After 17 years of consulting, one of the fascinating opportunities for me remains the chance to work with many different organizations and to see them strive for success and tackle challenges that are common among them all. Popular focuses for building better companies include: governance (the latest focus), knowledge sharing, leadership, corporate culture, relationship management, workflow, and mission statements. The reality is there is no one silver bullet; it simply takes a lot of effort to build great companies.

There is a great deal of overlap among these focuses: the common thread is that they are all systemic. This is where people, process, and technology all come together to tackle these challenges.

Governance works

Governance is used to extend responsibility and control through the use of guidelines, policies and procedures. An organization with good governance scales well because individuals avoid duplicating or triplicating activities with coworkers. Group goals are easier to reach because activities are well coordinated and achievements well communicated. Control is easier because past and future activities of individuals are well understood by management. Good governance is not limited to documentation and processes. Almost everyone has experienced undesirable “red tape.” Good governance is dependent on individuals with good attitude, values, and ethics as well as clear mission objectives, leadership, sharing of best practices and building relationships. Depending on the nature of the individuals involved and the culture around them, different types of guidelines and policies can be successful in yielding superior customer service and product quality.

A trusting culture

One-on-one interaction between individuals remains the basis for success of an organization. Trust among individuals is essential for extended knowledge sharing to take place and for efficient group activities. Trust in an organization can be built with a culture of transparency where only minimal information is kept confidential. People learn to trust where accurate information is shared and where operations and achievements are visible. In this type of environment knowledge sharing and best practice sharing become part of the culture. Relationships between staff, customers, suppliers, and public branding improve. Processes get streamlined and operations become more efficient.

Management systems and technology can enable this kind of organizational transparency, trust and knowledge sharing, and allow leadership to flourish in individuals. Good IT systems are the supporting infrastructure for good practices. You need to build a solid foundation, however, before you can build the appropriate supporting infrastructure.

Eric Sundin is a consultant and President at Data Perceptions.  Eric provides a mix business consulting and hands on technical services to help companies select best available technologies to meet their business requirements.  Eric is also a speaker on topics including: organizational structures, business planning, and disaster recovery planning.