A Bit About Organisational Effectiveness
A Bit About Organisational Effectiveness
In Rightshifting, we define organisational effectiveness as “the relative ability of a whole organisation to achieve it’s goals”. “Relative” meaning relative to some baseline, over time, or relative to other organisations, such as competitors. And “goals” intending to evoke the ideas of Eliyahu M Goldratt in his book “The Goal”.
I’m pretty sure that many folks see little or no connection between the effectiveness of the organisations within which they work, and their day-to-day experiences, hopes, and fears.
Human Potential
As I’m happy to regularly repeat, I’m driven – to write, to speak, to help – by the egregious waste of human potential I see in knowledge-work organisations almost everywhere. It just bugs me to see so many smart people lacking the opportunities and climates in which to express themselves. It seems that the folks in question are generally much less bothered by this than am I.
“If you want people to do a good job, give them a good job to do.”
~ Frederick Hertzberg
Maybe it would be better, for me and for my peace of mind, to let it all go, emotionally, and just help those (few) folks that actually want some help.
Stuck
But until I’m evolved enough to have that happen, I’m kind of stuck. Stuck with a focus on organisational effectiveness as the means to improve the lot of knowledge-work folks everywhere. It’s my hypothesis, you see, that a hallmark of a more effective organisation is it’s one in which more people get to use more of their skills and talents, more often. And, incidentally, get to have more of their needs – for job satisfaction, a sense of achievement, feeling good about themselves and their contribution to the common purpose – met more often, too.
Nicer
Put another way, the more effective the organisation, the nicer it is as a place to work. For me, that’s all part and parcel of “effectiveness”.
Visible
So, for all those folks struggling to see any connection between Rightshifting and their daily lives, I wonder if this post has succeeded at all in helping make that connection a little more visible, more tangible, more relevant?
– Bob
Think Different
Hi Bob,
“If you want people to do a good job, give them a good job to do.”
~ Frederick Hertzberg
And if you want people to know their place and do what their told, what then?
You seem to assume that everyone shares your motives. This may come as a rude awakening, but I can assure you that many do not 🙂
Study after study has shown that the majority of managers care far more about a sense of control then they do outright performance. There are good reasons for this that I’m sure you are aware of.
It may explain, why many resist “help”. Simply because they didn’t ask for that “type of help” in the first place 🙂
Paul.
So Paul, are you suggesting that we all sit back and do nothing. Many knowledge workers do want to make a difference. Many of them probably don’t know that they can, or how they might be able to. And there are probably as many managers out there who also don’t understand how to move from command and control to an alternative way of ‘managing’, or even that there are alternatives.
If people like Bob give hope and hints to even one person, that person might just be able to give hope to another…and before long old attitudes begin to crumble and make way for new ones to grow.
Ally
Hi Allygill
“So Paul, are you suggesting that we all sit back and do nothing.”
No definitely not. Please see my previous contributions. We as individuals with our own free will can do a lot… Including withdrawing our labour if we choose….
“If people like Bob give hope and hints to even one person, that person might just be able to give hope to another…and before long old attitudes begin to crumble and make way for new ones to grow.”
Agreed. Even so, we also need to avoid group think. The meme that says that we know best, and it is merely ignorance why others do what they do. This is not true. The fact is they perceive their own interests differently then we do, and who are we to say they are wrong?
There is a conflict of ideology/philosophy, and when you frame the problem that way the options open to us change!
Paul.
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