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| clipart courtesy of http://clipart-library.com/ |
Last month in
our February
Newsletter, AJC announced that we are offering the NEW
service of “Fractional Integrator.”
What the heck
is a Fractional Integrator anyway?
If you’ve read
Traction or Rocket Fuel by Gino
Wickman, you probably have a decent
understanding of what an Integrator is.
This is the complement to your Visionary – the person who quickly and
intuitively “gets” the big picture Vision of the company and can clearly communicate
that to all leaders and team members internally; ensuring they are not only on
the bus, but driving in the same
direction to effectively execute all the work that needs to be done in order to
realize the Vision.
For example: If your Vision is to be the easiest
company with which your tech-savvy customers do business, but you don’t yet
have an inventory database system (ERP) or e-commerce option; this may mean
researching, negotiating, and implementing the appropriate back-end systems, then
following up with tying the system to a front end e-commerce platform that will
meet customer expectations for fast and simple transactions.
Another example: If your Vision is to have a
productive workforce where everyone feels they are being fairly treated and
knows where they stand in the organization, but you have not yet put in place a
straightforward and consistent Performance Management program; this may mean
aligning your values into the People Analyzer “Get it, Want it, Capacity to Do
it” (GWC), training managers for evaluation, piloting with the leadership team,
developing a reasonable review cadence, communicating with team members, and
rolling out your regular performance management program across your
organization.
(As an aside, the People Analyzer exercise will
often have the side consequence of identifying who is not the right fit for
your organization’s Accountability Chart.
This can be very painful for everyone, though if separations are done as
fairly and empathetically as possible, it will truly leave both the individual(s)
and company in a better place in the long run.
It is often helpful to have a Fractional Integrator help you work
through this, rather than a full time employee, as will be discussed further
below.)
Hopefully these examples help shed light on a role
that can be ambiguous to understand concretely.
Below are some generic bullet points that also describe the role.
- Maintain accountability for your Rocks and EOS Implementation
- Facilitate your Pulse meetings (L10s, Quarterly - if no formal Implementer)
- Help design, organize, and effect your Accountability Chart
- Ensure your Scorecard is in place and being tracked with the proper cadence
- Orchestrate the effective implementation of your People Analyzer process
- Generally: Ensure that you EXECUTE to your amazing Vision!
If I were to offer a “steel man” argument to having a Fractional Integrator, it would be that an
Integrator sounds like a role that should be a full time employee (FTE). Shouldn’t this person be in the business
every day working with the team and providing leadership and face time?
These are very good
points, and the answer (as always) is “It depends.” A Fractional Integrator, like the fairly
common models of Fractional CFO or Fractional CMO or VP of Sales, are likely
sufficient to provide the catalyst needed to effect change and maintain
accountability. Additionally, a very
good Integrator – someone experienced who is able to walk the fine line between
holding team members “hard line” accountable and knowing when to back off and correct
course – will likely be expensive and/or hard to find. Finally, the risks for a “bad hire” are greater
in the case of an employee than a contract Fractional position; often the
employment agreement will have severance or equity stipulations and the HR
aspect will need to be handled differently if the hire does not work out. Terminating
a contract is, by comparison, fairly straightforward.
On the other hand, if the
business is able to get by until an FTE Integrator is found and interviewed for
fit, can afford the salary, needs the HR component of the Integrator’s leadership,
as well as really believes the daily face time is very important, then a
Fractional Integrator is probably not the right choice. A potential hybrid model could be to get
someone fractionally as interim, even up to full time hours, until the right full-time
employee can be selected and trained.
As alluded to above, one
final consideration for a Fractional Integrator is in regards to the People
Analyzer implementation and ensuring the right people are in the right seats of
your Accountability Chart. Integrators
promoted from within may have a challenging time objectively assessing the
right roles and fit for where the company is going to meet the Visionary’s
desired future state. And if a new
Integrator is hired as an FTE, s/he will likely have direct HR reports, and probably will
want to build rapport with his or her new team for the long term. This may delay pulling the trigger on some
very tough “Right Fit” decisions which may need to happen sooner than later. A Fractional Integrator – not an employee and therefore without HR reports, also by definition “temporary” in some fashion, may find it
easier to maintain objectivity in regards to these decisions and help the
company and the employees by identifying those needed changes relatively
quickly.
If this makes sense to
you, and you believe that your business will benefit from a Fractional
Integrator, the first step I would recommend is to discuss with your EOS
Implementer. He or she will be able to
best advise you and help you find the right Fractional Integrator in your
area. If you do not have an EOS
Implementer, be sure to check out the online resources for Integrator searches,
and if you are in the Portland, OR area, please feel free to reach out to AJC.
Read
this article and more on AJC’s blog, and sign up for our newsletter online at: Read
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