Institutionalize Interest Approach to Formally Institutionalize the Commitment of the Enterprise and Relationship to the Interest Based Agreement
The parties to the negotiation must commit to and engage in specific behaviors which communicate and educate others about the commitment to the interest approach.
Stephen Covey, FIRST THINGS FIRST, Simon & Schuster (1994).
Peter Senge, THE FIFTH DISCIPLINE: THE ART & PRACTICE OF THE LEARNING ORGANIZATION, Doubleday/Bantam/Currency (1990).
Cheerleading
Labor and management leadership need to lace the interest approach into their everyday language. They need to document and talk about their successes with the approach and its impact on the bottom line.
Example: Shelby E. Wagner and Jim Kearney, MANAGEMENT AND TEACHERS’ ASSOCIATION TALLY SAVINGS FROM PRACTICING AN INTEREST APPROACH: $1 MILLION IN CORONA-NORCO.
Good example of how a communique to constituents outlines the applications, successes, and quantitative benefits of the new process.
Training
One learns to drive by getting behind the wheel. Training is the most effective means of introducing interest based principles to individuals. Use a train the trainers model to distribute principles throughout the organization.
Steve Barber, FACILITATION: A BASIC INTRODUCTION, Barber & Gonzales Consulting Group (1993).
Support
Cheerleading, training, education, communication - for success, need a physical support system with an individual or group responsible for maintaining, i.e., database management, materials, supplies, procurement and maintenance, bibliography and library.
Budget for Training
All of this costs money. Interest based programs and their support systems must be included in the annual budget cycle.
Leadership
Communication and practice of the paradigm shift can’t be left to only the rank and file or the middle management; the executive and governing bodies of the union and management need to behaviorally and verbally express commitment to the principled approach. These expressions may include inviting each other to retreats, holding weekly meetings, managing the relationship agenda and communicating the commitment.
Ronald A. Heifetz, LEADERSHIP WITHOUT EASY ANSWERS, Belknap/Harvard University Press,
1994.
Joel Barker, THE BUSINESS OF PARADIGMS,
Not available for review - in paraphrase, a leader is a person who sees two paradigms at the same time.
Communications
Regular, visible communication and artifacts of communication to every member of the constituency group is required - newsletters (or page in existing newsletter), videos, traveling road shows, meetings with newspaper editorial boards, collecting examples from other venues and sharing.
See generally C.F.I.E.R. VIEWPOINTS for good example of newsletter as means of communication. CALIFORNIA FOUNDATION FOR IMPROVEMENT OF EMPLOYER-EMPLOYEE RELATIONS, 1325 Howe Avenue, #210, Sacramento, CA, 95825 (916) 567-9911 FAX (916) 567-0776.
Conventions & Networks
Seek out and attend conferences, support networks
List of Major Conferences
C.F.I.E.R., PERB, and UC Berkeley Institute of Industrial Relations/Center for the New American Workplace
California’s Public Schools: Meeting the Challenge
Department of Labor, Labor/Management Conference
National Labor-Management Conference
International Labor Office, United Nations