The
Revolutionary RoundMap: Moving Beyond Siloed Limitations
Two primary models emerge as focal discussion points in the
ever-evolving business management landscape: the traditional, hierarchical,
command-and-control model and the RoundMap approach. These two models represent
different operational strategies and contrasting philosophies and visions about
how a business should interact with its environment, employees, and
stakeholders.
The traditional hierarchical model is a relic from the industrial era,
built upon efficiency, predictability, and control principles. Rooted in a
military-like structure, it places a premium on distinct chains of command,
delineated roles, and responsibilities. In this model, decision-making is a
prerogative of the few, and the majority serve merely as executors of these
decisions. This model has been predominant for centuries, driving businesses
with an iron grip, ensuring adherence to procedures, and focusing primarily on
bottom-line profitability. While it has its merits, particularly in
environments prioritizing stability over innovation, it struggles to adapt to
today’s dynamic, interconnected, and rapidly changing world.
On the contrary, the RoundMap Consentric approach is a
testament to the belief that businesses thrive when they are adaptable,
inclusive, and value-driven. In a world where rapid technological advancements,
shifting customer preferences, and societal pressures demand agility and
foresight, the RoundMap way offers a holistic framework. Eschewing rigid
hierarchies in favor of integrative structures fosters an environment where
ideas can flow freely, every individual feels valued, and the focus shifts from
mere profitability to creating lasting value for all stakeholders. It’s an
approach that recognizes the symbiotic relationship between businesses and
society, ensuring that businesses contribute positively to the world around
them as they grow.
Let’s compare some of the traditional industrial-age methods
with the RoundMap approach:
Approach to Risk
·
Traditional: Risk-averse. Any
deviation from the established norm is viewed with skepticism, and there’s a
preference for tried and tested methods. Values consistency over agility.
·
RoundMap: Encourages
calculated risks. It recognizes that in today’s dynamic business environment,
not taking risks can be the most considerable risk of all. Values adaptability
over rigidity.
Collaboration
·
Traditional: Collaboration
exists primarily within departmental boundaries.
·
RoundMap: Emphasizes
cross-functional collaboration, breaking down silos and promoting a holistic
view.
Communication Strategy
·
Traditional: Highlights
tangible product/service features. Direct, with listed specs and advantages.
Assumes audiences infer benefits. It’s more informational than emotional.
Examples: Tech datasheets and spec ads.
·
RoundMap: Conveys value
through narratives, making it emotional and relatable. It embeds features in
stories aligned with the audience’s desires or challenges. Lets audiences see
themselves in the story, boosting engagement. Holistic, focusing on broader
impact. Examples: User-centric brand campaigns or transformational product
journeys.
Cultural Values
·
Traditional: Values stability,
uniformity, and predictability.
·
RoundMap: Promotes agility,
diversity of thought, and a sense of shared purpose.
Customer Orientation
·
Traditional: The customer is an
external entity with transactional interactions. The aim is to maximize profits
from each transaction.
·
RoundMap: Views the customer
as a collaborative partner. It’s more relationship-driven, focusing on
long-term value creation and understanding customer needs deeply.
Decision-making
·
Traditional: Centralized
decision-making, often with a few at the helm. There’s a clear distinction
between those who decide and those who execute. This often leads to a lack of
ownership and responsibility at the lower levels.
·
RoundMap: Empowers
individuals at all levels. It recognizes that those closest to a problem often
have the best insights into its solution. Decentralizing decision-making
fosters a sense of ownership and alignment with organizational goals.
Employee Engagement
·
Traditional: Employees are
viewed primarily as resources or assets. Their roles are strictly defined, and
there’s little room for personal growth or lateral movement.
·
RoundMap: Treats employees
as integral stakeholders. It nurtures their growth, encourages cross-functional
learning, and recognizes each individual’s intrinsic value to the organization.
Feedback Mechanism
·
Traditional: Linear feedback,
often top-down. Annual or semi-annual reviews.
·
RoundMap: Continuous,
360-degree feedback, fostering real-time improvement and adaptability.
Information Flow
·
Traditional: Communication is
top-down. Information is filtered through various layers of management, which
can sometimes dilute or delay the message.
·
RoundMap: Promotes
transparent and bidirectional communication. It values feedback loops and
ensures that information flows freely, vertically and horizontally, within the
organization.
Innovation Philosophy
·
Traditional: Innovation is
often incremental, focusing on refining existing products or processes. Usually
confined to specific R&D departments or innovation cells.
·
RoundMap: Prioritizes both
incremental and disruptive innovation. It understands the need to reassess its
offerings and stay ahead of the curve continually. Innovation is everyone’s
responsibility, encouraged across all levels and functions.
Learning & Development
·
Traditional: Set training
schedules, often generic and not tailored to individual needs.
·
RoundMap: Continuous
learning embedded into the workflow. Emphasis on personalized development
paths.
Mindset
·
Traditional: Fixed mindset
emphasizing established methods and resistance to change.
·
RoundMap: Cultivates a
growth mindset, valuing adaptability, continuous learning, and receptiveness to
change.
Operational Focus
·
Traditional Model: Operations-driven,
emphasizing processes and efficiency.
·
RoundMap: Customer-centric,
placing customer needs and experience at the core of operations.
Organizational Structure
·
Traditional: Based on a
pyramidal hierarchy, power is concentrated at the top. Layers of management
dictate workflows and decision-making processes, often resulting in slower
reactions to market changes and bottlenecks in communication.
·
RoundMap: Advocates a
flatter, more networked structure. It emphasizes collaboration and
inter-departmental synergy, ensuring quicker decision-making and a more
adaptable organization responsive to market needs.
Performance Metrics
·
Traditional: Relies heavily on
quantitative metrics, often neglecting qualitative aspects like employee
morale, brand perception, and customer satisfaction.
·
RoundMap: Advocates a
balanced scorecard approach. While quantitative metrics are essential, it also
values qualitative indicators, understanding that they often drive long-term
success.
Resource Allocation
·
Traditional: Budgets and
resources allocated top-down, based on historical data and forecasts.
·
RoundMap: Dynamic resource
allocation, responding to real-time needs and opportunities.
Responsiveness to Change
·
Traditional: Tends to be
resistant to change. The focus is on maintaining the status quo and ensuring
stability, even if it comes at the cost of innovation.
·
RoundMap: Embraces change as
an opportunity. It’s built on the premise of adaptability and views market
shifts not as threats but as chances to innovate and evolve.
Value Creation
·
Traditional: The primary metric
of success is profitability. The emphasis is on short-term gains, often at the
expense of long-term sustainability.
·
RoundMap: While
profitability is necessary, the focus is also on creating holistic value. It
considers the broader impact on society, the environment, and other
stakeholders.
In sum, while the traditional method offers a structured and
stable approach, the RoundMap way is designed for the challenges and
opportunities of the modern business world. It’s an approach that understands
the complexities of today’s interconnected landscape and offers strategies to
navigate them successfully.
De Bono's Six Thinking Hats
The “Six Thinking Hats” methodology, developed by Edward de
Bono, is a powerful tool for brainstorming and innovation. It encourages
individuals to approach problems from different perspectives, essentially
“wearing” one of the six colored hats to adopt a specific line of thinking.
Given its inherent versatility, we can easily incorporate this model into
comparing the traditional management model and RoundMap:
White Hat (Facts & Information)
·
Traditional: Relies on known metrics, benchmarks, and past
performance. Uses static data
and may overlook evolving market trends.
·
RoundMap: Uses dynamic data gathering, seeking feedback
and intelligence from all business facets, including customers and partners.
Red Hat (Feelings & Emotions)
·
Traditional: Emotions are often
suppressed in favor of productivity and efficiency. Intuition is rarely
considered in decision-making.
·
RoundMap: Recognizes the
importance of intuition, values, and emotions in driving organizational
success. Encourages empathetic leadership and values-based decision-making.
Black Hat (Critical Judgment)
·
Traditional: Frequently employed to evaluate risks and avoid
disruptions. This can lead to
a conservative approach, inhibiting innovation.
·
RoundMap: Risks are critically assessed, but there’s a
willingness to embrace uncertainty for transformative change and growth.
Yellow Hat (Optimism & Benefits)
·
Traditional: Optimism is typically constrained by budgets,
quarter-to-quarter performance, and established strategies.
·
RoundMap: Perpetual optimism in the potential of
integrated systems, collective intelligence, and the synergistic value of
unified business functions.
Green Hat (Creativity & Alternatives)
·
Traditional: Innovation is often incremental, limited by
existing paradigms and the fear of disrupting the status quo.
·
RoundMap: Celebrates cross-functional collaboration, often
leading to groundbreaking solutions and innovative thinking.
Blue Hat (Process Control)
·
Traditional: Processes are established and rigid. There’s a strong emphasis on maintaining order,
which can hinder adaptability.
·
RoundMap: Processes are agile, flexible, and continually
refined. Adapts to the
ever-evolving business landscape and ensures alignment with overarching
objectives.
Presenting the comparison in this manner helps illuminate the
fundamental differences between the two approaches for each specific line of
thinking embodied by the hats.
