Applying GREASE to achieve 10x momentum of your flywheel — Part 2

This is the second part of the three-part series on Increasing the momentum of your business flywheel 10x using the GREASE framework. I would recommend reading the Part-1 before reading this article.

In this article, we discuss, why each of the six tenets in the GREASE framework matters and how it helps the four pillars (People, Team, Process, System) of an organization achieve 10x momentum with your business flywheel. In the book Good To Great, Jim Collins introduced four stages of organization transformation. We will cover how the GREASE framework helps in different stages of organizational transformation in helping achieve 10x momentum.

STAGE 1: DISCIPLINED PEOPLE: Growth Midset

What is Growth Mindset, and How does the Growth Mindset help increase the momentum of the flywheel 10x?

The concept of a Growth Mindset promotes the idea that one can continually improve and develop new skills to achieve things in the future that one cannot accomplish yet. Cultivating Growth Mindset has been proven to create high-performing teams. It increases Performance, Productivity, Goal Achievement, and Happiness in organizations and results in good velocity across the board.

“Individuals who believe their talents can be developed (through hard work, good strategies, and input from others) have a growth mindset”

Carol Dweck (Professor of Psychology, Stanford)

How do you instill a Growth Mindset within the organization?

Growth Mindset is a cultural shift in an organization. It can be achieved by partnering with the leadership team to create process and cultural optimizations to instill a Growth Mindset across the organization. Growth Mindset can also be evangelized by introducing measurable mentoring & coaching programs.

1) Introducing Measurable Mentoring & Coaching Programs provide guidance, motivation, and support to instill Growth & Goal Mindset and disciplined people stage in the organization transformation. One can use the GROW (Goals, Reality, Options, Will) & DIME (Describe, Inquire, Motivate, Encourage) framework to increase leadership index, coach & motivate employees. We can dive into detail on using GROW & DIME frameworks in future articles.

2) Celebrate failures as learning opportunities and creating a psychologically safe environment to risk-taking

3) Nurture & reward Continuous Learning, encourage knowledge-sharing, and creating opportunities to hone leadership skills — Negotiation, Influencing, Conflict Resolution.

STAGE 2: DISCIPLINED THOUGHT: Alignment

Why is it essential to have good Alignment across teams?

Organization alignment is integral for effective planning, execution & delivery. It encourages collaboration, which creates happier and effective organizations. Alignment is more critical at the scaling phase of the company when one needs new systems and structures to handle the complexity that comes with growth.

“Building a visionary company requires one percent vision and 99 percent alignment”

Jim Collins (Author, Good To Great)

How do you drive Alignment across teams/stakeholders in the organization?

Driving better and faster alignment across globally distributed teams in an organization is a crucial pre-step to the disciplined action stage. Some of the ways to drive alignment,

1. Data/Information Democratization: Making the decision-making process effective by introducing data/information democratization. Data & information literacy can be introduced/improved by creating quality documentation and making information discovery easier. Creating Asynchronous channels (email, digest, blogs) to publish critical decisions & notes from meetings across the organization. Proactively Over-communicating (meeting agendas, meeting notes, action item follow-ups, etc.) to help better alignment in globally distributed settings.
2. OKR Formulation, Dependency Management & Risk Assessment: Clear definition of goal, plan, ownership, and results by defining OKR formulation & long term strategic planning processes. In addition, driving dependency management & risk assessment as part of the OKR formulation process to help achieve alignment across the board. We can dive into a practical guide to OKR formulation in detail in a future article.
3. Ownership Matrix & Ambassadors of Alignment: Defining the RASCI matrix (if not available). Publishing the RASCI matrix widely across the organization to achieve high-velocity & high-quality decisions and help drive alignment across the organization.
4. Alignment through Shared Values: Driving alignment by using your organization’s shared vision and values. Empower the Chief Of Staffs or Program Management / Operations function to be the ambassadors that help drive alignment.

In part 3 of the three-part series on Increasing the momentum of your business flywheel 10x using GREASE. I am planning to cover how the remaining GREASE tenets Effective Execution, Rythm Of Business, Standardization, and Efficiency help in Stage 3 & 4 of the organizational transformation process. Please note, this three-part series is mostly a reflection of my experiences working in technology companies. These are my personal views and not a representation of the companies I have worked for. I would appreciate your feedback, thoughts, and questions on the above.

If you are an executive looking to introduce GREASE and increase momentum 10x in your company/organization, happy to help! Ping me @ pratheepkrishna@gmail.com or connect me on LinkedIn