How to Make 'Characteristics of Successful People' Proven by Science a 'Standard Feature' of Your Organization (Part 1 of the Series)
'Successful people have scientific commonalities.'
Recently, articles with this theme have become a hot topic. High conscientiousness, excellent networking skills, high self-objectivity... It is wonderful to read these findings and strive for personal improvement by thinking, 'I see, I should be careful about that too.'
However, there is something I would like to dare to ask business owners and organizational leaders.
'Are you able to reproduce those 'individual qualities' as a 'system' for the entire organization?'
Instead of waiting for a superstar to appear, we will unravel the blueprint for a 'winning organization'—where everyone in the organization naturally takes 'actions that produce results and are recognized by those around them'—from the perspectives of scientific findings and management systems.
1. Why organizations that rely on 'individual effort' cannot win
In many workplaces, words like 'motivation' and 'sense' are still flying around. 'Be more proactive,' 'Read the room and build a network'... However, these are 'person-dependent abilities' that rely on an individual's personality and qualities.
Organizations that rely on person-dependency have two major risks.
Lack of reproducibility: If that person leaves, performance cannot be maintained.
The chain of negativity does not stop: When a member with 'characteristics of people who cannot succeed' appears, you cannot prevent them from spreading negative influence to those around them.
If we know the 'characteristics of successful people' that have been scientifically elucidated, it is a waste to leave them as individual effort goals. It is the role of management to incorporate them as a 'standard' of the process.
2. Hacking the key to success, 'conscientiousness,' through processes
One of the traits considered to have the highest scientific correlation with success is 'conscientiousness' (the ability to see things through, a sense of responsibility). Instead of leaving this to an individual's strength of will, we realize it through the power of processes.
'Checklists' and 'milestones' that do not rely on willpower We design a process where 'seeing things through' is not an individual virtue, but where progress is visualized and the next action is automatically determined.
Clarifying 'decisions (diamonds)' Many business flows are filled with 'tasks (rectangles),' but what is important are the 'decision (diamond)' nodes. By standardizing the criteria for what should be decided here, we eliminate individual hesitation and guarantee 'conscientious completion' as an organization.
3. Forcibly implementing 'self-objectivity' through mechanisms
Do not dismiss 'lack of self-objectivity' or 'blaming others,' which are cited as characteristics of people who cannot succeed, as just 'having a bad personality.'
Data management that eliminates subjectivity We run feedback loops based on facts (data) in short cycles. In an environment where your performance is presented to you in numbers, you are forced to view yourself objectively.
A culture that blames 'mechanisms' rather than 'people' When a failure occurs, instead of blaming the person's personality, we ask which 'process' did not function. By thoroughly adopting this stance, members can move toward constructive self-improvement (reflection) without becoming defensive.
4. Rewriting the organization's 'OS'
Organizational design is not just about rearranging boxes (departments). It is about building the OS of 'Be' (how we should be) that the organization shares.
There is a saying, 'Quality is not a technology, but a culture.' Similarly, 'achieving results' is also not an individual quality, but the result of an organizational culture... that is, the management system you run every day.
Elevating scientific findings from 'individual mindset' to 'management technology.' As a concrete framework for this, a 'certain tool' you already have at hand functions very effectively.
Next time preview: Turning ISO 9001 into a 'weapon for capability development'
When designing an organization, there is a powerful guideline we should return to. That is the world-standard management system, ISO 9001.
Next time, I will reveal the concrete method for how to transform the seemingly stiff requirements of ISO 9001, such as 'organizational knowledge (7.1.6)' and 'competence (7.2),' into implementation tools for 'scientifically correct success laws.'