If you manage a small-to-medium sized enterprise (SME), gain advantage and be future ready by increasing your access to better business options and bigger possibilities.
Hopefully you are familiar with this movie scene, Neo is offered two pills--one blue and one red. With one pill Neo returns to The Matrix and the status quo of a comfortable consciousness, though fake existence. With the other, Morpheus offers the knowledge of truth; the cold, dark, and harsh truth of the real world, from which Neo cannot return.
If the last couple of years were "business as usual", and we were heading into a time of plentiful skilled labor, no global supply chain concerns, no inflation, everyone back at the office (with no memory of the benefits of remote work), no COVID impact or future issues, or social change impact on worker mindset; then you would have little about which to be concerned. The status quo could prevail, and you would probably be successful on your terms.
But our recent history has not been anywhere close to "normal", and the future of operations will continue to be disrupted with major and concurrent skilled labor, economic, technology and social shifts. This is going to require you to review the management structure and interface of your management positions, just like you did when you first established the company; things have changed that much.
The question I pose to talent managers and executives is this: If you and your teams are responding to events and navigating through change, could you reach the limits of your response strategy, if change happens too quickly?
The answer is "yes", and you are in good company. With signs of a global recession, research from the World Economic Forum and the National University of Singapore Business School indicates that 67% of executives from small to mediums sized enterprises (SMEs) cite survival and expansion as their main challenge.
in the report, Future Readiness of SMEs and Mid-Sized Companies: A Year On, business leaders also cite talent acquisition and retention (48%) as their biggest constraint. The synopsis focuses on how this segment of the market can build stronger business frameworks. It outlines how companies build resiliency and benefit from the development and implementation of "a strategic approach to talent management".
Rashimah Rajah, Professor at the National University of Singapore and co-lead author of the report, added: “SMEs and mid-sized companies have unique strengths in their ability to pivot their business models to be more future ready and, by hiring and developing the right talent, they can mobilize positive internal and external change faster than larger companies..."
This brings us to Lesson Three: You can't go back into the Matrix. Now that we have been thrust into this dynamic, sometimes whirlwind environment, we must navigate through it. As narrative complexity expert Sonja Blignaut observes, it is crucial to understand choices change our option landscape. Think about what this means! With each choice (and doing nothing is a choice) we eliminate the possibility of some options, but also gain access to new ones. This is an awesome realization! If we are moving in the "ideal direction" the sky opens; if moving awry, or not at all, it is limiting and could even be devastating to our survival. Identified available choices impacts future readiness.
There is good news if you lead an SME. As Rashimah Rajah assessed, you can use your size to pivot in anticipation and response to local and global business environments. Agility is a big word in business today, and that is because large companies realize they need to implement change quicker. In reality, they are mimicking the SME orientation. In addition to pivots, agility allows for inclusive learning and integration of local ideation. A great idea in one area can be swiftly rolled out for benefit in other areas when companies are agile.
Systems maps are ideal for this approach. Through group input, you map out the meaning of current processes (don't think "this, then that" but "what, what if") and through systems thinking, management design, and learning tools, you gain collective understanding and foster inclusive learning for a true assessment of where you are. You can then, with intent, shift your position for access to better available options. By not tethering your direction down to where you are, but visualizing and predicting where you could be, you change your option landscape, and increase the possibilities, potential gains, and outcomes.
So, choose a holistic view of your management design and expand your option landscape! Future readiness is born of the knowledge of your options; revealing options prepare businesses for what is possible.
Lori G. Fisher
PLS Management Consulting
Purpose | Leap | Surge
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