Three Legged Stools

Have you ever noticed how many strategies, methods and procedures use the “three-legged-stool” analogy? (Network Marketing, Human Resource, Development, End user authentication, Business Transition and Improvement Projects, to name a few).

If you Google “People, Process, Technology” you’ll find over 40 pages of diagrams trying to portray this approach to business transitions.

One leg common to many of these three-legged strategies is labeled “People”. Usually that means some mix of organization development, leadership, personnel selection and roles/responsibilities.

Rarely does the “people leg” include culture, language, influence or behavior. Because of these missing pieces, this leg is invariably much shorter than the others. The result? Business transitions are rocky. Transitions are successful when they bring the three legs of the stool back into balance.

What does this mean?

First, it means business leaders must adapt to globalization and new styles of business collaboration. They must understand how to integrate. They must be able to negotiate agreements that their staff can actually execute. Participants in change must be able to lead, influence and motivate each other, regardless of their cultural norms. If their behaviors and styles conflict, barriers are built very quickly.

Focusing on top down organizational change does not by itself create an environment where multi-cultural staff can be successful. And we’re talking about corporate as well as national and tribal cultures here. Leaders must bring new knowledge and techniques to their transition teams early in the process, before new cultural barriers have had time to solidify.

If people can’t relate to one another, that three-legged stool may well topple over Sound leadership and understanding can eliminate this risk.