When an organization needs pruning
I enjoy gardening and working in my flowerbeds. There are an endless number of life and leadership lessons from the experience of growing something. From preparing soil to harvesting flowers or food, there are methods and rationales that affect the outcome. One of the toughest tasks for me is pruning.
It’s hard to take a full, leafy plant and turn it into a less seemly, less attractive version of itself. Consider grapevines or roses. There are specific techniques and appropriate windows of time for pruning, and the pruned version looks sparse, and quite frankly, ugly. Unless you understand why.
Pruning eliminates damaged and diseased parts of the plant.
Pruning improves air circulation and access to sunlight, increasing its ability to set fruit buds.
Pruning removes excess growth, allowing the energy of the plant to be concentrated into the fruit (not the branches), increasing fruit quality.
Unpruned grapevines will produce A LOT more grapes; however, the fruit will be smaller, less sweet, and lighter in color.
In summary, the quality of the grape and the quality of the vines suffer when the plant is not pruned. When you prune, you have to understand the benefits in the long run, so you are able to handle the pain you may experience in the short term.
The concept of pruning also applies to organizations. According to Organizational Growth Promotes Pruning, pruning “periodically directs growth and diverts energy to where it is needed most and away from unproductive endeavors.” You may read that and assume that pruning within an organization is focused on people. While that is one application, that is certainly not the only one.
Four Ways Pruning Helps Your Organization Thrive suggests these areas for pruning:
Staff
Lines of service/programs
Unhelpful systems, policies, and procedures
Unhealthy culture
Let’s consider each of these.
People. There are landmines for any leader to avoid in each of these areas, but certainly the most sensitive area is people. Letting go of an employee has a direct effect on that person (obviously), but there is also an impact on the rest of the organization. How and when this pruning takes place matters.
I would also like to suggest that an organization who cares about its members will try to foster the health of their members prior to pruning. In other words, if an employee is let go and it’s because of their performance, the moment they are dismissed should not be the first time they are hearing about it. We should provide honest feedback to each employee throughout their time of employment. This includes providing encouragement and reward when they succeed, as well as giving constructive, honest criticism when necessary. Using the gardening analogy, you need to water and fertilize the plants.
Dismissal should not be a surprise. Underperformance should be documented in writing and discussed with the employee, and if a pattern of underperformance develops, then the organization may benefit from this type of pruning. Hopefully, the employee benefits in the long run as well, being freed to find a role more suitable to their skillset. The dismissal itself should be carried out with professionalism and compassion, using best practices for the given industry or culture.
Services and programs. Generally speaking, programs and services are developed because there is a market for them. Unfortunately, just because there was a market in the past does not mean there is a market now. The key – as in the last example – is a pattern of underperformance.
How is underperformance measured? This is the tricky part. Let’s backtrack to the development of the program...at the onset, measurements of success should be established. Most programs change over time, adjusting to various factors, and when those changes occur, success measures should be reviewed and revised as needed. If there are no success measures, then how can you tell if the service or program is succeeding? The bottom line is...you can’t.
When leaders try to establish success measures at the time pruning is needed, they risk the erosion of trust with members. Employees may think the “game is rigged,” believing leaders used selective data to justify their decisions.
While measurable indicators of success are a necessity, there are also benefits to establishing indicators of concern. These help to communicate the need for improvement or the possibility of pruning. Measurements and benchmarks are best established in a collaborative manner where each of the key individuals have confidence the selected indicators measure what they are intending to measure.
One last thought on this...needing to prune a program does not necessarily reflect poorly on the employees within that program. Market forces may prevent success, even with the best of the best. If you do need to eliminate a program or service, consider how you can continue to employ those effective employees. Maybe there are growing teams they could join, or they could lead a new effort that is being funded. (Remember, growth usually follows pruning.)
Systems, policies, and procedures. I have shared my love of planning in the past, but have I also mentioned my love of efficiency and effectiveness? There is nothing more frustrating than a 20-step procedure where half of those steps seem pointless. Or searching the policy manual and finding outdated topics and unrevised policies.
We tend to enjoy adding much more than subtracting (that literally starts in elementary school math). We love more and have a bit of anxiety about less. Entire books have been written on this (hello, Marie Kondo). We enjoy adding people, programs, systems, and procedures, but we aren’t too crazy about cutting them. While systematically reviewing policies, procedures, and structures may not sound very fun, pruning these areas of the organization will lead to positive results.
How do leaders go about doing this? While it varies based on the size and purpose of the organization, a collaborative approach is usually best. While there will be individuals who need to be involved based on title, also consider having members of the team with certain skills or knowledge – creativity, attention to detail, knowledge of organizational history, ability to lead a team, and conflict resolution skills. Unless the organization is small, one team will not get the job done. Identify the areas in need of pruning, choose teams, establish timelines, and begin work!
Unhealthy culture. Organizational culture is a huge topic, and one that I really enjoy studying and writing about. Culture includes many aspects of the organization: leadership behaviors, employee expectations, messaging, events, logos, and visible symbols, to name a few.
I’ve been in classrooms and public places where the signs on the walls almost exclusively describe what not to do. Those signs are part of the culture, and they tell us something about the organization: there is likely a greater emphasis on restrictions and rules than on growth and expression. Are all “do not” signs bad? Of course not! However, if the primary communication message is in the form of “do not,” then I suspect that organization has some culture issues.
By and large, culture reflects leadership. To change the culture, leaders must lead by defining the culture, communicating the culture, modeling the culture, and holding people accountable. Culture is in the hands of the leaders.
With that, I would like to add a 5th area for pruning – leadership. Sometimes there needs to be a change in leadership, likely for the types of reasons mentioned in the people section above. More frequently, there is a need for leaders to practice pruning in their own lives. What habits need to be eliminated, making room for new, better ones? What learning needs to be pursued, bringing more light into your work? What are you doing that simply isn’t working as well as it should? What needs to be eliminated so you can concentrate your energy on what matters? Some leaders think the moment they get the title means “they’ve arrived.” On the contrary, the title is when the real work begins.
Pruning can be painful. Things may not look attractive for a short period of time. But in time, there will be a healthier organization with a higher quality output.
Consider the enABLe Leadership Program, focusing on leaders, others, culture, and systems, to help with the pruning your organization needs. Contact ABL Wise Consulting today.
pc: Sven Wilhelm via Unsplash
