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 We are on the journey to build a highly-innovative and highly intelligent society with interdependence and hyper-diversity.

In a world full of information, the circumstances are complex, uncertain, a variety of cultures or traditions have inundated us with conventional wisdom. To explore the truth and make progressive changes, organizations need to continually cultivate the next generation of true critical thinkers, independent thinkers, or creative thinkers who can challenge conventional wisdom, analyze and synthesize all sources of information to form their own opinions and make objective judgment; generate novel ideas and solve problems unconventionally. 

Professional development is a journey that is usually not a straight-line, more like a spiral up cycle that expands into the new horizon extensively. People need to keep their mind open; their energy flow, continually develop, deploy, and unleash their potential.

Are you able to raise questions from the answer? Can you explore answers via constant questioning: With abundant information and knowledge flow, today’s business leaders and professionals need to learn how to ask good questions, and how to challenge the answers; practice critical thinking and independent thinking to understand people or issues from different angles, and explore the better way to do things. Sometimes it is the experiences you go through that determine who and what you want to be from any perspective - leader, team member, etc. Only when they see and understand the problem from the others’ perspective, are they able to give an answer that makes sense to others in order to solve problems smoothly.

In the industrial age with information scarcity, the followers ask leaders to answer their questions. With exponential growth of information today, the answer based on outdated knowledge might mislead people to the wrong direction; leaders should frame great questions, and followers need to practice independent or creative thinking to explore new knowledge, provide alternative answers with a fresh point, etc. Always look for options and the only way to discover options is to ask. Practice questioning or answering insightfully; not just provide answers but also facilitate solutions.

Are you able to do the right thing, can you do it right? There are different implications about “right & wrong.” Sometimes right and wrong mean correct and incorrect technically; other times, they mean accurate or inaccurate from a communication perspective. Most of the people have been using the words right and wrong in the moral/ethical sense. The problem of questionable right or wrong comes when they are based on beliefs, which are developed by human thinking. How do you define the right problem, the complexity level of problems, and how can you solve them in better ways?

A solution is nothing if the problem is not perceived accurately. It's always important to do what is right in a situation; discussing things as appropriate, solving the right problem and solving it in the right way. Only initiatives that support the achievement should be implemented. From a business management perspective, make sure the business is doing the right things first - pursuing effectiveness, and then, doing them in the right way - achieve efficiency; to reach the next level of organizational effectiveness and efficiency.

Are you big enough for your work? and “is your work big enough for you”? Contemporary organizations inspire a growth mindset, encouraging people to explore their talent. The culture of learning will become a fundamental organizational asset through the impact of information fluidity and digital collaboration technology. The goal of organizational structure tuning is to strike the delicate balance between solid and flow, control and autonomy. Forethoughtful companies restructure and reinvent a people-centric organization to explore the talent motivation cycle of autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Talent managers and business professionals leverage advanced analysis and organizational design to explore people’s potential by putting the right talent in the right position to solve the right problems.

Overly rigid hierarchy becomes the very obstacle to stop the information flow, stifle innovation, block human potential. Fine-tune your team or organizational structure so they can best express this purpose and accountability, empower people to accomplish their work resourcefully; or unleash their potential smoothly. The hybrid nature of organization has the right mix of virtual social platform with functional structure to foster communication, empower digital workforce to share thoughts and ideas, engage stakeholders to voice concerns and feedback, encourage broader conversations, harness learning and cross-functional collaboration within its business ecosystem and social value chain for accelerating performance consistently..

We are on the journey to build a highly-innovative and highly intelligent society with the very characteristics of interdependence and hyper-diversity. Whether a group of people has an amplified capability to achieve the “art of possible” depends on varying factors such as different intent, different cognition, different talent traits, different working styles, and different outcomes. It takes a holistic look at the variety of business philosophies, relationships and interconnectivity, leverages critical reasoning to analyze problems, emphasizes communication, participation for connecting creative dots and capturing great insight to innovate successfully.

Posted in: Decision Making,Leading by Questioning,Organizational structure tuning,Talent Master