Lear’s seven elements of high performance organisations Lear developed his seven elements of high performance organisations based on

Collins and Porras (1997) and Collins (2001). These elements are distinguished as core elements, cardinal elements and foundational elements, which are all interrelated (2009).

Figure 2.1: Lear’s Seven Elements of High Performance Organisations, Lear, 2009, p.1

2.3.1.1 The Core Element

Lear (2009) contends that in addition to the three constituencies of people that make up the heart and soul of any organisations namely shareholders, customers and employees, another important constituent is management. He contends that

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successful organisations focus on all of these in order to find a balance amongst the needs of shareholders, whilst also ensuring the needs of employees are met, whilst customers are getting the highest quality products and services and managements objectives are also met. A challenge faced by many organisations is the conflict between short term shareholder value or management incentives, at the expense of customers and/or employees. Lear (2009) further contends that the higher the engagement of employees, the better they perform and a higher level of customer service is achieved.

2.3.1.2 The Four Cardinal Elements

Surrounding the core element of people are the four cardinal elements of vision, innovation, strengths and leadership. Each of these elements is directly related to people and the people are the origin of the four cardinal elements, with the resultant effect that these cardinal elements can only exist as people allow such. Lear (2009) cautions that a joint focus on all four cardinal elements is central to creating balance in achieving high performance .

a) Vision

Lear (2009) contends that a compelling vision motivates employees to give their discretionary effort to the success of the organisation as it creates the emotional connection with the organisation. Vision comprises three sub-elements namely purpose, values and goals.

Purpose is regarded as the core or passion of the organisation that engages employees and customers toward long-term success of the organisation. Values provide the boundaries within which people in the organisation operate and serve their customers every day and as a result makes the requirement for an extensive bureaucracy of rules and regulations unnecessary. Goals serve to unite people and serves as a key component toward exciting people toward the overall organisational vision (2009).

b) Innovation

Innovation is regarded as one of the keys to organisational success through preserving the core (people), but stimulating progress. As much as purpose and

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values need to be preserved, it is also important not to stagnate, but to pursue new methodology, technology and creativity in order to maintain relevance in a changing environment. Because innovation has people at its core, the organisation has to encourage risk taking and receptiveness to new ideas. Ultimately innovation is paramount in driving continual growth of the organisation (Lear, 2009).

c) Strengths

Whilst the traditional approach was to accept strengths and focus on interventions in weaknesses, new research indicates that these should be leveraged. This thinking is based on the premise to accentuate the positive. The result is that organisations inadvertently decrease the number of wrong things happening by focusing on making more right things happen (Lear, 2009).

d) Leadership

Whilst managers are focussed on keeping things steady and ensuring problems are overcome with the minimum amount of change, leaders are specifically aiming to create change and innovation, whilst preserving the purpose and values of the organisation. Lear (2009) refers to servant leadership or Level 5 leadership as proposed by Collins (2001) when he proposes that these leaders put self-interest aside and help people to use the power of their emotions to create bonds between them and the organisation This serves to reach the emotions of their customers and create the kind of service that connects customers to the organisation.

2.3.1.3 The Foundational Elements

The four cardinal elements are not able to exist without the core element of people, nor can they exist without the foundational elements of trust and personal responsibility (Lear, 2009).

a) Trust

Lear (2009) holds that trust is the foundation upon which all the elements are built and consists of straightforwardness, openness, acceptance and reliability.

Straightforwardness means to tell it like it is. It requires a certain amount of boldness and candour, which can be perceived as being brutal, unless it is tempered by a culture of acceptance and this is applied consistently. Openness requires a

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willingness to listen to the views and beliefs of others, especially when involving one’s own behaviours. Acceptance requires a tolerance of others’ beliefs and respect for their self-worth, regardless of what they have to offer. Reliability is a quality that suggests a person can be counted upon to follow through with agreed commitments. Lear (2009) contends that it is only in discussing how these factors impact on the daily interaction between the organisation and its customers that trust can actually be built within the organisation. It takes many acts to build trust, but it can be destroyed with a single action.

b) Personal responsibility

Personal responsibility is the over-arching element that allows everything to function within an organisation and without which trust cannot survive. Without personal responsibility, values will not be lived, purpose will not be pursued, innovation will cease to happen and people will not step forward to lead and no direction will be followed (Lear, 2009).

Personal responsibility requires discipline and self leadership. It stems from people who recognise and acknowledge that they have made a choice and are willing to accept the consequences. Failure in personal responsibility leads to resentfulness and a feeling of being controlled, which leads to a shirking of responsibility, seeking to lay blame and avoidance of the real problems. This is termed being other-directed.

It is therefore clear that this is to be avoided and that leaders should encourage a culture of personal responsibility where people are engaged and taking ownership of their responsibilities (Lear, 2009).