Horizontal organizing

Adriaan Bekman

• Verlag: Books on Demand
• Jahr: 2018
• ISBN drucken: 9783941136519
• eBook-ISBN: 9783941136526
• Thema: Betriebswirtschaft
• Thema: Business allgemein

Horizontal organizing is a possible answer to the ever more complex social reality in which we live. That reality requires of each of us to learn to act as horizontal leader and work and live together out of this quality.From a vertical organized world, top - down and bottom - up, power and hierarchy we emancipate to a more horizontal organized world, a world of value creating chains and relations, with personal initiative and reflective dialogue.There are leaders and professionals all around the world who dare to do this together. They create humane organizations and develop in them moral authority.In this book you find the basic fruits of our common exploration on horizontal organizing.

Part 1: The horizontal
dimension of organizing

I will start by characterizing the horizontal dimension of organizing. We find the basis for this characterisation in describing the two worlds in which we live.

Two worlds in which we live

I see two different worlds in which we live:

• The cosmic-natural world
• The world we have created ourselves.

The cosmic-natural world is a world of being. It is constructed on the basis of two principles: Hierarchy and Functionality.

It is a vertically constructed world of system levels in a hierarchical order and on each level there are beings or forces or powers that work and have a specific function in the whole of this cosmic-natural world. Our body and spirit are part of this world and we as humanity form one of the levels in the hierarchy with a specific function, described as “freedom”. To be able to create this, another world is opened up in which we as human beings can explore and develop this quality so that it can be integrated in the cosmic-natural world.

The world we have created ourselves is a world of becoming. It is constructed on the basis of three principles: process, dialogue, and biography. It is the world of the human soul. This world is created between us; it is a world of space and time. All that we create as human beings alone and together will disappear and the only sense its existence has is the one we give it ourselves. The only fruit that remains, is the consciousness development of the human soul. Change and transformation, metamorphoses and “Steigerung” of consciousness are dimensions of this soul development.

As we come out of the cosmic-natural world that is vertically constructed and enter a horizontal space and time on earth that have been opened for our soul development, because of our origin we are used to see and experience the horizontal world from the verticality. We like to work from the concepts of power control, top – down and bottom-up. As today in our own world there is no eternal vertical cosmic-natural control mechanism, “the Gods have withdrawn”, we have to take care of everything ourselves. That new in-control mechanism is “horizontal organizing and horizontal leadership”. This works on the basis of the horizontal dimension and we can keep it in control by creating and constructing the vertical dimension ourselves. Human soul life takes place in the horizontal dimension, it is present where development and change and innovation happen. This is the dimension of our leadership. The vertical dimension keeps the operations of human beings in control. Management is the ultimate expression of this.

So today the position of human beings and of humanity is based on the fact that the vertical is no longer the embedment for our existence on earth but that we have to create this embedment ourselves. We show leadership in what happens horizontally. To be able to do this we have to start constructing the vertical dimension of our existence here on earth ourselves. Hierarchy and functionality transform themselves and are turned upside-down.

Chapter 1: Horizontal
organizing in practice

Forty-five years ago I started working in Shell companies on change issues through organizational development. The practices of managers and employees sometimes got trapped in vertical hierarchical contexts, especially when the functioning of leadership and cooperation were obstructed by fixed bureaucratic boundaries between their own departments and other departments.

We trained managers and executives in different styles of leadership and we trained staff in social skills. This was not enough. The methods for working together also had to be changed. We developed project work and work group dialogue, we installed management teams, we held extensive community meetings where policy was explained and discussed. The emancipation of the workforce by installing a work council as a control- and advisory body for the management by chosen representatives of the work force and consequently the consistent consultation by the management of this work council, supported the opening up of the closed vertical structures by a balancing power that protected the limits.

Gradually a new methodology for horizontal organizing arose and appeared in my consulting practice of human and organizational development. In my thesis “Moving Organizations, the customer at the centre of our exertions”, I have described the fundamental change from a vertical, hierarchical company top - down functional approach to a customer-oriented dialogical approach where change questions are picked up and realized in a more horizontal way. This doctoral thesis was mainly based on years of research and consultancy at German Sparkasse. Sparkasse emerged during the last two centuries as a string of local and regional community banks. The special feature of these Sparkasse, as the biggest bank organization and bank community in the world, is that they still define their objectives in the context of the wellbeing of the client. “The ups and downs of our customer are paramount. If all goes well with the client, we are doing well.” Those customers are in principle all citizens and businesses of a city or region. In these Sparkasse there are very short lines between top managers and professionals, after all every one of them also works with clients. The central staff departments are service providers to the customer service process. Especially now that customers feel increasingly free to move to wherever they want to be as a customer, clients must be approached and treated differently. This requires a horizontal method of working. These days a bank organization requires for instance effective and rapid cooperation between professionals from different units to respond to client needs in an adequate way. This horizontal collaboration is greatly improved when managers and employees hold together and deal with change questions together in a horizontal way and do not force changes top – down through the hierarchy on to the professionals that work with clients.

In a horizontal way of creating change we see process owners, chosen by the top management on the basis of their leadership skills, who do this out of a personal commitment and guide these change processes from start till finish. They ensure that decision makers, experts, members of the community create this change and realize it together. In such horizontal processes the invited participants can move across the organization and cooperate with all those people whom they hardly ever meet in daily operational practice.

We are all focused on the customer all the time when it is about horizontal organizing. It is the customer that unites us where much divides us.

Some years ago ‘Horizontal Supervision’ was introduced with the Dutch tax authorities. Tax office officials started to operate on the basis of a mutual trust approach to all those organizations that have good and reliable reputations. These organizations are not permanently monitored, but they are occasionally reviewed by an in-depth cooperation between the business people and the tax authorities. This has major benefits for both. It saves time and energy, and when the check is done, this enhances new insights on both sides.

Some hospitals encourage horizontal collaboration between professionals. Medical specialists and organization managers work in dual relationships to the benefit of their units and their customers and employees.

In 2005 I set up IMO Institute for Human and Organizational Development. Now fifty consultants in eight countries, working with 250 client organizations are involved in horizontal organizing and horizontal leadership.

Our customers describe this cooperation as being part of a learning community that develops new adventurous paths for achieving change and managing the ‘business’ in a productive way. This helps to ensure that these organizations and all their stakeholders are part of a healthy community, an inspiring professional work process, provide excellent customer service and create financially profitable areas for new investments.

We work as a leadership partner in this way for CEOs on policy issues in substantial change processes that address essential questions. We support managers and process owners in realizing these change processes. We coach professionals in improving work processes, cooperating in a good way with each other and providing excellent customer service.

We are privileged to work with excellent companies like Ecor-Naturasi (Italy), Anix (Russia), Terra Viva (Brazil), Triodos Bank (Netherlands), dm (Germany), Waldorf Schools (Israel), Knowledge and Nursing (Switzerland), the Red Cross (Finland), exploring horizontal organizing and horizontal leadership.

This collaboration between the client organization leaders (CEO, managers, professionals) and IMO consultants/leaders takes place in a rhythmic, step - by - step, dialogic and reflective way. The IMO methodology supports a conscious and effective way of creating meaningful change. We train our clients in leadership skills that enable them to lead change processes from beginning to end.

This provides long-term relationships with our customers, based on a common commitment to make things work well and this gives us the opportunity to make a substantial contribution to the welfare of the company and the people involved and to the wider society.

These are some examples of small steps towards a horizontal way of organizing.

Although generally horizontally organizing Companies fare well over long periods, it is not self-evident that companies and their leaders are committed to horizontal organizing. In order to achieve this the perspective must be changed of the vertical ‘in - control’ position of the top people who have great power over what can and cannot take place. A move has to be made towards taking the stimulating horizontal leadership position while responsible people take good initiatives. The main obstacle for changing from vertical to horizontal leadership and organizing is the fear of CEOs that they will lose control and that they can no longer use the power they have to steer the company in a desired direction. The CEO likes to stay at a distance to be able to execute the interventions needed that might also include sacking people. CEOs are generally not inclined to introduce themselves into the process as a person and to enter into a direct personal dialogue with all stakeholders. This is not desirable in the normal CEO repertoire of action. ‘Just stay at a distance and stay on the wheel’ is what comes first and has the first attention.

In addition to this, the upper middle management is tied to their positions as heads of departments and units. They are in control and administer their department contribution and this sometimes in a competitive relationship with colleagues, especially when it comes to gaining the attention of the top people for their excellent contribution.

Team leaders and professionals, however, really just benefit from operating horizontally. They are part of the direct dynamics of working with customers and have benefits when they can operate in a mobile and direct way together with others on the issues that play a part in client process.

If organizations focus their attention primarily on customer service, collaboration with several stakeholders, including suppliers, owners and employees, and top managers are able to see themselves in the middle of this community of cooperating people and not at the top and at a distance, there is a basis for horizontal organizing, as is shown in our practice over many years in many organizations in many countries (The mystery of leadership, Alert Verlag, Berlin).

What this means and how this can work, we will explore in the remainder of this book.

Chapter 2: Key orientations
for horizontal organizing

Horizontal organizing focuses on four fundamental objectives or challenges and these four objectives need constantly to be brought in a healthy balance with each other. This multiplicity of objectives corresponds to a plurality of organizational dimensions that seem to make up the soul of an organization.

The fourfold objective of organizing an organization as a living organism is:

• Systematic work with clients
• Systematically save costs and improve processes
• Systematically encourage the development of employees
• Systematically foster the development of teams and units.

It is the art of good organizing to deal with these challenges in a creative and systematic manner and in such a way that all of these four objectives are achieved to realize the optimum value creation for the company and its stakeholders.

Systematic work with clients

The process with the customer can be characterized as the core process of the organization. In it, the core added value of the organization is realized. The core process supports the existence of the organization. However, having the focus on the customer is absolutely not self-evident. Employees are highly focused on their own work process and tend to lose sight of their customer’s interest. The productive connection of the work done by employees and the need and wishes of the customer, as they meet each other in the key process, is essential for the wellbeing of people and organizations. This combination is shaped in the interface between organization and customer. This relates to interfaces such as “attracting the customer”, “the customer order”, “providing a service or product to the customer”, “payment by the customer”, “follow-up service to the customer” In these interfaces there is a reciprocal movement. Organization and customers are actually both client and supplier of each other.

There is an essential difference to be observed in the combination customer - organization whether dealing with an anonymous consumer or dialoguing with a personal client. The anonymous consumer is interested in product and service at a reasonable price but does not want to actually enter into any personal relation with the organization people and vice versa. However, the customer as an actual client has a personal relation with the organization and is interested in what the organization develops in relation to customer needs.

A responsible manager of a company decides to take over the business from the owner. The company is not a core business of the group anymore. The new entrepreneur decides to visit all customers the company has and to find out in conversations with them where they experience strengths and weaknesses of the company. The discussions show him that some customers are really interested in this company and would like to continue, but there are also customers who are only interested in the product and price and who in comparison with other suppliers decide whether or not to do business. The entrepreneur decides to set up two different processes. With customers who are actual clients he will develop new products together and with the consuming customers the company will provide a good standard product at an attra...

Inhaltsverzeichnis

• Notes
• Table of Contents
• General introduction
• Part 1: The horizontal dimension of organizing
• Part 2: The vertical dimension in horizontal organizing
• Part 3: Developing organizations as communities
• Finally
• Literature
• Copyright