I view organizations like giant puzzles. There are many pieces involved, all uniquely shaped and designed to fit in a particular place. In order for the whole picture to look right, every piece has to be in place. With an organization, it won’t look – or function – right unless all of the pieces are in place.

Take an automotive engine. Consisting of many moving parts, each one which performs a different function. What happens if one of the parts is missing? Or is installed incorrectly? The engine won’t work. And neither will your organization. A crankshaft won’t do its job if it isn’t the right size, or isn’t designed to work with the engine. Which part of your organization is an incorrect crankshaft?

Nadler’s Congruence Model of Change is all about the fit:

This concept of fit is crucial to understanding the organizational model I’ve been describing. In systems the interaction of the components is more important than the components themselves. In terms of the organization, its overall effectiveness relies on the internal congruence, or fit, of its basic components. The tighter the fit, the greater the effectiveness.

…

This, then, is the essence of the congruence model: the greater the congruence among the internal components, the more effective organizations will be in transforming their strategies into performance.

In my post about what an effective organization is, I mentioned the importance of delivering on processes and achieving stated goals. Nadler reinforces this message: if the parts of the organization don’t fit, you won’t be able to perform at the highest level – and thus, won’t be able to fully deliver on your processes.

Take a look at your organization. Does it resemble a puzzle after a 3 year old has gone through the box? Or like a haphazardly designed engine? Make sure the parts fit – don’t try to shove that square peg through the round hole.

Tonight I was reading the book What’s So Amazing About Grace? by Philip Yancey, and these words really jumped out at me:

Like city-dwellers who no longer notice the polluted air, we breathe in the atmosphere of grace unawares. As early as preschool and kindergarten we are tested and evaluated before being slotted into an “advanced”, “normal”, or “slow” track. From then on we receive grades denoting performance in math, science, reading, and even “social skills” and “citizenship”. Test papers come back with errors – not correct answers – highlighted. All this helps prepare us for the real world with its relentless ranking, a grown-up version of the playground game “king of the hill”.

Why is it that the focus is always on the wrong, or the bad, or the incorrect? Why not focus on the good? Why not focus on the strengths? I am a big believer in developing your strengths, and working to complement your weaknesses. Yet society forces upon us a mindset that we have to focus on the bad, and not think about the good. Wouldn’t a student feel better about themselves, especially those who are struggling to learn, if the paper came back with the correct answers highlighted? Wouldn’t that change their mindset to work on getting more right answers, and in the process, learning in a positive manner?

The same goes for individuals within organizations, and even for the organization themselves. I have been thinking the last few days about how to write a meaningful post on strengths, and how organizations and individuals should focus on the strengths and emphasize the good. During your last performance review, how much time was spent on what you do well, on your strengths, and how much time was spent talking about your weaknesses and what you did wrong? I am guessing the conversation focused on the negative.

It shouldn’t be this way. Let’s focus on the positives. Let’s look at the good that we do as individuals and organizations. Let’s develop a renewed focus on strengths. The world may try to stick us in pegs based on our weaknesses, but it is critical to fight back and not be put in pegs, or at least if we are lets base it on something positive. Focus on the good, work on your strengths, and let the goodness flow and positive effectiveness develop.