Strategizing. Understand the inner work-life system. Engage and align competences.
Mental models are central to organizational sense-making as they represent the cognitive structures by which basic concepts developed from past events and experiences are stored in memory. However, there is more inside the human brain than simply a reproduction of the external world; people interpret and construct a model of the real world and interact to form a collective dimension. Consequently, strategizing is a cognitive process where strategies emerge in the form of mental models that shape organizational members and their efforts to frame and reframe their work-life.
Work is getting more knowledge-intensive, workers are getting more knowledgeable, people-interactions are getting more intensive, and organizations are getting increasingly complex. Managers are challenged in their efforts to strategize and manage human resources. People expect to be engaged by work itself and the organizational purpose. They demand both a clear path forward, individual flexibility and autonomy, and they anticipate their competences to be both utilized and explored further. As a result, managers should focus on engaging and aligning human resources based on a profound understanding of the inner work-life system.
The key issues for companies, are to clarify for each individual relevant areas of knowledge acquisition, provide mechanisms for effective and efficient knowledge integration, and at the same time minimize cross-learning. It is not knowledge or competences per se that create value, but how these competences are engaged and aligned to spur activation and synchronize movement within the organization.
Eirik Haslestad: Engage. And Align. 