Talent makes the difference. But how can companies win them over and, above all, keep them?
Talents, not technology and assets, make the difference - this is how one could describe an essential core of the "winner takes it all economy" so beautifully described in "Second Machine Age". In times when physical assets and technology are almost freely available and market entry barriers are created by people, corporate culture becomes THE success factor and decisive for attracting and retaining top talent (or not - and then it goes like about 90% of the Fortune 500 companies from 1955 that have disappeared from the scene today and lost their talent to competitors). Reinforcing this is the fact that in the digital age, far fewer people are needed to produce digital goods. Let's consider that WhatsApp was sold for $19 billion and had fewer than 100 employees at the time. Or a prominent German example: DeepL. A company led by founder Gereon Frahling that, with just 22 permanent employees, is giving Google & Co a run for their money when it comes to translation software.
So talent makes the difference. Bought. But how can companies win them over and, above all, keep them? A strong corporate culture plays an important role in the search for talent. As convinced New Workers who started 5 years ago with the mission to make companies more agile and innovative with the help of New Work tools, it is natural to use New Work approaches to build a strong corporate culture.
What is the organizational framework of successful companies in the digital age?
First, however, the question: how should companies position themselves organizationally and structurally in the much-vaunted "VUCA world" in order to be able to react quickly to market changes and literally reinvent themselves on an ongoing basis? And this is where our Company ReBuilding approach comes into play, which we would like to outline only briefly at this point. (Basic article Company Rebuilding)
Company ReBuilding "in a nutshell" means: using the strengths of a large organization (experience knowledge, competence carriers, infrastructure, financial resources ...) to build an ecosystem consisting of small agile units (cells), which is held together by a strong and value-oriented vision. Value is created in this ecosystem together with customers and partners. The foundation (in addition to the vision) is a common blueprint of values and rules of collaboration. The ecosystem is initially built using the resources of the original organization - a clear advantage over startups, for example. The decisive factor here is that the respective cell (including the original stem cell) only grows to a certain size and then divides or forms a new cell. This is the only way to avoid the overhead that is excessive in many organizations and to ensure maximum customer orientation of all employees. Administrative tasks are distributed exclusively in the form of roles.
Where exactly does New Work come into play here?
A key factor in Company ReBuilding is a strong and jointly accepted system of values and collaboration - the organizational blueprint we described above. This forms the DNA of each cell, so to speak, and is transferred with each division process. The concrete design of the structure of each cell then follows local conditions and those derived from customer requirements - but is always based on the common Blueprint. And this is precisely where New Work comes into play. In designing the organization and the value creation processes, Company ReBuilding is guided by the success clusters already described in our New Work standard work and confirmed by the American Association of Management and HR-Impulsgeber-Institut: agility, flexibility, individuality and leadership.
Below is a brief overview of essential tools and guardrails of a New Work Blueprint:
Concrete design of the blue print ...
While the tools outlined above are particularly suitable for introducing large organizations to New Work, a more extensive concretization and expansion makes sense for the cells of an ecosystem created by Company ReBuilding.
The following outlines - without claiming to be exhaustive - some of the key elements of such a New Work Blueprint, which are based on our experience with Company ReBuilding processes.
New Work in the context of Company ReBuilding means ...
... that boundaries are dissolved, enabling co-creation and collaboration with other areas as well as partners and customers from the ecosystem using platforms.
... that by providing a suitable working environment and the approach of 'Activity Based Working' the innovation and creativity potentials of the employees are raised.
... that safe spaces are created for experimentation, where making mistakes and learning from them are not only tolerated but encouraged.
... that continuous learning is an integral part of work and is not reduced to marginal times or training days (Keyword: self-learning organization + constant motivation to learn).
... that employees are deployed according to their skills, strengths and potential, following the high-performing team approach.
... that talents are made visible and explicitly promoted through suitable and concrete problems.
... that values are defined and lived together and that violations are not tolerated by the organization.
... that all activities and processes generate tangible customer and/or employee value and those that do not (Waste) are immediately discontinued.
... that team success and acting in partnership are at the center, and not the optimization of individual interests and "egomania".
... that sufficient space is created for regeneration and that the long-term preservation of employees' performance and health is balanced against the striving for productivity.
... that all the players who belong to the ecosystem follow a vision that gives individual meaning and fills each one with pride. An ecosystem that produces products whose biggest fans are those involved in creating value.
...that leadership is lived as a leadership role and management is replaced by technology.
... that fun and flow are at the heart of teamwork - essential characteristics of High Performing Teams.
... that all actions are aligned with the Purpose.
...that line organizations disappear and are replaced by flexible organizational structures and competence networks (everything is a project).
Together with our team, we have tried to reduce the number of success factors described above - but in doing so, we have not come across any point that could be neglected with a clear conscience. Only the harmonious interplay of the guard rails of a Company ReBuilding culture described above and the consistent implementation of the New Work instruments enable companies to be sustainably successful. Sustainable in the sense of a clear value contribution for customers and employees. Sustainable also in the sense of consistently avoiding culturally toxic influences.
A mammoth task indeed! But it is worth it. However, it is crucial - and here we speak from our own experience - not to make any compromises in the implementation of Company ReBuilding and not to let political special interests throw us off track.
Being a man of conviction and perseverance are ultimately decisive when it comes to implementation. Not for nothing are these the essential ingredients of a successful startup. ...
Company ReBuilding! Let’s rock it!!
The article was written by Marc Wagner.
