Expertise can even be a hindrance. From this, we can conclude:

1️⃣ The writing is not yet on the wall for juniors. Juniors with AI skills perform better than experts with poor AI skills.

2️⃣ AI competence, or as Melani N. aptly calls it, ‘AI literacy’, is essential for everyone. It is not enough to simply use AI as you see fit.

3️⃣ AI alone is not the solution either: blind workflow automation and copy-and-paste will not take you beyond mediocrity.

Maike Küper⁴:

Organisational debt: The invisible interest on past decisions

Organisational development often has a tough time. Particularly when it falls under HR, I notice that those in charge have to work hard to explain its value – even though everyone agrees that “things cannot stay as they are”.

I find the “cost of doing nothing” to be a helpful argument. What happens if we don’t work on the system at all? There is an interesting concept for this, which is particularly relevant in tech companies: organisational debt. If we don’t regularly review and clear out our historically accumulated rules or structures, at some point the whole basement will be full of useless stuff.

What does organisational debt look like in practice?

• inconsistent, bureaucratic processes
• inappropriate or contradictory roles
• lack of investment in skills or employees
• outdated tools

And how does this come about?

• Prioritising short-term optimisation over the foundations for sustainable success
• Hectic actionism instead of time for reflection and learning
• Little investment in (supposedly!) non-business-critical things such as corporate culture, further training, team development
• Problems tend to arise at the grassroots level, not in top management

The key questions I then ask during a conversation or workshop:

1. Make it visible: Where are you currently paying the price for past decisions?
2. Solutions: How can we build structures that enable us to continuously reflect on and revise what needs to be adjusted?

This works at both team and organisational levels. On a small scale, this could be a retrospective, a spring clean, or a ‘Kill a stupid rule’ workshop. More important than the format is the routine. Tidying the basement once isn’t enough for five years 😉

Further reading and source of definitions: How To Eliminate Organisational Debt.

Impulses and questions

Four topics, four experts, four insights. Why isn’t it always a good idea to complete tasks as quickly as possible? How can we truly put the people in the team – those who develop systems and look after customers – at the heart of everything? How can we achieve the best possible results together with AI? And what can we actively do to tackle an organisation’s debt?

Questions upon questions. Perhaps you have some too; brilliant! Then Part 18 of “Ideas for Organisations” has worked its magic. Lovely, isn’t it?

Notes:

[1] Linda Janke works as an executive assistant at EARN Elektroaltgeraete Service GmbH. You can find information about Linda Janke on her LinkedIn profile, the impulse can be found here in its original form.

[2] Vanessa Steffen supports companies in the field of agile organisational development and corporate management. You can find information about Vanessa Steffen on her LinkedIn profile, and the original post can be found here in its original form.

Vanessa Steffen has published several posts on the t2informatik blog, including The future belongs to resilient organisations and The art of omitting things.

[3] Dr Joël Krapf has been supporting corporate transformations for over 10 years. He currently supports organisations on their digital journey as a Senior Manager at Accenture. You can find information about Dr Joël Krapf on his LinkedIn profile, and the original article can be found here in its original form.

Dr Joël Krapf has published several articles on the t2informatik blog, including Agility was just the beginning and Agile is not a mindset.

[4] Maike Kueper works, thinks and speaks on new ways of working in future-proof organisations. Instead of (fr)agile master plans, she advocates evolutionary organisational development. You can find information about Maike Küper on her LinkedIn profile, and read the original post here in its original form.

Would you like to share these insights as an opinion leader or influencer? Then please feel free to share this post within your network.

Here you’ll find a selection of more impulses in the t2informatik Blog: