MMObilizing commitment

As a youngster, I used to play a card game called "I Commit" (above), which was originally devised in the 1930s. During the game, players competed to collect sets of three cards which would enable them to ‘commit a crime’. I should add that, to redress the moral balance, they also strove to collect 'policemen' to thwart the criminal activities of their opponents!　In essence, before a player could say "I commit ...", they needed to show that they had the motive, the means and the opportunity to do so.

So, what has a 1930s parlour game got to do with 21st century organizational life? Well, if people are – figuratively speaking – to say "I commit", in relation to their everyday roles, relationships and results at work, they similarly need the motive, means and opportunity to do so. From this perspective, the task for managers – from CEO to the front line – becomes one of helping to foster a work climate in which people have the motive, means and opportunity to excel. That is, one in which they are encouraged, assisted and enabled to contribute their time and talents to the full. 

With this in mind, a number of relevant factors are set out in the framework below. These are intended to help managers and others to reflect on their own local circumstances and practical experience, so that they can make sense of some of the challenges that this presents, and participate in ways that`are both organizationally beneficial and personally resonant.

A caveat

The danger is that what follows might be mistakenly viewed as a ‘do this and you’ll get that’ way of achieving the desired outcome  Instead, as with all sense-making frameworks, it offers an abstract re-presentation of relevant aspects of the complex social reality of organizational life, within which managers and everyone else are perpetually immersed. Its aim is to stimulate reflection on some of the challenges involved in mobilizing people’s commitment; as well as provoking new perspectives and suggesting otherwise unasked questions. It is only useful to the extent, and in the ways, that it helps managers and others to make better sense of what’s going on than they might otherwise have done, and to respond imaginatively and creatively to whatever emerges  As such, it should be used pragmatically, to reflect the particular circumstances that apply at the time.

As always, it is the conversations that flow from the use of the framework that matter, not the framework itself. 

 

Areas of Focus

Motive, means and opportunity can be thought of as the ‘primary colours’ of commitment, which blend together to produce shades that match individual needs and organizational circumstances. As illustrated in the figure, the interplay of these three elements points to key aspects of the work environment that are likely to affect people’s level of commitment.  In brief, these are:

• The required role contribution.

People are likely to perform better, where the contribution required from their individual and collective roles align with their personal motivations and developing capabilities, etc. In support of this, using outward-focused CONTRIBUTION STATEMENTS¹ to define the aims and objectives of the role can help people to escape from the “activity trap”² of rigid job descriptions and procedural straight-jackets, which too often constrain performance, undermine creativity and limit ambition. 

• The context within which people are working.

To encourage, assist and enable beneficial shifts in contribution and commitment, paying attention to the context within which people are working is crucial.  This includes increasing the opportunity for people to become progressively more self-sufficient, self-directing, self-controlling and collaborative in their approach to work; with the nature and relationships of roles shifting naturally over time, in line with their developing experience, capabilities and confidence, etc. ‘Managing the boundary’ between challenge and capability is central to this; seeking to avoid mismatches between the challenges that people face and their ability to deal with them. This is about UNLOCKING ORGANIZATIONAL TALENT in all of its dimensions. As well as working to foster an enabling culture and climate within which people are participating – and which is continuously re-emerging from their ongoing interactions.

• The degree of choice that people have within their work.

For people to be willing and able to commit their time and talents to the full, as they participate within the real-world wiggliness of organization, adequate opportunity should exist for the creative self-expression of their personal knowledge, skills and motivations.  This is about encouraging and enabling improvisation and practical judgement ‘in the moment’, based on the individual and collective expertise of those involved, ahead of the rigid application of mechanistic, stepwise procedures.

The above three factors are important for managers to bear in mind when designing and/or developing organizational structures, management systems and work roles, etc. Most particularly, these should also guide the nature and content of their everyday interactions with members of their teams. However, these are insufficient on their own to create and sustain a climate in which people have the motive, means and opportunity to excel.   Two further aspects of the working environment are also important.  These are:

• The congruence that exists between what managers say in formal organizational arenas, official publications and the like; and people’s everyday, lived experience of what’s going on.

Commitment is likely to be undermined, if people’s thoughts and feelings of what’s going on differ from the formally stated position. Crucially, managers cannot not communicate.  As soon as they become a manager, they become a role model – whether a good one or a bad one! Everything that a manager says and does – together with everything that they don’t say and don’t do (!) – ‘sends messages’ to members of their teams about what is and isn’t important, how things should and shouldn.t be done, how they personally are viewed, and so on.  However, it’s the people who observe their words and actions that decide what these ‘messages’ mean, not the managers themselves.

In practice, these encounters are all MOMENTS OF LEADERSHIP TRUTH

In the main, people make sense of what they see and hear through their ongoing, conversations with their colleagues and others. Staying connected to these dynamic conversational networks, and tuning-in to the organizing themes that are emerging from such interactons, is therefore an important aspect of a manager’s "mobilizing commitment" agenda. As is providing vision as part of everyday engagement. That is, helping people (including themselves!) to ‘see better’, through everyday engagement. Shifting the emphasis of LEADERSHIP COMMUNICATION towards the informal, unstructured modes of everyday conversation is central to achieving the required sense of congruence between rhetoric and reality.

• Managing the creative tension between continuity and change. 

Commitment is both threatened and potentially enriched by organizational change.  Leaders can help to sustain the motive, means and opportunity to excel by adopting an INFORMAL COALITIONS approach to organizational change, and to addressing the continuing challenges that emerge along the way. This might include such things as:

• • maintaining a sense of continuity with – and valuing of – the past, from which people can take confidence and build their continuing contribution;
  • seeking to express organizational change and development themes in ways that resonate with individuals’ own aims and aspirations;
  • working to build coalitions of co-operative effort around important emerging themes;
  • helping to reinforce, through their own behaviour and active participation in informal, joint sense-making conversations, particular cultural assumptions and behavioural patterns that are judged likely to enable people’s willingness and ability to move forward;
  • ‘managing boundaries’ (as mentioned earlier), to reduce anxiety and stimulate meaningful engagement with the changing demands; and
  • where appropriate, using the ENABLING CHANGE approach, to frame the emerging activities and provide a coherent description of what’s going on, which pays particular attention to the hidden, messy and informal dynamics of change alongside its more formal and structured aspects.

By using the MMObilizing Commitment framework as part of their personal practice theory, coupled with other enlightened management practices and a complexity-congruent understanding of organizational dynamics, managers will be better placed to foster conditions in which people have the motive, means and opportunity to excel.

Notes

1. Where appropriate, other proprietary sense-making frameworks are identified in the text using small capitals.

2. Management and the Activity Trap – George S. Odiorne (1974)