TIPS NewsletterTIPS Newsletter
Date: Sun, 20 Feb 2000 23:16:57 -0800
To: CommonSenseManaging@growthassociates.org
From: Common Sense Managing <bill@growthassociates.org>
Subject: Common Sense Managing Tip of the Week
Table of contents:
Common Sense Managing Tip of the Week - COMMUNICATING THE VISION
Mini Survey results
Customer Story Contest
COMMUNICATING THE VISION???218 words
Communicating the company vision is as important as having one. Having the people know and understand the vision is only the beginning. Employees must see the vision as a living entity - a stimulus and guide to their daily actions and decisions. The best way to insure that the people know, understand, and accept the vision is to include them directly in the process of forming the vision.
Common Sense Managers communicate the vision through their daily actions. People throughout the organization listen to what their leaders say, but they respond to what those leaders do. The old adage "action speaks louder than words" could have been written about corporate visions.
If asked to explain their department's and organization's vision, what would your people say?
If asked to demonstrate their department's and organization's vision, how would your people behave?
NOTE: These two questions can easily be turned into an exercise at your next staff meeting? Ask the participants to simultaneously write their understanding of the vision. After discussing the results, provide them with several hypothetical situations and ask them to explain how they would handle each one.
What do you and your managers do to model the vision on a daily basis?
Ask your people how they think you and your managers model the vision.
This Common Sense Managing Tip is from the Motivation section of Common Sense Managing: Simple Ideas That Produce Results. The book is immediately available at http://www.growthassociates.org or amazon.com.
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NEWSLETTER SURVEY RESULTS
The following are the results from first question in the Common Sense Managing Tip reader survey.
If you could fix one thing about your organization it would be to:
The primary responses were communication, communication, and communication. The focus was primarily on internal customers - between departments and within the customer service department. They included increasing the level of participation and establishing a cohesive approach to customer service. Another comment addressed improving communication by improving organizational structure through the creation of a world wide customer service manager.
Staying off the P.O.T.Y. [Program Of The Year] came in second. One comment was "Let the dust settle [at least just a little awhile] before embarking on another internal restructure".
The most eloquent statement was: Have everyone believe: "Every job is a self portrait of the person who did it." (Norman Rockwell poster)
GA response to communication fixes:
The 85/15 rule applies to this situation. Eighty-five percent of organizational problems are caused by a system failure - the lack of clear procedures, measurable performance criteria, work processes. People cause the remaining fifteen percent of organizational problems.
Eighty-five percent of the time communication failures are not the problem; they are symptoms of the problem. Chasing communication failures will likely produce frustration resulting from another well intended, prone to fail P.O.T.Y.
The place to look for 'communication' solutions is within your organizational system. Have you established a solid organizational base that has the following four critical elements?
Æ Living Vision that everyone knows, understands, and accepts
Æ Plan to implement the vision - goals, measurable objectives, supporting action plans that everyone knows, understands, accepts, and are congruent with the vision
Æ Controls to determine in real time how you're doing with your implementation
Æ Accountability for accomplishing the action plans, objectives, and goals of the organization
It is not an accident that these are the first four chapters of Common Sense Managing. These elements form your organization's base. This is the first place we look when we assist a client - eighty-five percent of time the real problem resides here among these four basics.
We were asked to solve a communications problem between a client's Sales and Production functions. Several fixes had already been attempted and failed - communications training, meetings, facilitated confrontations. Within three days we discovered that the reward systems for Sales and Production were in direct conflict. Each had a plan that when implemented would cause the other's plan to fail.
Once uncovered, it took the President, VP of Sales, and VP of Production less than four hours to fix the problem. The problem had been nagging them for two years because they kept fixing the symptoms.
I don't mean to ignore the other fifteen percent - the genuine people communication problems. However, that requires knowing the specifics -- identifying essential behaviors, drivers, constraints, personality styles, etc.
The bottom line issue is would you rather be right fifteen percent of the time or eighty-five percent?
Your comments are welcomed. Send me an email and I will post them on this page.
I hope this helps. If you have additional questions or concerns, please call Bill Werst at [541] 386 -1117.
The results and response to the second question [The biggest challenge your department faces this year is to:] are posted at http://www.growthassociates.org - go to INTERACT.
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CONTEST
We're looking for original humorous customer communications stories. Please email me your favorite experience. I will include the best stories in future newsletters. If your story is used you will receive a complementary copy of Common Sense Managing.
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If you want to add additional names to our free email newsletter, you can simply email the names and addressed to bill@growthassociates. You may want additional people in leadership positions throughout your organization to receive this newsletter. There is no limit to the number of names you may add. It's free.
We are totally revamping our web site to make it easier and more useful for you. Look for an announcement of our open house within days. Have a great week. You've already started it with a little common sense.
Bill Werst
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