Page 64 - Performance Leadership

Chapter 4 Performance Leadership Framework • 53

much like a machine. People, in that sense, represented little gears in
the overall machinery that need some oiling once in a while or need
to be replaced when they are not running smoothly anymore. Today it
is more popular to compare organizations with living organisms or even
1
human beings. We place people at the heart of our performance, not
machines. At least, we believe we should.
Like people, an organization has values, a character and behaviors
as well. This makes a lot of sense. Like people, organizations are born,
grow up, and die. Some hardly grow up, they die young and irrespon-
sible. Other organizations mature and grow old and wise. Over time
organizations expand and sometimes contract, like people who gain
weight and diet when necessary. Organizations, like people, create chil-
dren in the shape of new activities and business units that sometimes
spin off into other activities and units.
People can only understand who they are by understanding their
place in society. Equally, organizations do not operate as an island; they
interact with their stakeholder environment all the time. They affect
their environment and their environment affects their behavior. Orga-
nizations have a responsibility toward their environment. Organizations
build partnerships and alliances, just as people have friends. Some of
these relations last a long time and cross various phases in the organi-
zation’s existence; some belong specifically to a particular phase in
time, as friendships do. Partnerships and alliances are based on certain
compatible behaviors or on an organization’s values. Every organiza-
tion has these values; they drive the organizational behaviors, positive
and negative.
Like a human being, an organization also has a dark side; this con-
sists of the characteristics and behaviors that are dysfunctional and of
which the organization is not so proud. In order to grow and mature,
these need to be understood and embraced as part of the overall pack-
age. Organizations have a will and the capability to change their mind
over time, and, like people, organizations have an immune system.
When new employees with incompatible values and behaviors enter
the organization, they will not be accepted and will be forced out.
Some organizations even picture themselves as a human being, by
defining a fictitious persona. For instance, Iceland Telecom has taken
to doing this. Iceland Telecomm personifies itself as Siminn: “Siminn