Clear iQ recently conducted a poll on LinkedIn where we asked you to classify yourself along a build vs run continuum. Builders are deadline and solution-centric, while runners are people-oriented and thrive on day-to-day routines.
In our poll, 73% classified themselves primarily as a builder, compared to 27% as primarily a runner.
This result begs the question: do businesses lack the run discipline to achieve and sustain excellence?
Grassroots Change Management
Effective change management requires grassroots behavior change. We work with large B to B manufacturers every day, and notice that many struggle to navigate from project go-live—where teams are hyper-focused and IT is in “hyper-care” mode—to making proposed changes in day-to-day operational activities.
If the project team does not have “run” representatives, then the solution is at risk of never becoming operational. In addition, the effort involved in managing the project’s change curve may be under-resourced, since it takes longer than the typical 30-day IT hyper-care period.
The Right People for the Right Roles
The right person in the right role enables success for both the business and the person. Put a project-oriented person in a day-to-day run role, and eventually, they become bored and may seek opportunities elsewhere. Conversely, if you place a runner in a tight-deadline project, without defining a role where they can excel, your project will likely miss deadlines, and your runner may seek opportunities elsewhere.
Understanding where to place people into roles that feed their natural inclinations leads to success, and reduces the effects of the #greatreshuffle, and prevents the #greatresignation.
Statistical Relevance
We deliberately avoided providing a 50/50 choice, as we wanted respondents to consider where they fall on a continuum.
How respondents interpreted the build vs. buy distinction influenced their choice and may have driven people to the build answers.
As the survey relied upon the self-reporting of 151 people from the 350 to 400 resources who saw the LinkedIn poll, we wondered:
- Did our consulting background and its natural connection to project-based resources skew the response data?
- Do run people not hang out on LinkedIn?
