My work as organization architect entails exploring avenues, not the offloading of a dictionary of templates onto my clients. With my team, we bring organisational design, leadership, change and management innovation expertise. But we don’t have off-the-shelf answers. Certainly we don’t have ‘houses’ ready, in search of a spec.
I am more of a jungle guide, a explorer, certainly a cartographer. The ‘organizational houses we build’ don’t have standard plans. Of course, windows are windows and bedrooms are bedrooms. Translated into organizational terms, there are fixed things. We don’t reinvent the wheel. Unless, that is, if the wheel is not a wheel. It looks like one but it’s another kind of round thing.
The best clients want and love the building journey. Every bit is a discovery. Growth is fast and exciting. Risks, yes there are. But we live the development of the organization, of its leadership and behaviours, of its processes and systems, fully. I bring ways to accelerate that journey. We all are a bit exhausted at the end, but, my God, it was worth it! When one looks back, you can see that mutual trust rocketed.
The other clients want answers, possibly quick. The want to shortcut the road to the destination, and want to know what exactly that destination looks like. If possible on Wednesday the 22nd. That does not make them bad clients, just not the best.
These clients want comfort and want to pay for comfort. The best clients want the best, comfortable or not, and they suspect from the start, that the journey may be a bit stressful. This does not make them masochists. Simply they don’t want to settle for the unexamined comfort.
There is a parallel with leadership. If your leadership makes you very comfortable, you may need to have some extra reflection. It’s not that comfort is sinful. It’s simply suspicious.
As for me, when the best client is restless, that makes me comfortable that I am doing my job. When the others feel very comfortable, that makes me restless.