Recently, Takeda’s CEO, Christophe Weber, completed 10 years with the company. He brought a “blank page” leadership approach for the organizational change (Feiger, 2024). While keeping an open mind and creating the organizational structure and strategy is good for major, radical organizational change, a completely empty page leaves room for leadership gaps. Major organizational change leaders need a structure to support full organizational functioning and accountability. By using a “blank page” approach, critical functions and process feedback loops may not be included that can result in organizational losses (Goodwin, 2023). Using “structured page” leadership strategies supports implementation of all crucial organizational requirements.
The a “blank page” approach allows for any organizational structure and operations to result. The “blank page” is unlimited in structural concepts. Any structure is possible with this approach, but careful consideration of process operations is critical for structural sustainability. Having recently served Christophe’s organization, I provide an analysis of “blank page” leadership style utility and limits, with an alternative solution for line management leadership success.
“Blank page” leadership is critical at start-up and innovative organizations which are small and require unique structure to support non-standard operations. This is critical when opening a new manufacturing or testing facility. The general plan is available, but daily operations and staff management require creativity. Standard teams and structures from one facility most likely are not a simple overlay for the new facility. The “blank page” allows department and line leaders to draw the necessary structure for optimum operations. If the design requires adjustment, the team can erase the structure and create a new one. The key benefit of “blank page” leadership is flexibility.
Where the “blank page” organizational design fails is with necessary operational elements for sustainability. These elements are staff accountability, leader accountability, and cultural alignment throughout the organization. When using a scaffolded organizational structure approach, thoughtful design is planned into the organization for multiple levels of staff accountability. Conducting business as an organization without accountability structures develops an organization run on values of likeability and hidden failures. The organization is free to create internal teams of “like me diversity” and multi-level strategies for hiding failure to maintain employment. Without structure and alignment, “creativity & flexibility” are liable to run the organization in disparate directions. The highly creative leadership style effectively develops feedback loops to enforce the different team vision directions. In contrast, accountability structures at the staff, leader, and department level support diversity and integrity throughout the organization. Accountability and organizational structure support the organizational vision and values, thereby maintaining the organizational culture, keeping the organization moving in one direction.
Without clear accountability and organizational structure from upper management, organizational culture is beholden to the highest level of leadership with influence. With “blank page” leadership, multiple distinct cultures exist due to culture keepers with different ideas at each organizational level. As a result, there can be a departmental culture, site culture, leadership level culture, corporate culture, and executive culture. It is often the case that the cultures clash creating dissonance and chaos. Without clear alignment of culture and a strategic plan of multiple-level organizational culture keepers, the organization is out of sync from the top down.
While “blank page” leadership is more acceptable at the upper levels of leadership, where this leadership tactic is especially dangerous is at the line management level. Without structures in place for continuous monitoring, process optimization, and change planning, information losses lead to adaptive actions not taken. Continuous monitoring operations information from line staff and line management is necessary to detect when changes are positively or adversely impacting the processes. Positive impact can be further supported, while negative impact can be investigated. In addition, processes age over time. Existing processes which are over 5 years old must be assessed for process optimization and re-deployment. This is similar to how car manufacturers upgrade car models every few years, to capture the latest in safety and technology. Finally, using a “blank page” for change planning without structure to walk through all of the change aspects leads to failed change projects. Without guiding questions to ensure all the parts necessary for change implementation and change accountability structures are in place, chaos is free to develop. “Structured page” leadership supports operational monitoring, operational optimization, and grounded change planning by providing leaders with key elements for organizational and team operation.
The critical element with “structured page” leadership is alignment of values, vision, and operations throughout the organization. “Structured page” leadership requires extensive time and strategic hiring to put the necessary supports in place for operation. The invested time results in equipping teams and leaders with the tools necessary at all levels of management. This results in each level having the tools required to design a high-functioning team with full monitoring and accountability functions. With the planning, monitoring, and accountability structures in place, the aligned organization moves in the same direction – FORWARD.
References:
Feiger, C. (23 February, 2024). A decade of innovation: How this CEO transformed a global pharma giant. Forbes.
Goodwin, K. (26 October, 2023). Takeda reports $770M write-down, cuts profit forecast by 71% for FY2023. BioSpace.
