People. There are multiple ways in which you could define that word. In strictly scientific terms, you could say people are a biological species. From a business perspective, people are resources. From a spiritual standpoint, they are a potential force in bettering the world.
But no matter how the word is defined, one thing is always true as far as a business leader is concerned: the people who comprise an organization are the most important part of your business. In fact, the quality of their performance and their mindset would determine how far the business could progress.
Keeping this in mind, let’s look at some of the key aspects related to people in an organization. An astute leader would do well to ensure these aspects are up to the mark, for the business to flourish.
True Personal Vision
This is vision that could only be found within one’s own self- innate to oneself. This vision functions as a constant guiding light for the person, putting him or her on a constant trajectory of progress. The performance quality of a vision inspired change agent is consistently above the par.
Temenos Vision Lab
Temenos Vision Lab or TVL is a unique session developed by Temenos+Agility that helps change agents discover their True Personal Vision.
Developed based on 25 years of business consultancy experience and incorporating psychological insights, TVL enlists some of the best leadership coaches to help guide you to your vision.
The approach taken in TVL to help you discover your vision is holistic. It is an unfortunate truth of the modern era to compartmentalise people’s selves into different silos. For example, we may consider different aspects like ‘professional self’ personal self’ and ‘social self’ in terms of a personality.
This fragmentation is like viewing the self as a broken mirror with distinct pieces that are somehow glued together. Needless to say, this doesn’t give you a clear picture of the personality.
In TVL, it is ensured that the individual is considered as a whole- encompassing the different so-called ‘selves’ we mentioned before while helping him or her in discovering their vision. Otherwise, there exists the danger that the vision you arrive at is unreal- pertaining to one or the other of your selves. For example, maybe what you arrive at is a goal for your professional self.
The problem with such an approach is that as an individual you are never completely content even if that particular goal is achieved. Because the other fragments of your self are discontent, asking, “What about my goal?” Your True Personal Vision, on the other hand, is one all these different fragments are in agreement with.
Paradoxically, that vision could be realized only if the individual is considered as a holistic self. Which is exactly what the TVL trainers are adept at doing.
The importance of Influence Maps
The human being as a singular person with agency is a curious phenomenon. At the level of individual cognition, each of us is a person, someone bestowed with the power to think and act.
But zooming out from our own mind and observing ourselves with detachment, we would see that there are different aspects at play with address out thoughts and actions. These influences could be anything from the personal to the professional and more.
For instance, certain actions might have for their base influences which we experienced in our young age. Habits which were formulated at a time we often don’t think about may be influencing your actions. Then, there are instances in which an idea that you mistakenly believed based on some past incident might be working as the basis for some decision or action.
This could be rather dangerous. You may be taking the wrong decisions based on influences that you may not be consciously aware of. To tackle this requires more than just will power.
The Influence Maps is a proprietary tool from Temenos+Vision which is used in TVL that helps you map t all the different influences that are addressing your thoughts and actions. The process could be considered as the mapping of the constellations in your mind, so that you would know which one to frequently traverse and which one to keep away from.
The result of the process is a smarter decision-making self, more aware of one’s own inherent powers.
Clean Slate
Clean slate could be defined as a ‘no-baggage’ mental state; one in which the change agent id devoid of negative emotions and misapprehensions that may be preventing them from reaching their full potential. Clean Slate is also the name of an important session that’s part of TVL, which helps change agents achieve exactly such a mental state.
Objectives and key results
Objectives and key results are two sides of the same coin- the coin being the change agent’s performance. The objective is the goal towards which the change agent moves and key results are the parameters based on which it’s judged whether these objectives are met or not.
A team’s performance is optimal if the goal they are moving towards is born from among their own selves than imposed from the outside. A goal that is as meaningful as it is compelling. This is the Compelling Shared Vision and teams are helped to discover it in TVL.
Culture
Culture is the greatest intangible in an organization. A better work culture leads to better productivity and innovation. Any business that has for its sole priority the volume of money they make, having a work culture in which the interpersonal relations are frayed is a poor business by any definition.
Talking about interpersonal relations, in TVL, change agents are encouraged to share their personal narratives of overcoming challenges with each other and also their vision. This leads to better understanding among the team members, thereby bolstering the team as a unit.
Leadership
A good leader is able to inspire his or her subordinates. A great leader stays inspired by his or her True Personal Vision. In fact, the two are interlinked since a leader without a vision wouldn’t be able to inspire others into action.
Quality of leadership is a key aspect to consider when we speak of people
While True Personal Vision may be innate to everyone, it often gets obscured thanks to the myriad distractions of everyday life. This is particularly disheartening for leaders since the vision could be their best ally in times of confusion. And that’s also the reason why TVL could be useful for leaders more than anyone else.
Language- Habits- Mindset
The first indicator of the functional quality of a workforce is language. The terms they use to communicate with each other, the names of the most common processes etc. give an indication of their approach to work. And introducing changes in the language could well change the attitude as well.
Deeper than language are the habits- the deeds which the workforce performs almost without thinking, possibly every day in the process of carrying out their work. Sometimes, by improving or changing some of these habits, you could bring about a massive change in the quality of work.
Then, there’s mindset. It would be stating the blatantly obvious that improving the workforce’s mindset would result in better quality of work. And there are methods to achieve that- the psychological practice of ‘nudging’ being one of them.
As a consultant dedicated to improving work culture and productivity, Temenos+ Agility helps improve quality of organizations by bringing about positive changes on all three fronts- languages, habits and mindset.
The trainers work in close conjunction with the change agents on all three fronts. In terms of language, first the current state of the organization is assessed. The way interactions are conducted and the language used to describe projected future are also assessed. Then, based on the desired forward trajectory, meaningful amendments are introduced into the lexicography of the organization.
For effecting changes in habits, the trainers work closely with the change agents on a relatively long-term format. Rather than force a set of habits to be adopted by the change agents- which rarely succeed, Temenos+Agility adopts a more interactive approach. By understanding the change agents’ mode of functioning, they are then encouraged to retain the desired habits. Simultaneously, they are provided with the necessary tools and guidance to adapt new positive habits.
The trickle down effect of the renewed language and habits brings a change to the mindset as well. In terms of mindset, Temenos+Agility ensures a change on two fronts: the personal and the collective. The former results in a more focused and productive change agent while the latter leads to better work culture in the organization.
Vision Agility Model
While it’s widely agreed that Agility is a model that’s beneficial for organizations to adopt, on the implementation level, failures are still aplenty.
To minimize this and maximize the impact of agility, Temenos+Agility offers the Vision Agility Model.
Agility, simply put demands transition. From old way of doing things to a new way. From an earlier hierarchy to a new one. The reason why many Agile implementations fail is that change agents are rarely ready for a transformation. This shouldn’t be surprising because it’s natural for people to be resistant to any sudden changes.
To overcome this problem, Temenos+Agilty paves the way to the agile transformation by helping change agents realize their vision. Leaders are guided to their True Personal Vision while teams are helped to realize their Compelling Shared Vision. Now, the team members have a shared goal towards which they could move.
This shared goal forms a great context for agility. Using agile principles, they could now attain that shared goal. Since the Compelling Shared Vision is born from among the team members, they now have the innate desire to achieve their goal. And Agility- being a tool that would help them in the same could be easily implemented in this scenario.
