What kind of system are you dealing with?

One team might be working mechanically. They are production-oriented and work from start to finish. There’s only one way to go, and it’s optimized for efficiency. It can also be reaction and non-flexible.

Another organization might resemble a living system. This group assigns specific roles for each job, and there’s communication between the parts and pieces and the executives that run the system. This setup is typical of the human body and most modern corporations.

A social organization is similar to a living system, but at any given time, one of the parts or pieces can function as the brain, and then maybe it shifts somewhere else the next day or week. Imagine one of your muscles telling you that it now wants to be the CEO. This scenario is not unlike stories I hear about junior employees wanting to be involved immediately in executive meetings.

The leadership challenge of today is deciphering what kind of organization you are dealing with at any given time and adjusting your approach accordingly. Depending on the function of the group or team, you might find all three examples existing in the same organization.

What worked for one group may not work for another.