Change is the constant in today’s business landscape. Over the past few years, we’ve all experienced significant changes in organizational dynamics driven by market uncertainty, emerging technologies, layoffs and restructuring, and shifting workforce expectations. The mandate to drive organizational excellence and efficiency has never been more crucial.
Today, being an effective leader is more challenging than ever. You’re being asked to deliver faster and better results with tighter budgets and leaner staff. However, organizations that want to emerge resilient and positioned for future growth must be adaptable.
According to a recent leadership report, 42% of executives ranked the ability to navigate changes quickly as the top leadership capability needed in 2024.
42% of executives ranked the ability to navigate changes quickly as the top leadership capability needed in 2024.
We recently connected with executives and thought leaders to discuss organizational efficiency and excellence during a panel discussion. The panelists, including Annie Lyons (Consultant Manager at Propeller), Anja Taylor (President at Kinesis), Rachel Livek (EVP, CHRO at Powin), Mariah Robbins (VP of Global People & Culture and VP of Operations at A-dec) Kristen Zervis (EVP, People at LegitScript), shared their insights on how organizations can continue to grow and thrive even with limited resources.
Across roles and industries, our panelists spoke about the intense pressure their organizations are facing during this era, all while working to grow and maintain high performance.
Here are the key takeaways that can be applied across roles, teams, and industries.
# 5 Ways Leaders Are Building Organizational Efficiency
# 1. Doing more is about taking strategic bets.
To foster growth and momentum, it's not just about tackling every problem that comes your way; it's about solving the right problems at the right time. Our panelists emphasized the importance of being bold in the bets you take — prioritizing these bets based on meaningful criteria and regularly reviewing them to ensure they stay aligned with the organization’s long-term goals. This strategic approach ensures that every effort is focused and impactful and drives real progress.
To implement this, leaders should be thoughtful about the criteria, ensuring they meet the organization's moment and needs, drive impact, and align with core values. Setting regular review intervals allows for adjustments based on new insights or shifting organizational goals, ensuring agility and sustained alignment with the broader mission.
# 2. Embrace rapid prototyping and a willingness to fail forward with each bet.
It’s critical to stay in motion by embracing experimentation and being willing to recognize failures early, learn from them, and try something new without hesitation. The key is to keep communication simple, consistent, and focused on what’s immediately ahead for the team, fostering an environment where making swift adjustments is the norm.
To put this into action, leaders should create a culture of iteration, building a supportive environment for innovation by celebrating learning experiences from failures and ensuring that feedback is fast and constructive. Encouraging team members to share insights openly and iterate quickly can transform setbacks into valuable stepping stones toward success.
# 3. Culture drives everything.
At the heart of doing more with fewer resources is the way people collaborate and in ensuring every interaction contributes to building a culture of excellence. The central theme of many responses during our discussion was people and the importance of fostering a culture of adaptability, resilience, and flexibility. By hiring and training for these traits, teams are empowered to act swiftly and handle challenges more effectively. A crucial aspect of a growth culture is ensuring the right decision-making level—empowering teams to make decisions and maintain their momentum.
To build this culture, leaders should focus on nurturing these cultural traits through ongoing coaching, modeling, reinforcement, and celebration of moments when change agility is clear, as well as building consistent rituals and moments that focus on continuous improvement and innovation.
Related Content: The ROI of Organizational Culture
# 4. Context is often more important than data in moving quickly.
While data is undoubtedly valuable, our experts pointed out that it often reflects past performance. True efficiency and excellence come from understanding context and making forward-looking decisions. An overreliance on dashboards that might be updated infrequently can lead to misguided incentives. Instead, they advocated for focusing on leading indicators—metrics that can influence future outcomes—and ensuring conversation and decision-making are at the core of practices.
Organizations should cultivate an environment where context is continuously part of the conversation, and data is used as a part (but not the whole) of this conversation. Creativity, context, and discussion should be incorporated into strategic planning and iteration, ensuring that decisions are not just data-driven but contextually relevant and proactive.
Related Content: Is “Good” Good Enough? 3 Ways to Make Data Analysis More Efficient
# 5. Prioritize eliminating pain points.
Efficiency is about removing friction and easing handoffs, but it’s not about automating everything. Organizations can streamline processes by stepping back to identify what’s slowing the team down without losing touch with the people involved. The panelists reflected on efficiency approaches that had failed in their mission — and coincidentally, many of the examples highlighted were instances where live connection was replaced with automated interaction, which had unintended consequences. With this, the panel highlighted the delicate balance between increasing efficiency and preserving the human element and work context that actually drives change resilience, agility, and growth.
To achieve this, leaders can put a laser focus on where friction exists, examining cross-departmental handoffs, duplicate work, and overly manual processes — and aim for improvements at solving these bottlenecks above other priorities. As they seek efficiency, they can work to ensure that any automation implemented enhances rather than detracts from the quality of interactions.
Download Propeller’s Annual People & Change Insights eBook to learn the workplace and leadership trends organizations face in 2024 and what actions to take to keep pace.
# Building Business Resilience Through Leadership Adaptability
The conversation with our panelists highlighted that achieving organizational efficiency and excellence is an ongoing journey. It requires strategic and empowered decision-making, a culture of resilience, and a focus on continuous improvement. By embracing these principles, organizations can thrive even in resource-constrained environments. As we navigate the challenges of 2024 and beyond, these approaches will be essential for sustaining growth, maintaining high performance, and achieving lasting success.
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