knowledge,
dissemination &
embodyment
The creation of a
High Performance Organization
(HPO)
“All organizations are perfectly designed to get the results they get.” Arthur Jones
Consider, for a moment, what the
following have in common:
The sundial
The ice box
The typewriter
All three used to fill a meaningful role in mainstream society.
… and think about your organization
“This sort of thing could severely hurt our business. But if it does,
let us be the ones who do it!” Ed Artzt, former P&G CEO
Initial objectives
• Understanding of the Company values
• Motivation of the people
• Correct communication through the work and
decisional processes
• Personal objectives aligned to the bank / upper
management objectives
• Nurturing and rising of a teamwork environment
• Transfer of specific managerial knowledge
Threats
• The size of the organization
• The spread over the entire geography
• Current workload, due of aggressive bank
objectives
• Recent changes in leadership (especially at the
mid management level)
• New departments (retail) with objectives and
ways to work radically different vs. the traditional
(corporate) depts.
“The fish only knows it lives in water after it is already on the river
bank.” Old French Proverb
Symptoms of the wrong cultural
behavior
•
•
•
•
•
•
Overly submissive behaviors (“Do as you’re told”)
Conservative behaviors (“Don’t make a mistake.”)
Shortcut behaviors (“Beat the system”)
Protective behaviors (“Not my responsibility”)
“Not invented here”
Internal Myopia (each part is focused on a narrow,
relatively static set of business parameters)
• …
‘The machine’
• Task specialization
• Standardization of
Performance
• Centralized decisions
• Uniform Policies
• No duplication of functions
• Job descriptions
• Team structures
• Reporting relationships
• Compensation systems
• Hiring Procedures
• Information Practices
• Decision – making
prerogatives
• Norms or habits
HPO
• Individual objectives aligned
to the group objectives
• Transparency among groups /
information shared freely
• Feel like “owners of the
business”
• Business strategy understood
and accepted
• Multiskills
• Variances / deviations from
the ideal process controlled
• Interdependent roles
• Support congruence (same
practices, rewards, systems)
• Design around human values
and individual talents
• Principled driven decisions
The living systems
• They are purposeful and goal directed
• They are self regulating (core process) to achieve
their purpose
• They require goal clarity, goal commitment, clear
feedback and reasonable autonomy in order to be
self regulating
• Those who survive are able to adapt successfully
to environmental changes
Examples of today’s Maginot Lines
• SONY reliance to protect it Beta Home VHS
• P&G tried-and-true product test market, taking 2-3 years
• Upper management’s insistence that annual performance
reviews be conducted even though little has been
accomplished
• Failing to question the effectiveness of a new compensation
system
• American cars industry proud and protective of its products
despite costs and customer satisfaction not competitive to
the Japanese ones
Example of team design checklist
1.
Will it be a real team?
–
–
–
2.
3.
Will it be a work team?
–
Will the team have a whole task (inputs – transformations – outputs)
so that a product or service is produced?
Will be the right resources on the team?
–
–
4.
Will the members be truly interdependent? Will they then cooperate
in order to complete their tasks?
Will each member’s role be differentiated from others, so it makes an
unique contribution to the result?
Will there be enough physical proximity for team identity to be easily
observable?
Will team members have the necessary knowledge and skills to
complete the whole task?
Will the team have enough people to do the task – but not more
than necessary?
Will it be a self-sufficient team?
–
–
–
Will the team have the authority to determine who does what by
when for daily activities?
Will the team get accurate and timely information about its results,
operating standards, and new developments that will affect daily
priorities?
Will leadership be shared among team members so that no person is
‘the main boss’?
“There’s no law that says anybody has to improve. It’s all voluntary. It’s only a matter of survival.”
W. Edwards Deming
How it works
Picture of
the current situation
(understand
how the system
works today)
Gap to be filled
Definition of the
arrival zone
(where we
want to be)
Two golden rules
•
To get better results, you need to improve the design of the
organization
•
If you change the organization, be careful not to disturb what is
working now
The Organization Performance Model
Business Situation
Business Results
The needs which must be
satisfied and the
pressures which must
be managed
What the organization delivers
now
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
1.
2.
Hard number
requirements
Company requirements
Social, political, legal,
expectations
Competitive pressures
Expectations of
employees
3.
4.
5.
Structure
Business Strategy
The organization's reason
for being
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Purpose/mission/vision
Competitive strategy
(What, Why, When,
How)
Operating principles
Objectives and goals
Underlying values and
assumptions
Culture
Rewards
Decision
making
Tasks
How the organization really
operates
1.
People
Information
Hard numbers
Extent to which company
requirements are met
Social, political, legal
conduct
Position relative to
competition
Extent to which employee
expectations are realized
2.
3.
4.
Attitudes toward strategy
and goals
Actual distribution of
power and rewards
Actual work people
do/don`t do
Other norms that explain
how things get done (or
don't get done)
Steps
Data collection (organization performance review)
• Step 1: Understand the vision
• Step 2: (at the strategic level) Interviews with department heads
to identify structural and systemic deficiencies
Analysis
• Step 3: (tactic level) Cross – understanding events, at the
department and branch managers
Synthesis & Hypothesis
• Step 4: Deployment of the values and principles story, within each
subgroup / department / branch, by its leader
Action plan
• Step 5: Consolidate information into one coherent plan
• Step 6: Implement and foresee the change
• Step 1: Understand the vision
– Meeting with the main decision factors of the bank
– What you get: vision & issues
– What we want to generate: top commitment for the program
• Step 2: (at the strategic level) Interviews with department
heads to identify structural and systemic deficiencies
–
–
–
–
Identifying also the cultural and behavioral issues
What goes well, what doesn’t go well (in their opinion)
Is there a clear strategy, owned by all
Are there correct motivating and compensating systems in
place
– We can use, alternatively, a questionnaire based on ‘the
diamond (strategy, work, structure, people, decision making,
information, rewards): what is good, bad, why, consequences
– for each element
What you get: systemic and structural issues
What we want to generate: data
• Step 3: (tactic level) Cross – understanding events, at the
department and branch managers
– Team-building or workshop events, with the objectives of
measuring the gaps (the differences between declarations and
intentions and the current situation / real possibilities)
– ‘Taking the dirt out’
– Getting the commitment and generating the empowerment for
the next actions (for change)
– May be added a train the trainer course, specifically on the
Bank values and principles
– We can use the theme of ‘training needs’
– We can make a separate team event, as a catalyst for change
of mindset, better cooperation and energizing
– The main objective is to create a mindset ‘out of the ordinary’
– With a facilitator that asks question of the kind:
• What is you vision for your company and for your team?
• Why do you exist (as a team)?
• What is your purpose of coming/ working together?
What you get: vision, intentions, declaration, gaps, threats /
obstacles
What we want to generate: interdependence, cross understanding
• Step 4: Deployment of the values and principles story,
within each subgroup / department / branch, by its leader
– Discussing the opportunity for change
– Discuss specific things, as:
•
•
•
•
•
How we make plans
How we take decisions
How well we communicate
What sort of training we need
How well we measure efficiency / success
– Facilitating communication
– Generating a set of initiatives at each group’s level
– With a facilitator that asks question of the kind:
• What to we need to better perform the [specific task]
• Why we are lagging behind on [specific issue]
• What do you feel about [sensitive issue]
What you get: ‘dirt out’ and communication
What we want to generate: understanding of the values and
principles, set of initiatives
• Step 5: Consolidate information into one coherent plan
• Step 6: Implement and foresee the change
Conclusions
High Performance Organizations are characterized by
structures that reinforce the qualities of living systems.
Although this should seem natural, it is not.
Centuries of organizing work based on Machine Theory have
influence our thinking about how to divide, measure and
control work and its outputs.
A principled approach is helpful to the HPOs by allowing them
to harness the natural energy of the people against the
tasks to be completed.
HPOs have learned to design for results and self sufficiency
rather than for form and elaborate supervisory control.
Their focus is on getting the work done right in the first
place, rather than detecting or controlling errors.
Often is the design process itself that jolts members of the
organization into a realization of how much better their
performance should be.
knowledge,
dissemination &
embodyment
Knowledge transfer
Knowledge transfer - proposals
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
People management
Time management
Project administration
Efficient communication (in written as well)
Personnel evaluation (maybe interviewing as
well)
Team work (team effectiveness)
Leadership
1st time Supervisors
Train the trainer
Efficient Presentation
Influence management
Training program - suggestion
• Start with workshops to discuss issues & create
solutions and commitment:
– Problems, what’s your opinion, you say, give examples,
how can be put in practice, how we measure
• Insert a team building – a ‘Businessopoly’
• Work together on knowledge transfer & soft
skills, to create strong competencies
• Insert some attitude building trainings
• For managers – seminars with homework and
applications, close to the real business
• Keep a constant rhythm of trainings, over one
year time. Challenge for results simultaneously.
• Specialized training sessions for new positions
Training program suggestion
Event
Wkshop &
Facilitation
Training required / suggested
Workshop: issues & answer; What we have to
learn to perform better
People management
People development
6 seminars of 1
Team effectiveness
day each, once /
Basic elements of a business
month, Friday
Trade marketing
Finance
Session /
Time management
Training 2
Communication Skills
Session /
Memo writing
Better use of Excel & Powerpoint
Training 3
Session /
Positive thinking – Social Habits
Training 4
Session /
Businessopoly - Team building event
Training 5
Session /
Influence management
Training 6
Negotiation (for intermediate users)
Session /
Train the Trainer
Training 7
Recruiting & Interviewing
Session /
Team effectiveness
Leadership
Training 8
Session /
Project management
Training 9
Session /
Presentation skills
Training 10
Days
2
2
2
2
2
2
1
1
2
1
1
When
14& 15 Oct
21 Oct, 4 Nov, 2
Dec, 10 Feb, 17
March, 14 April
19-21 Jan
3& 4 Feb
2
16 - 17 Feb
2
3 & 4 March
2
1
2
1
2
1
6-8 April
9-10 June
21 - 23 September
2
20 - 21 October
2006
2
16 & 17 Nov 2006
Businessopoly
• Team event, based on the Monopoly game,
played in teams
• With a reward for the winning team
• Questions and surprises based on the value and
principles of the Bank
• Rules and elements of the game adapted to the
current situation and strategies of the Bank
• Has multiple benefits:
–
–
–
–
Transfer of corporate knowledge
Team-building event
Mind-set re-orientation
Better understanding of the business