Internal Hurdles Challenge Even The Best Of Organizations
Human Resources and Social Development Canada (HRSDC) has gained recognition for achieving major improvements in a number of areas such as the startup of Service Canada. However, anyone who has spent significant time in any large complex public or private sector organization knows that the internal hurdles are invariably very challenging.
It’s no less so for HRSDC. According to a news article in the Ottawa Citizen Internal hurdles challenge HRSDC which chronicled the travails documented by a local consultancy. The challenges highlighted by the article focuses on the lack of communication and collaboration between various functional components of HRSDC and how this limited the effectiveness of the Department.
Widespread Communication, Collaboration and Innovation Challenges
And frankly, communication and collaboration and the need for innovation are perhaps the greatest of the 21st century great stumbling blocks facing organizations of all kinds. Why is this such a challenge?
Well first, our modern workforces and customers, being as they are products of the information age, cry out for involvement and information. Add to that the growing complexity of the work place brought on by technology, speed, and competition, makes it virtually impossible for work to get done without extensive collaboration—especially when the need to remain competitive also requires a simultaneous need for innovation! This reality has led numerous management practitioners, consultants and academics to argue in favour of radically changing the human systems of organizations—in short, alter their DNA. Gary Hamel, a noted Harvard guru on the subject expressed this eloquently in his video Reinventing the Technology of Human Achievement.
A More Balanced View
Now coming back to the article, it clearly provides value in that it brings forth information on public service effectiveness that the Canadian public needs to know about. Tangentially, it also draws attention that there may be a deeper problem here.
That said, the article is also unfair as it leaves the impression that internal communication and collaboration in the Department is at best inept or at worst is a symptom of relentless internal “wars”, endemic to the culture of HRSDC, as opposed to the fact that collaboration in complex organizations is a giant of a problem today. Also, the fact that the researcher had to obtain a copy of the consultant’s report via an Access to Information Request (ATIP) leaves the impression that the Department was trying to “cover up” or “sweep the problem under the rug”.
In reading the article I found that the negatives clearly outweighed the positive things the Department has achieved, especially since the background to the article provided absolutely no such references! And perhaps more importantly, the article does not deepen the understanding of a broader concern that haunts most modern organizations and people who work in them!
Have you read the article and would like to share your thoughts on the internal challenges facing HRSDC and other departments? Have you struggled with the same issues in your organization? As always, we appreciate your feed back.
Alcide, I found your analysis to be a excellent synthesis of the “reality” vs the “desired state” and the many shades of grey that live between these two points.
One comment that I have been hearing repeatedly on the Internets is the requirement that we become more “feminine” in our approach to the world of work. My understanding of this metaphor is that we must become more willing to communicate with those around us, more open and accepting that ours is not the only path to success, more willing to tolerate oblique approaches and shades of grey, and far more willingness to participate in a “community” as we seek our goals. Complexity requires that we communicate more clearly and more often.
The days of the “lone wolf” locking himself away and emerging with a fully-realized solution are rapidly disappearing.
Communication, sharing, transparency, teaming, engaging… these are the tools that will carry us to a more productive future.
By Geoff Schaadt on 2011/07/11
Your point is so appropriate to our world today. Firstly, because of prevalence of women in the workforce and secondly as a counterbalance for men to adopt “hunker down” and live with the misery of it all. It is well documented that men tend to keep their emotions bottled up rather than to externalize their feelings; this just adds to stress in their lives. Sure, working out at the gym helps but openly discussing issues with co-workers would be an added stress release with the added bonus of opening the potential of finding real solutions to the causes of the problem.
By Alcide on 2011/07/12