Smart organisation in a nutshell

Esaote is on the path towards becoming a smart organisation. As part of this, it is helping HOFs and middle managers to experiment with the old vocabulary in a new way.

As the environment changes, the organisation must adapt to the change. There's nothing new there. But what is new is the speed at which the company's operating conditions are changing and the amount of information and decisions that must be made in ever shorter time frames.An organisation is a living organism composed of people that adapts to the society in which it operates.

 

 

Before the pandemic, our complex, globalised society prompted the adoption of new tools, such as smart working. Today, the society in which organisations operate is elusive – the oft-quoted Bauman would call it liquid, new observers are already calling it gaseous – and it requires new processes, including in companies.
So, in order to adopt new tools, it is necessary to come up with new processes and that is why we need to consider smart working only in conjunction with the development of a smart organisation, as an instrument of a broader concept.
But what is meant by a liquid society? It is when the situations in which people act change even before their way of acting is able to consolidate into habits and procedures. This means that it becomes less and less possible to create rigid top-down procedures with which to crystallise an individual's actions, but that it becomes increasingly necessary to delegate decisions to collective intelligence, naturally always within a framework of values and priorities decided in a strategic manner, while still maintaining the division of responsibilities.

 

Drivers for dealing with change among managers and employees:

 

 

Learning how to activate, train and involve all the energies present in the company is one of the tasks of Esaote's Heads of Function. This training has already been underway since 2019 and is today more important than ever in getting us out of emergency working and proactively facing the new course that awaits us. "In a smart organisation", explains Stefania Petocchi, Delivery Manager at Variazioni, which supports the transition towards smart organisation, "the traditional factors that have driven organisations since the industrial age go into crisis: the workplace, the productivity of the individual and the standardisation of time and schedules.
A vision is proposed, with courage and confidence, that aims at team and system productivity, the continuous evolution of skills, and the flexibility of the organisational model. The role of team leaders is central: the central issue is a new mindset to motivate and inspire people to autonomous achievement and empowerment. At the heart of this is people's satisfaction." It is an evolution in leadership responsibility that requires the development of precise life skills at all levels, including the ability to communicate objectives and priorities throughout the process chain. One of the most difficult and delicate tasks that, once completed, creates long-term benefits for the entire organisation.
In order to get us speaking the same language and sharing a common vision at all levels of the organisation, the HOFs and most of the managers have been involved in a process that lasted more than a year. A common direction comes from a collective intentionality, which is formed through the sharing of terms that bind the organisation together. This is why it is important that often ambiguous words are given clarity, both within a common vocabulary and within each person involved in achieving a purpose. That is why we asked our Heads of Function to tell us which terms have changed in their minds as a result of smart working. We have selected three:

Time.

"In my field, i.e. in the supply chain environment", explains Domenico Fazio, Director of Operations at Esaote, "the concept of time has normally been associated with the term lead time and therefore with the fact that you have little time available or at least you have less time than you need to do things correctly.
With the smart organisation we are increasingly learning to give time back its true value. I'll try to explain. It's not necessarily a question of a lot of time or a little time, but of making the best use of what you have at your disposal, we could say in a smart way.
The absence of direct contact due to remote work and therefore the need to carefully dovetail our diaries, defining precise boundaries between one activity and another has in fact not just helped us but catapulted us into fully understanding this obvious principle, which is to give time its proper value and then not waste it as much as possible.
A company like ours, which is international in scope and therefore operates in several locations and in different time zones, has suddenly had to stop making people travel and allow for the simultaneity of a remote meeting in a well-defined window of time; this has given us back the value of time, with organisational and personal benefits, because it is a value that has been rediscovered and is now carefully guarded even in the management of private relationships. And it is difficult, if not impossible, to think about going back."

 

Sharing

"Sharing common goals, which is the company strategy even at levels other than the top management, is always a recipe for success. To do this well, it is important to look at the words 'responsibility' and 'control' in a different light and move towards a concept of 'involvement'," Stefano Gambini, Group CFO Esaote tells us. "'Smart' also means sharing goals and passing them down to the various levels of the organisation, so that they are transformed from strategic to operational.
In this sense, as well as leading, you need to trust and rely on delegating responsibility to team members, knowing that there are different levels of responsibility in the decision-making process, but also that solutions often come from those who are looking closely at the problem, having more specific information and experience. This 'licence for autonomy' in managing and giving answers, which in itself is already rewarding for the employee, is not simple or immediate, but it is beneficial for everyone over time. First, it prompts managers to clarify goals and priorities, then it prompts the team to observe the entire process and makes explicit the roles and value of each person working in the organisation.
A key element in being able to share effectively is to stimulate freedom of expression within the organisation so that opinions enrich strategies related to goals. Clarity and greater autonomy have led to a reduction in stress (at least in perceived stress), because sharing means letting people know that we are operating in a non-isolated way, that there is a project and that each of us participates in its realisation with an informed and valued contribution."

 

Change

"I chose this keyword", says Massimo Guerra, Western Europe Regional Business Director at Esaote, "because, of all the distinguishing features that have marked my journey at Esaote, change has been a recurring theme and has characterised all the moments of growth. I therefore approached the smart organisation project initiated by HR with great interest. It is an essential topic for a company that wants to be a major, innovative player in terms of technological skills but also in terms of attention to the quality of life and motivation of its employees." For Guerra the change of perspective also concerns the awareness of the importance of the internal customer at all levels of the organisation. "Working in a commercial environment, my day-to-day work involves paying great attention to our customers, of whom we take great care. This attention, however, should not be limited to customers, but should also be extended to employees and all stakeholders (suppliers, shareholders, the city where the company is based, etc.) who collaborate and are critical to the success of our initiatives.
A company of this type greatly values its people and redesigns its internal processes together with them in order to systematically improve them, adapting them to the new needs of its stakeholders. In organisations of this type and in this era of continuous transformation and change, change must be seen as the only way to survive and emerge in the market and must be implemented while managing the inevitable difficulties that are often linked to it (internal resistance, communication gaps, technological obstacles, etc.), thinking in terms of team benefit and not of the advantage to one's own function or work group."

Of great importance in the training has been the word trust. This brings into play the courage to rely on the actions of others, in a relationship of mutual recognition of skills and professional conduct, with clarity of the boundaries within which autonomy is expressed, both to protect the direct interlocutors and to protect all stakeholders.

This is not a new concept in the organisation, but it is being explored still further as we are able to count on a well tested and tight-knit internal network. This is thanks also to the low staff turnover that Esaote has always enjoyed and to our habit of communicating – a habit that Esaote will never want to break.

 

 

A Smart Organisation
WHAT IT DOES (one or more of these actions):

From top management, communication of an innovative, participatory and flexible organisational design

Development of communication and training actions aimed at achieving a cultural and organisational change in the management (top and middle)

Adoption of innovative and challenging policies in terms of flexibility of work, flexibility of hours, flexibility of location (flexibility plans, teleworking, smart working, etc.)

Promotion - among the founding and strategic values - of the typical values of the smart organisation (trust, accountability, work by objectives, autonomy and accountability for results), with the development of action for awareness and concrete adoption

Adoption of the win-win logic applied to each initiative/project to engage and retain resources and talents (outdoor workshops, work-life balance)