Use it or Lose it

Use it or Lose it

As organisations navigate turbulent, rapidly evolving markets whilst trying to harness technological advances generally, and AI specifically, all at a time of increasing digitisation alongside a proliferation of more flexible, remote working practices and changing employee expectations… is there a chance we “throw the baby out with the bathwater”?

What are we losing? Is, I would argue, a fair question to ask.

There is an evolving concept within the world of OD referred to as Organisational Wisdom. The notion of Organisational Wisdom goes beyond knowledge management and revolves around an enterprise’s ability to select, apply, and act on relevant knowledge in context-appropriate, ethical, and effective ways to improve decision-making and engender adaptive behaviours to enable the business to function in complex environments.

That might be the ‘book definition’ but in practice we’ve probably all worked in places where when a certain point is reached the advice is invariably “go and speak to X” or “Y’s your best person to ask”. Why are we pointed in their direction… well it’s because they ‘know how it works’, they understand organisations are non-linear eco-systems where if you flick a switch here, all kinds of lights turn on some of which you didn’t even know existed. That kind of wisdom is invaluable, so how do we hang onto it? and more importantly how do we try and capture its essence and spread it across the rest of the business?

As the concept of Organisational Wisdom develops as to the strategies one can put in place to develop that capability. As January has become National Mentoring Month, it feels like an appropriate time to highlight that mentoring isn’t just a people development tool, it’s a core means by which Organisational Wisdom can be harnessed and disseminated.

So what do we mean by mentoring?

There are typically two main approaches organisations take with mentoring; firstly it’s a means of onboarding new hires and giving those just joining the organisation a point of contact, outside of their line management, to disaggregate the pastoral and operational induction. In practice new starters get assigned a buddy who they meet regularly over their initial few months, this helps them make the transition without having to get into the detail of the day-to-day tasks the person has been allocated. We’ve certainly worked with clients to set up such arrangements formally and this approach can deliver tangible benefits in terms of retention and the time it takes to get people up to speed and operational.

But there is another form of mentoring used in the context of career development, often with those identified as ‘high flyers’ where their mentor is someone senior who ostensibly can help the mentee tap into and utilise their wisdom.

As a concept it is fairly straight forward, it’s not tutoring or teaching where the person just sits, listens and absorbs and it’s not coaching where the conversations are predicated on the notion that the person has the resources and capacity already… they just need to recognise and understand that and then apply that expertise more effectively (apologies to all coaches… I do know there’s more to it than that!).

Mentoring is intended to be a two-way relationship, where the conversations are collaborative. It’s the mentee’s content; their issues, goals and objectives (whether career based or operational) and the mentor’s expertise and wisdom is a critical resource that the mentee now has access to. When done well it’s an invaluable form of collaborative problem-solving… and it shouldn’t be one-way. Wisdom based on expertise and experience only holds currency if it evolves and reflects today’s reality. Mentoring can be a way that mentors stay current and keep abreast, not only of the issues people are facing at a more granular level, but it also gives them an insight into the way other generations think, feel, act and react and what their priorities are.

For the mentee, it gives them access to a wealth of understanding and gives them insight into the interconnectivity and complexity of their operating environment… it also can provide a fast-track introduction to a network of critical relationships.

As a development tool it’s ancient; however all too often this kind of mentoring is ad hoc and reliant on who can make themselves available to be a mentor. The question therefore has to be if we are trying to retain and leverage our organisational wisdom, should we be leaving it to chance and diary management? Should we be taking a more strategic approach, identifying those whose wisdom we really can’t afford to lose (or allow to wane and become detached from today’s reality) and ensuring mentoring becomes a critical part of their role?

There is, I believe, a case for a structured, managed approach to mentoring, where mentors are specifically identified for the wisdom they possess (and we can’t really afford to lose) and we systematically look to leverage that wisdom through an ongoing series of mentorships. In the process the aim would be to keep that wisdom current by getting some of our most experienced people to engage collaboratively with our next cohort of high-flyers.

In the end, when it comes to those who are essentially the engine room of organisational wisdom, the question is do you use it or lose it?

Richard is our Coaching, Mentoring and Mediation specialist – if you would like more info please get in touch: richard@2macs.com