By
Bill Fields
Submitted On February 11, 2011
It is your goal to have your organization consistently achieve
high performance over a long period. What do you need to do in order to
achieve and sustain this kind of performance?
Much like a puzzle with many inter-locking pieces, high performance is achieved only when a number of critical elements are working in seamless concert.
Helping Organizations Work
All organizations exist in extremely dynamic and fluid environments. Opportunities, challenges and changing requirements compel you to nurture continuous evolution in order to survive and thrive.
In the "Market Life System", an analysis of consumer and competitive forces enables you and your organization to develop a strategy, and to create a structure and systems that will support employees in fulfilling market needs.
For example, customers' needs and desires are never fully articulated or understood. In conducting a market analysis, therefore, imperfect information necessarily will be used. Compounding this, consumer forces are perpetually evolving. You need to continuously verify that your organization is making the necessary adjustments to meet market needs.
In a similar manner, competitors continually adjust to changing circumstances. Your success depends on your ability to analyze and react to these competitive threats and opportunities. It is imperative, therefore, to fundamentally imbed renewal processes in your organization's underlying strategy.
In creating a structure and systems, you establish the foundation and conditions to support employee performance. To ensure consistent relevancy and effectiveness, these also need to be constructed as variable processes, subject to ongoing renewal.
Employees are the most vital and potent element in the "Market Life System" model, because they actually produce the product or service. They also are much more complicated and demanding. Attention and resources are needed to support and engage employees. After all, who wouldn't want a workforce that is engaged, energetic, competent, and committed?
As described in the "Market Life System" model, volatile forces confront and challenge your organization. Opportunities and demands are without limit, whereas time and resources are finite. Through the process of setting priorities and implementing action plans, you can gain better control of this dynamic environment and take actions that will further your organization's success.
In determining priorities, you need to assess the organization's stage in its life cycle. For example, if your organization is relatively young and fast growing, it probably needs to establish a formal structure, define roles and develop systems. Resources and expertise may be a constraint in this situation.
On the other hand, if your organization is more established, it has systems that may have become cumbersome and inefficient over time. These systems will require streamlining. Often, this may be further exacerbated by inconsistencies among policies, procedures and practices. If this is combined with a long-serving workforce, you should anticipate some resistance to change. Expertise and experience in navigating such a situation is required.
Helping People Work
It's obvious that if you can't do all the work yourself or that if you need to spend more time on higher value activities, then you will have to depend on other people to get things done. It is critical, therefore, that all your employees become fully engaged and that they have the skills, competencies and behaviours that are required to perform their jobs effectively. In this way, they can contribute to your organization's success.
Employers have an obligation to train their employees to perform work in a safe and competent manner. Far too often, however, it is assumed that employees already know how to do a task or job, or that they'll be able to figure it out on their own. Such a perspective is a disservice to both the individual and the organization.
Competence needs to be understood as much more than just technical skills. It is the full spectrum of inter-personal and behavioural attributes that will enable employees to become more engaged in identifying and solving problems.
Human beings are hard-wired in very particular ways. Given the requisite skills, a supportive environment and the necessary resources, individuals will seek to achieve high performance. Repeated performance builds competence and confidence. This will prove personally satisfying for the employee and very liberating for the manager.
Training shouldn't be "an event". Teaching a skill takes time and patience. It needs to be conducted in a deliberate manner over some period of time, depending on the complexity. Consistently repeating the skill will result in competent performance.
Behaviours are learned patterns of conduct that one develops over time. Some people believe that their behaviour is "just the way I am". Although one's behaviour may seem to be very natural because it has been practised for so long, it really is much more about "the way I choose to behave". Behaviours, therefore, can be modified.
If employees' behaviours are not consistent with the culture and goals of the organization, effectiveness and performance necessarily will suffer. It is vital, therefore, for all employees to demonstrate behaviours that will support the organization and that also will satisfy their personal needs. This is referred to as alignment.
Diamond Management Institute has extensive experience in developing and delivering competency-based inter-personal training. We also have worked with many groups and individuals, helping them to adopt new and positive behaviours. We help organizations achieve alignment, resulting in significant and sustainable performance improvement.
These are lessons learned that we welcome sharing with you, in order to help your employees improve and your organization experience enhanced performance.
Much like a puzzle with many inter-locking pieces, high performance is achieved only when a number of critical elements are working in seamless concert.
Helping Organizations Work
All organizations exist in extremely dynamic and fluid environments. Opportunities, challenges and changing requirements compel you to nurture continuous evolution in order to survive and thrive.
In the "Market Life System", an analysis of consumer and competitive forces enables you and your organization to develop a strategy, and to create a structure and systems that will support employees in fulfilling market needs.
For example, customers' needs and desires are never fully articulated or understood. In conducting a market analysis, therefore, imperfect information necessarily will be used. Compounding this, consumer forces are perpetually evolving. You need to continuously verify that your organization is making the necessary adjustments to meet market needs.
In a similar manner, competitors continually adjust to changing circumstances. Your success depends on your ability to analyze and react to these competitive threats and opportunities. It is imperative, therefore, to fundamentally imbed renewal processes in your organization's underlying strategy.
In creating a structure and systems, you establish the foundation and conditions to support employee performance. To ensure consistent relevancy and effectiveness, these also need to be constructed as variable processes, subject to ongoing renewal.
Employees are the most vital and potent element in the "Market Life System" model, because they actually produce the product or service. They also are much more complicated and demanding. Attention and resources are needed to support and engage employees. After all, who wouldn't want a workforce that is engaged, energetic, competent, and committed?
As described in the "Market Life System" model, volatile forces confront and challenge your organization. Opportunities and demands are without limit, whereas time and resources are finite. Through the process of setting priorities and implementing action plans, you can gain better control of this dynamic environment and take actions that will further your organization's success.
In determining priorities, you need to assess the organization's stage in its life cycle. For example, if your organization is relatively young and fast growing, it probably needs to establish a formal structure, define roles and develop systems. Resources and expertise may be a constraint in this situation.
On the other hand, if your organization is more established, it has systems that may have become cumbersome and inefficient over time. These systems will require streamlining. Often, this may be further exacerbated by inconsistencies among policies, procedures and practices. If this is combined with a long-serving workforce, you should anticipate some resistance to change. Expertise and experience in navigating such a situation is required.
Helping People Work
It's obvious that if you can't do all the work yourself or that if you need to spend more time on higher value activities, then you will have to depend on other people to get things done. It is critical, therefore, that all your employees become fully engaged and that they have the skills, competencies and behaviours that are required to perform their jobs effectively. In this way, they can contribute to your organization's success.
Employers have an obligation to train their employees to perform work in a safe and competent manner. Far too often, however, it is assumed that employees already know how to do a task or job, or that they'll be able to figure it out on their own. Such a perspective is a disservice to both the individual and the organization.
Competence needs to be understood as much more than just technical skills. It is the full spectrum of inter-personal and behavioural attributes that will enable employees to become more engaged in identifying and solving problems.
Human beings are hard-wired in very particular ways. Given the requisite skills, a supportive environment and the necessary resources, individuals will seek to achieve high performance. Repeated performance builds competence and confidence. This will prove personally satisfying for the employee and very liberating for the manager.
Training shouldn't be "an event". Teaching a skill takes time and patience. It needs to be conducted in a deliberate manner over some period of time, depending on the complexity. Consistently repeating the skill will result in competent performance.
Behaviours are learned patterns of conduct that one develops over time. Some people believe that their behaviour is "just the way I am". Although one's behaviour may seem to be very natural because it has been practised for so long, it really is much more about "the way I choose to behave". Behaviours, therefore, can be modified.
If employees' behaviours are not consistent with the culture and goals of the organization, effectiveness and performance necessarily will suffer. It is vital, therefore, for all employees to demonstrate behaviours that will support the organization and that also will satisfy their personal needs. This is referred to as alignment.
Diamond Management Institute has extensive experience in developing and delivering competency-based inter-personal training. We also have worked with many groups and individuals, helping them to adopt new and positive behaviours. We help organizations achieve alignment, resulting in significant and sustainable performance improvement.
These are lessons learned that we welcome sharing with you, in order to help your employees improve and your organization experience enhanced performance.
Diamond Management Institute develops high-performance
organizations through customized management consulting, strategic and
operational planning, leadership development, and employee training
solutions. We are passionate about improving performance and
effectiveness - for organizations and for individuals.
Contact Bill Fields, President at 905-820-8308 or http://diamondmanagementinstitute.com
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Bill_Fields/936591
Contact Bill Fields, President at 905-820-8308 or http://diamondmanagementinstitute.com
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