Day 26 in MIT Sloan Fellows Class 2023, Organizational Processes -2 Three Lens
Three lenses to see organizations
There are three different lenses. Strategic design, political, and culture.
Blue lens-Strategic design
For blue lens, leaders should act like engineers.
To develop a great environment, leaders should think about better structure and incentives.
Relevant concepts are as follows.
- Formal structure
- Formal systems
- grouping
- linking
- aligning
You should take action through planning.
Red lens-Political system
For red lens, leaders should behave as a good negotiators.
You must forecast who will win in the organization and develop great relationships with these people.
You need to leverage the following concepts
- Relationship
- networks
- stakeholders
- coalitions
You should take action through power.
Leaders should no longer say, " I don't like politics" or "I don't do power plays."
Every organization has a political landscape. So good leaders should understand politics and ensure teams have enough sponsors and supporters.
Winston Churchill said, "Leadership is the ability to get people to do things they did not want to do, and make them happy they did them."
Grey lens-Cultural system
The Grey lens is about culture, but in other words, it is the emotional lens.
Meanings and assumptions matter, and sometimes it sounds abstract.
You need to be careful about the following concepts.
- Norms
- Values
- Identity
- Rituals
- Artifacts
- Stories
Great leaders take action through habit.
