Leading organisations are continually looking for the next big thing; that competitive advantage to provide the step change in performance that will enable them to deliver the numbers and shareholder value.

The only problem with this is, all too often, businesses are not set up in the correct way to truly capitalise. What do I mean? Well let’s take a look at a simple equation:

Taken from a book by Timothy Gallwey, ‘The Inner Game of Tennis’[1], Gallwey argues that in order to unlock one’s potential you need to remove ‘interferences’. These are the things that get in the way. They could be imagined, real, assumed or beliefs. It could even be ‘the way things get done around here’, the way they’ve always been done.

Most leaders understand, at an intellectual level at least, that things may need to change. They may even know what needs to change but all too often assumptions are made about; the ability to execute the change, the willingness of their organisation to change, the organisation’s perception of the need to change and even whether the business will actually see it through. All potential areas of interference! Do you recognise any?

If we translate this calculation into the business world there are a whole range of ‘interferences’ that prevent organisations from truly unlocking their potential. Some are complex issues.

However, I don’t want to get too involved in the complexity other than highlight the potential impact they could have.

If you were to look at your organisation, what would be the result of your calculation?

What does X possibly represent for you?

How People ThinkBefore we explore possible areas of interference it is important to understand how people think.

In 1997 Go MAD Thinking undertook a four thousand hour phenomenological research study to understand what people naturally do when making a difference. Part of that research

our heads. This distilled down to four key areas:

• Statements

Things we say about the situation, others or ourselves:

“They don’t care”, “They did a great job for us”.

• Questions

Things we ask about the situation, other people or ourselves:

“What is this all about?”, “Why now?”, “How does this affect me?”, “How could I get involved?”, “How could this work?”.

• Recalled Memories

Things we remember which shape how we might think about something:

“Last time it didn’t work”, “This looks familiar”, “This sounds like last time”, “I enjoyed this”, “Here we go again”.

• Imagined Future

Things we imagine as a trigger from a thought:

“It’s not going to work”, “It will be a disaster”, “They’ll not get me doing that”, “I can see what this will be like”, “I see what they mean”.

These four key areas are known as The Four Thinking Components and are an immensely powerful tool which can

particular ways.

You will notice that the quotes above are framed differently; they are either helpful thoughts (those that are more likely to move you forward) or hindering thoughts (those that are likely to hold you back, delay your progress or worse, cause inertia).

1. Timothy Gallwey (1974). The Inner Game of Tennis. New York: Random House.

Pe = 100% - X

Performance = potential - interference

Pe = Po - I

Why organisations fail to deliver their potential

To learn more about unlocking your organisation’s potential visit www.gomadthinking.com or call +44 (0) 1509 891313

Common Areas of Interference Possible Hindering Thoughts

Lack of clarity, unclear or no vision, inability to relate to the

vision, no clear communication

“We’ll do our own thing then.”

“Who’s running the show?”

“If they don’t know, how am I supposed to know?”

“How does this relate to the vision?”

No clear compelling purpose, no sense of urgency or burning

platform

“What are we doing this for?”

“What’s the point?”

“Why should I bother?”

Lack of clarity, unclear or no vision, inability to relate to the

vision, no clear communication ture not aligned around the core

vision

“I don’t believe we are on the right track.”

“I don’t agree we are focused on the right things.”

“I don’t like how we do things.”

Management are not committed to the vision

purpose

“They won’t help because it doesn’t help them.”

“They have the skills and resources but won’t share.”

“That doesn’t help me hit my goals and earn my bonus.”

“It has been decided.”

Stakeholders not engaged or aligned to the vision

“They’re not bothered unless it helps them.”

“They’re not interested in our part of the business.”

“We don’t work that way.”

“Why should I?”

Lack of accountability and leadership taking responsibility, lack

of communication

“They’re only interested in themselves.”

“We keep making the same mistakes.”

“Who owns this?”

“Why is no one making decisions?”

“We never hear what’s going on unless it’s gone wrong?”

Interference and Thinking

This is not intended to be a comprehensive list; it highlights key areas which, if leaders were to choose to focus on, could make a huge impact on unlocking potential within their business.

Do you recognise any of these issues, comments and possible thinking as present in your organisation?

Consider some common areas of interference and the possible thoughts you might recognise in some of your people:

Key business questions:

• To what extent are your people thinking helpful thoughts (helping them to move forward) or hindering thoughts (holding them back or worse)?

• To what extent might this be interfering with their performance and your business success?

The answers to these questions are key and this diagram highlights the link between how people think and the results achieved.

Organisations expect results and as you would imagine they measure success against those results. In order to get results, a

often than not organisations assume that the thinking in the business is conducive to taking those actions and delivering the expected results.

To learn more about unlocking your organisation’s potential visit www.gomadthinking.com or call +44 (0) 1509 891313

Looking at the examples given it is easy to see that these are connected, inter-related. As leaders, if we can resolve six key areas we can make a real step change towards a more results focused culture. It is important to recognise that an organisation is like an engine, made up of many parts that need

the journey. The Go MAD® Leadership Thinking Framework shows the six key components of the Leadership ‘engine’.

The Go MAD® Leadership Thinking Framework takes a unique look at an organisation. It explores the six key principles to

increase an organisation’s likelihood of success. It takes a holistic view through a leadership lens and seeks to establish how effective the organisation is in each area:

Vision and Objectives – What do we want and how clearly

This provides the clarity of direction, the future state. This focuses leaders on: what they want the organisation to become, target markets and customers, key metrics of success including

Social Responsibility.

Without clarity any road will do!

Organisational Reason Why – What is our compelling purpose and/or burning platform?

The organisational reason why, or compelling purpose, enables people to buy into ‘what’ you want to achieve. This could be to challenge the market status quo like Virgin or the ethical drivers of the Body Shop. The purpose is clear and compelling to its people, customers and shareholders alike.

This enables people to choose to buy-in or not to buy-in to what you want to achieve. They will have their own motivations and reasons why. This will help them to align theirs with yours.

The burning platform brings a sense of urgency in to play; it helps to focus the business on the business critical projects and issues that needs to be delivered and resolved.

Culture (a collection of beliefs) – What is the culture and how does that align to our Vision and Objectives?

Culture is an interesting and challenging area for organisations to gauge and articulate. How would you describe your current culture? How would you describe the culture you want; one that can deliver your vision?

Go MAD helps organisations achieve a personal responsibility culture. One where people take ownership for delivering their

happening as planned, people explore possible solutions and make things happen to achieve the result. A culture aligned and collaborative in delivering the vision.

priorities. People blame each other for non-delivery of goals. Organisational objectives are not consistent with internal business goals and competition for resources based on the latter leads to wasted time and effort. Internal processes, practices and reward mechanisms are not aligned and undermine the achievement of the organisational goals. This is likely to see individuals and departments achieving their goals at the expense of the organisation.

How compelling is your Organisational Reason Why?

How aligned is your culture to your Organisational Reason Why?

How achievable do our people believe your Vision and Objectives are?

The Leadership Role

To learn more about unlocking your organisation’s potential visit www.gomadthinking.com or call +44 (0) 1509 891313

Management Thinking and Planning

This principle is all about the capability of the Management Team to think through and plan to execute the strategy that delivers the Vision. How equipped are they, not just from a technical perspective, but from a leadership perspective? Do

way that engages their teams to deliver? Do they talk using language like “we”, “us”, “our” or do they abdicate responsibility through using “they”, “it has been decided on high”? Do they recognise the positive and negative impact of their behaviour? How does the organisation ensure they are aligning their actions to the vision? How are the working practices and reward strategies designed to support and encourage delivery today without any negative impact on delivery in the future?

People

Pivotal in the success of any organisation is how well it engages and understands its key stakeholders. Who could possibly help or hinder progress? How does the organisation ensure it buys into what the business is trying to achieve? What risks and implications might there be if a particular group isn’t engaged? This population is broad and deep; including groups such as your people, managers, customers, shareholders, regulators, suppliers, trade bodies and competitors. Who else might possibly be included?

Leadership Responsibility

At the centre of the Framework is the principle of Leadership Responsibility. This is the heart of hearts moment, the acid test. How well are we performing as a Leadership Team against the other key principles? If we are not doing as well as we’d hoped then the key question is ‘to what extent are you personally taking leadership responsibility in your business?’

Businesses often label things. Employee Engagement is a popular topic at the moment as disengaged employees are more likely to have hindering thoughts. However, having dealt with the hygiene factors; the aesthetics (new chairs, desks, a lick of paint) as I would call it from the people survey, the question to ask is, “How do we truly get them engaged?”

I would argue that if you were to tackle the key areas of interference (those hindering thoughts and issues that hold your business back) you would make a huge impact on engagement levels and the business results.

Key Business Questions:

• What ‘interference’ exists in your business?

• To what extent is your people’s thinking focused on those interferences as opposed to delivering your goals?

The good news is that there are solutions. Understanding

things are that get in the way. However, the real competitive advantage comes from unlocking the hindering thoughts within the business and building a helpful, Results Focused Thinking culture.

To learn more about unlocking your organisation’s potential visit www.gomadthinking.com or call +44 (0) 1509 891313

9 High Quality Questions to help you with your thinking

1. How clear is the vision and objectives for our business?

2. How compelling is our business purpose?

3. How committed is the business to our burning platform?

4. How well does the business understand our vision and purpose?

5. How is our culture aligned to delivering our vision?

6. How effective are our managers at executing the vision?

7. How well have we engaged our key stakeholders to buy-in to delivering the vision?

8. To what extent have we as leaders taken responsibility

9. To what extent have we as leaders removed the ‘interference’ to enable our people to deliver?

It might be useful to answer these questions instinctively using a 1-10 scale (1 being not at all, 10 being completely, or as good as it gets). This might give some clues to areas requiring attention or where to start.

Go MAD Thinking is a Business Improvement Consultancy with a unique approach and methodology, founded on research and proven in practice. We help organisations to develop results focused and solutions oriented cultures, aligned to the business goals and we deliver results. With a cross-sector client portfolio of FTSE 250, Public Sector and International Businesses across 40 countries we have developed over 200,000 people to apply our business improvement toolkit.