Embodied Decision-making: How aligning decisions with purpose and core value can improve business outcomes
People often ask, How can embodiment be seen at the team or organizational level? It’s so different than with an individual.” The answer is, it’s often more obvious than most people imagine.
Here’s a recent example I’ve observed: A large health sciences company (where someone I know works) decided several years ago that they would replace multiple legacy (8-10 years old) IT service management (ITSM) platforms with a single ITSM Software as a Service (SaaS) platform for the entire company. As part of the implementation of this new software, they made a big fuss over shifting from standard waterfall project management to agile project management, including proactive organizational change management (OCM) processes. They started the shift towards agile two years ago along with the implementation of the new software. There was a lot of OCM, getting folx comfortable with the new platform. As soon as pressure appeared in the form of rising interest rates and the banking scare, the company fell back into old habits. The IT organization decided it wouldn’t update to a new UI, while the existing one is losing functionally monthly if not weekly (as the SaaS company stops support). In addition to risking breaching their contract with the SaaS company for not upgrading the version they’re using at least annually, they are also wreaking havoc within the team. Process owners who have already been working through strategic plans to ensure the business continues to run smoothly, the necessary data is captured accurately and effectively, have been told to pause.
Using the Strozzi Institute’s definition of embodied transformation: the ability to respond in alignment with your values and vision under the same old pressures, it’s clear in this situation, that the company culture and the IT organization, reverted back to old habits. Old habits that are not in alignment with their professed values. There is no question that fiscal prudence is important. From the outside, it appears the company only looked at the initial cost of the additional functionality available in the new UI. They didn’t include or calculate the internal costs of patching together workflows and processes in the interim. Or the extra time for OCM that it will likely take to get employees comfortable with the new UI and much more additional functionality with later updates.
Are you interested in moving towards embodied decision-making? For fiscally conservative organizations like this one, I would invite you to first revisit your company’s purpose and core values. Then I would invite you to explore what benefits might accrue from putting purpose and people over profit. In other words, although you might have a publicly traded company, I wouldn’t let everything hang on your share price and quarterly returns.
If the purpose of your company is to improve the lives of millions of people through medical equipment and devices, and nutritional products, lead with it. Emphasize your core values and how they align with your company’s purpose. Invite people to make decisions from there. You might just find that burnout and staff turnover decrease and customer satisfaction (both internal and external) increases. A growing number of companies that have done exactly that - put purpose before profit - and thrived.
I believe that even with financial constraints, people would be able to make good decisions to reduce expenditures as needed. That people would base their decisions on who you’re becoming as an organization. That the costs of making decisions the old way would be topic for discussions, and that the decision would be shared in a way that connects how that decision aligns with your purpose, your core values, and who you’re becoming as an organization. If you aren’t making decisions like this, you might be overlooking metrics that impact your company's resilience and business continuity.
I’d love to hear how you and your organization cultivate decision making that embodies your company’s purpose and core values. How are you and your team keeping culture and who you are becoming, at the center of your discussions? How do these discussions and decisions impact your resilience as an organization and your business continuity?
If you’d like to explore how “embodied decision-making” could manifest in your company, let’s chat: https://arrangr.com/thomasrosenbergletschat