Canadian Government Executive - Volume 24 - Issue 01

38 / Canadian Government Executive // January/February 2018 MIDDLE MANAGEMENT Enabling action It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to get permission. – GRACE HOPPER By John Wilkins W hat happens when the very foundation of your business model shifts? The world changes, and what worked before no longer works. Thinking dif- ferently about the future calls upon a network of passionate, energized people to pursue opportunities hidden in the challenge. Management must discover its innate capacity to reinvent itself, perhaps unpacking decades of intransigence. Boldness to think differently enables new initiatives to flourish. Removing barriers in the form of dysfunctional hierarchies and processes frees people to work across boundaries and create real impact. Kotter International claims that 44 per cent of leaders at- tribute blockages to their own bureaucratic management strategies. Over time, barriers that serve order and efficiency can inhibit cross-functional transformation. Organizations that know where the barriers are ask: What barriers stop change initiatives from succeeding? What are the most common barriers? How do our own words become barriers? Removing barriers Dr. John Kotter maintains that, “Innovation is less about generat- ing brand-new ideas and more about knocking down barriers to making those ideas a reality.” Innovations commonly stem from collapsed silos and new ways of collaborating.