> I would love to hear what works for others. We are attempting to
> build in quality standards by creating occasions for people to think
> about what 'authority' they refer to when they follow a particular
> direction.
Reminds me of working with a public utility company where the top team
came up with a set of potential statements for their mission.
So, one said,
"We manage with uncompromising integrity."
Top management liked it. So, we then took this and other statements to
the middle management teams and discussed them. For this particular
statement, the reaction was generally, "Always?" Guess they saw some of
the more obvious problems it would cause them in their day to day
activities. Kinda like the "white lie" issues discussed in lots of books.
At the front lines, there were a number of reactions when it came to
issues of service quality and the like. But one significant theme arose,
to the consternation of top management, which also caused some significant
rethinking of their actual behaviors in the organization.
Seems that the workers reframed the above to become:
"We manipulate with inflexible righteousness."
What we've been trying to do with the mission vision thing is increase
awareness from the front of the wagon that their view is a lot better than
the view from the pushers' perspective at the back (boards and hands,
mostly) and that they need to continually talk about the direction of the
organization at all levels of management.
I'm less into the actual writing of the missions within departments, etc.
because that can often cause more problems than it solves. But the
leadership communicating on a regular basis about the Big Picture as well
as the progress being made is most useful. It also helps if there is a
real continuous continuous improvement program going forward -- since that
will drive intrinsic motivation. Again, this is an issue of leadership.
Overall, it isn't Rocket Science if we remember that:
"A Desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world."
and
"Trust is the residue of promises fulfilled."
Hope this is a bit helpful,
--For the FUN of It!
Scott Simmerman Performance Management Company 3 Old Oak Drive, Taylors SC 29687-6624 USA 74170.1061@compuserve.com
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>