ABSTRACT
The corporate purpose, vision and values – reflected in team operating frameworks – should underpin all key decision-making and infrastructure design. Corporate operating frameworks are key criteria for decision-making. Will the decision support our purpose, help us achieve the vision and be in line with our values?
I attended a meeting with a leadership team involved in the forestry industry. They had a core value of working in partnership with suppliers and customers. The challenge they faced was that stock levels of wood were too high. A strong pound and cheaper imports hadn’t helped. Also, sawmills had a limited capacity. The organisation had a rule on how much stock they could hold. Everything was pointing towards a halt in production that would impact on contractors who were key customers. The decision had to balance a strategic relationship issue with operational needs. The conversation was dominated by operational thinking and quickly got bogged down in a spread sheet of figures, trying to balance stock levels with despatch and production. The team leader listened for a long time. When the discussion started to go in unproductive circles, he literally took a step back, walking away from the table with every one’s eyes following him, and talked about the partnership value. He said he thought that a halt in production was likely, but that this needed to be positioned in advance with contractors, making sure that the value of partnership was maintained in the dialogue. They would invite them into the conversation, share the problem and work together with the contractors on the best solution.
