From my associate Janice Giannini.

In today’s rapidly changing environment, companies either thrive or die. Thriving requires closely integrating the business and people imperatives into the processes driving the business. Inadequate recognition and integration will fail to deliver the needed business results. I opine that looking through a few different lenses might be helpful:

• Are you focused on the right things? How do you know? Typically, any number of metrics are in place that “answer” this question. If the metrics are going in the right direction, you’re focusing on the right things. Right? Well, that conclusion assumes that the environment around you is relatively stable and similar to the past. Is that a valid assumption?
• If you are focused on the right things, are you doing them the right way? How do we know? Again there may be metrics in place to measure the “wasted energy” in a business. In many cases, the metrics are comparisons to the past. Is the “wasted energy” in the industry getting better or worse? This question only makes sense if the environment is similar to the past. It doesn’t answer the question, “how much better could you do if your processes are highly effective/efficient in an environment in constant flux?”
• When looking at the operations in a business to streamline and improve operational efficiency and effectiveness, the technical aspects of these processes typically take center stage. And while necessary and critical, they are not sufficient sans the people.

So, what does it look like to do the right stuff in the right way in a highly fluid environment? How much change is required? How do you get everybody on board? And what gets in the way? A rapidly changing environment requires high degrees of adjustments and modifications.

These last few questions are critical. Perhaps the most unsettling query is how to get folks on board. Everybody must be on board at the outset to thrive and reach the business’ potential. When people are on board, it is easier to define how much process change is required and what gets in the way.

Greater awareness of what causes people to change may enable a simple approach to forging a path through these murky waters. Moreover, incorporating that understanding of what causes people to change into the alignment process leads to better results.

I love the simple way John Maxwell articulated the four reasons people change:

• They hurt enough that they need to
• They see enough that they are inspired to
• They learn enough that they want to
• They receive enough that they are able to

As business leaders at the Board, C-Suite, as well as tactical levels, how are you incorporating this knowledge into the processes you use to:

• Strategically drive the enterprise
• Align execution processes in the company to the strategic goals, and
• Resource the operations to achieve or exceed your stretch goals

A point to ponder: “how much better could you do if your processes are highly effective/efficient in an environment in constant flux?”