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through measuring and evaluating |
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Gifford and Elizabeth Pinchot tell us that "defining the important truths about the system’s performance that can be measured over time serves to focus the system on the results, not power. Facts replace the opinions of those in power as the key to ‘reality’." The Pinchots, however, go on to warn that measurements will not work if they are used to establish blame. Measurements, they say, must be used to improve the system, looking at the whole as well as the parts.
Holistic, systemic thinking about measurements can help organizations consciously choose which behaviors and values they want to encourage. Contemporary organizations tend to focus on evaluations as a method of labeling outcomes as gradients of "good" or "bad" that reflect on the ability of the "evaluated" employee. An organization can choose to focus on using evaluations as a positive tool - as an opportunity to learn and improve. Explicitly or implicitly, the concept of a learning organization is integral to the new business models. Peter Senge tells us that a learning organization "continually expand[es] it capacity to create its future." Such organizations, Senge says, focus not on survival but on "generative learning", which enhances creativity and re-creation. A learning organization meets the imperatives of an ever-changing business climate by enabling free creation and flow of information throughout. |
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Things > Results |
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Gregory T. Meyer, LABOR COSTS: MANAGEMENT BUDGET INFORMATION AND SIMULATING TOTAL COMPENSATION, materials presented to Labor Relations Management Seminar/Workshop, University of Southern California, Davidson Conference Center (April 19-20, 1977). Guidance tool for gathering and analyzing data about your workforce in order to develop performance-based, incentive systems. Useful for anyone designing a system f or collecting information as part of a decision-making process. Mark Graham Brown, Is your measurement system well balanced?, JOURNAL FOR QUALITY AND PARTICIPATION (Nov. 1994) at 6. The author presents a self-assessment tool that enables organizations to determine whether they are measuring effectively or simply measuring. |
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Marvin R. Weisbord, PRODUCTIVE WORKPLACES: ORGANIZING AND MANAGING FOR DIGNITY, MEANING, AND COMMUNITY, Jossey-Bass, Inc. (1987). Weisbord traces the origins and evolution of team work theory and discusses how we can approach the process of designing meaningful work See Index:Teams, Teamwork, and Work teams. Richard N. Knowles, Expanding the Growth of Self-Organizing Systems, JOURNAL FOR QUALITY AND PARTICIPATION (June 1995) at 56. A case study of how the Belle, West Virginia plant of E.I. duPont de Nemours & Company recovered from declining earnings and other failings by adhering to the principles of self-organizing systems. Charles Ehin, The ultimate advantage of self-organizing systems, JOURNAL FOR QUALITY AND PARTICIPATION (Sept. 1995) at 30. Can’t find this anymore... Gifford and Elizabeth Pinchot, THE END OF BUREAUCRACY & THE RISE OF THE INTELLIGENT ORGANIZATION, Berrett-Koehler Publishers (1993). The Pinchots’ ideas about workplace democracy are essential to effective teams. Peter Senge, THE FIFTH DISCIPLINE: THE ART AND PRACTICE OF THE LEARNING ORGANIZATION, Doubleday/Currency/Bantam (1990). Team learning, Senge tells us, is one of the five core disciplines we must master in order to enable true organizational learning. Darcy Hitchcock and Marsha Willard, WHY TEAMS CAN FAIL (AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT) (co-published by the Association for Quality and Participation) (avail. from AQP 800-733-3310). "Hitchcock and Willard concentrate on the dynamics of team work and what can make it go awry. They offer practical and easy-to- understand solutions to implementing teams." (AQP review). Jack D. Orsburn, Linda Moran, Ed Musselwhite and John H. Zenger, SELF-DIRECTED WORK TEAMS: THE NEW AMERICAN CHALLENGE, Irwin Professional Publishing, 1990. Drew Lathin, Overcoming fear of self-directed teams, JOURNAL FOR QUALITY AND PARTICIPATION, (July/Aug. 1994) at 16. How to eliminate roadblocks to self-directed teams through organizational simulations Jeffrey Davis and Lee Rengers, One road from stormy weather to blue skys, JOURNAL FOR QUALITY AND PARTICIPATION (June 1995) at 34. Teams implement successful healthcare in the public sector: the transformation of Marion County. Robert Crow, Institutionalized competition and it’s effects on teamwork, JOURNAL FOR QUALITY AND PARTICIPATION (June 1995) at 46. Crow discusses the advantages of building a cooperative, as opposed to competitive, work environment - the notion of enlightened self-interest. Ann & Bob Harper, TEAM BARRIERS: ACTIONS FOR OVERCOMING THE BLOCKS TO EMPOWERMENT, INVOLVEMENT, & HIGH-PERFORMANCE, MW Corporation (1994). Authors provide assessments, checklists & exercises for group learning; a roadmap for ransition and building work groups into teams. Henry P. Sims, Jr., Challenges to implementing self-managing teams, JOURNAL FOR QUALITY AND PARTICIPATION (March 1995) at 24. Sims addresses problems related to implementing teams, including: expecting too much too soon, decreasing effectiveness, what to do about managers, supervisors, and resentfull high status employees, and the fallacy of sink or swim. Henry P. Sims, Jr. and Charles C. Manz, Tyrannosaurus Rex: the boss as corporate dinosaur, JOURNAL FOR QUALITY AND PARTICIPATION (Sept. 1994) at 58. Getting teams started at IDS Mutual Funds Operations (a case study); also, the emergence of teams in America. David Geisler, Getting to Team Land isn’t that easy if you’re from I Land, JOURNAL FOR QUALITY AND PARTICIPATION (Oct./Nov. 1995) at 46. Exploring the self-absorption phenomenon and how to coax people away. John Dew, Creating team leaders, JOURNAL FOR QUALITY AND PARTICIPATION (Oct./Nov. 1995) at 50. Specific recommendations for moving from autocratic to democratic leadership. Amy Katz, Darlene Russ, Linda Moran and Lilanthi Ravishankar, Team members speak out JOURNAL FOR QUALITY AND PARTICIPATION (Sept. 1995) at 76. Results of a survey conducted by the American Institutes for Research to 2,000 team members in the U.S. and Canada. Michael Schrage, NO MORE TEAMS! MASTERING THE DYNAMICS OF CREATIVE COLLABORATION, Doubleday (1995). (published as SHARED MINDS, Random House (1990)). |