Boost your company's agility with new forms of management

You are going to read about:

• The importance of collective intelligence to leverage business results and impacts;
• What is adhocracy, the model capable of facing the speed of change;
• How to implement decentralized decision-making processes.

Boost your company's agility with new forms of management

A new world, faster and more uncertain, calls for new ways of acting and decentralized management models, whose competence is rapid learning, flexibility and agility in delivering high-value experience.

There is no way to face the challenges imposed by the speed with which the world moves today with operations that work according to old management systems, such as those based on "command and control" leadership, strongly hierarchized and/or stuck in bureaucratic processes. In this context, the word "old" is not linked to the time when these models exist, but to the fact that they are outdated, obsolete and inadequate to face the reality that is present day by day.
 
A new reality in which there is no room to try rearrangements in search of new forms of control, to adapt known patterns that worked until then, to "digitize bureaucracy". Control goes against the grain of agility, experimentation, learning and, consequently, the ability to innovate with speed. And, more than ever, these are fundamental characteristics for the survival of companies.
 
It is time to change the look on the operation, on management models, on creating and producing value, on a structural reinvention of the company as a whole. The so-called breaking of silos must go from "a beautiful idea to be implemented soon" to a functional reality with new forms of leadership that promote collaboration, knowledge exchange and the installation of new work processes.
 
Building an operation based on multidisciplinary, autonomous and highly collaborative teams is the way. It is necessary to allow collective intelligence to form and understand it as a major asset for the company. This is because the value lies in the ability to perceive and take advantage of the endless opportunities to improve, to generate increasingly adequate solutions. They will bring the greatest business impacts in the new environment.

Management models fit for the new world

In our trajectory, we discovered the so-called adhocracy, a form of adaptive and decentralized management that supports the autonomy and collaboration of the squads, creating the space for the construction of collective intelligence without borders and boosting the speed and agility of decisions.
 
We know, however, that it is not a matter of doing this from end to end in the company, completely abolishing the most traditional management formats. Some areas, such as legal, have, as a principle of their attributions, the need to maintain themselves under more rigid and hierarchical guidelines, characteristics of more bureaucratic management models.
 
As well as others that need to be based on science, detailed analysis, data. In other words, in this area, the best model remains the meritocratic one.
 
For us, the corporate structure best prepared for the new environment is formed precisely by the fine balance between these three models. Respecting the characteristics of each company and always with agility in delivering the best solution to the customer, it is possible to create a system that favors the exchange of knowledge in an organic way, enabling the establishment of the principle of continuous improvement in processes, solutions and in the company as a whole.

Implementing decentralized decision-making processes 

But how can we build an operational structure that favors this collaboration? How to decentralize the command and install the adhocracy model in areas that need autonomy and agility and still operate under a strong hierarchy?
 
Here, the cultural change that will be possible through the installation of new leadership and tools processes comes into play. At CI&T we have as a basic foundation the formation of leaders capable of adapting to the new, faster and more dynamic times. Both in our operation and in our clients, we have as a guide assumption such as learning to learn, being open to collaboration, observing without judgment, consolidating relationships of trust and leading with a focus on unlocking the potential of our people.

For that, we use principles from our Lean Digital transformation model, that articulates a strong base in the Lean management philosophy with the Agile methodology and Design principles. For us and for our customers, this model has achieved impactful results and has moved business pointers with speed, enabling the gain of scale in the transformation processes.
 
However, each company will have its needs and must compose its own tool box to build leadership and management processes that make sense for the specifics of its operation.
 
If you are interested in knowing more about how we build the mix of management methods with our customers and in our own company, access the link below and check out our paper. In it, we gather details about our adhocracy model and a combination of principles and tools that form the methodology with which we developed a strong core that allowed us to prosper in the face of uncertainty.
 
These are the lessons we want to share to help you find your own paths.
 
Come on, it's time to change your command center! So, Shift The Core!

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