The Case for Organisational Health

Earlier this week, I was talking with colleagues about what we mean by organisational health. Within Tricordant, we are clear on what we mean, but we are not sure everyone else has the same level of understanding. So, in under a minute, I am going to try to resolve that and bring some clarity.

Poorly organised work wastes money, damages people, and is also bad for the environment.

This means leaders have an ethical and moral imperative to develop organisations that are not only high-performing but also good for their people and the environment.

From this, we define organisational health as:

Intentionally co-creating a system of harmonious working where people thrive and the organisation succeeds.

How would we know if an organisation is ‘healthy’? Well, it would look like this:

• Identity, connecting people to purpose and meaning.
• Strategy, defining the work to be done.
• Teams are organised around value creation, building towards a purpose, and are empowered with authority, autonomy, and accountability to deliver while continuously improving.
• Adaptive governance allows the organisation to respond to emerging risks and opportunities rapidly.
• Structures are there to enable the work to be delivered and to relay information.
• Integration across functions/teams align, coordinates and avoids silos.
• Learning and improvement happen in every role and at every level.

Each role has the following essentials

• Meaningful work for both the individual and the organisation
• Significant with a clear aim, outcome and relevance. People can gauge their contribution and progress
• It is well-resourced, equipped and trained for specific roles.
• People feel valued, visible, appreciated, and empowered to learn and improve.

Benefits of being a healthy organisation

We know from experience that organisations who intentionally pursue organisational health see benefits such as:

• Higher organisational performance
• Greater job satisfaction
• Reduced employee turnover
• Better well-being and health
• A more positive climate that welcomes difference
• People are more open to innovation
• Lower incidence of management misbehaviours
• Improved adaptability
• Greater capacity to cope with ambiguity
• Long term success

The big question is, how does this resonate with you and your thinking?