I have been involved with several planning exercises that try to
establish a vision for the organization, but they usually fail to win
the hearts of the managers and staff. The process usually includes
some workshop where staff list their ideas and prioritize them. Then
management takes that information and transforms it into a vision
statement for the agency. Staff usually write off their lack of
support for the vision in terms of "management not walking the talk",
but perhaps there's more to it.
As I recall, Senge has a nice theory piece on the value of shared
visions. It includes a sketch of a cluster of arrows for several
individuals. The arrows point every which way. A shared vision is
represented by individuals with arrows aligned in the same direction.
Detailed rules and procedures are unnecessary when people have a shared
vision because they know the underlying goals and directions, and take
appropriate actions to get there.
Back to Hendrix's exercise... He has each person individually list
characteristics of the desired state for their relationship and prioritize
them. Then, like negotiating a contract, they look at each others list,
look for commonalities and develop a joint list for the characteristics of
their shared vision for their relationship. Over time, as the couple
begin to see each other as mutually satisfying the needs of the other,
they may become more flexible and accommodating to items on the other's
list and add them to the shared vision.
I am wondering if any organization has tried this approach and how well
it worked. Has anyone developed a shared organizational vision by
having staff by unit, union or individual: a) list the characteristics of
their personal professional vision, b) compare that vision to senior
management's vision, and c) mutually negotiate a shared vision. Please
note here that by "professional vision" I mean what people take
professional pride in. For front line staff it might be bringing a
smile to a customer's face, for a buyer it might be getting the best
deal compare to..., for a regulator it might be protecting..., for a
designer/creator it might be some form of recognition or accomplishment
with the creation, etc.
Perhaps also treat that shared vision as a contract and routinely
discuss (i.e. feedback loop) or grieve (perhaps less formally than union
contracts) actions of each other that appear to deviate from the shared
vision. This periodic review may be necessary to establish long term
commitment to the vision. Also, this strikes me as more of an "equal
partner" type of approach rather than the "listen to the kids, then the do
as I say... not as I do" approach.
This approach may be too individualistic, too time consuming, too
much... But I don't know. Has anyone tried it?
Roger Fritz fritzr@dnr.state.wi.us
--FRITZR@dnr.state.wi.us (Roger Fritz, AM/7, 608-266-1201, fritzr@dnr.state.wi.us)
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>