Team & Organization Development Sourcebook. High-Performance Work Team. Team Creativity and Performance. Team Building and Decision Making

What are the Obstacles to People Performance?

There are many ways to succeed in business today, but nearly all of them depend on the performance of your people. When managers want to improve people performance, they often try "fixing" people, rather than "fixing" problems.

To achieve superior people performance across an organization, employees must:
? Know "who the company is," "where it's going," "what it values," and "how to behave" to succeed.
? Be given the tools and the guidance they need to perform their jobs independently, competently, and confidently.
? Know the rewards, opportunities, and consequences that are linked to their job performance.
? Engage in ongoing and specific conversations with their bosses about their mutual job-related expectations and how well they are performing.
? Possess the requisite intelligence, abilities, personality fit, knowledge, and skills to perform their jobs well.

LEVEL I: AUDIT: FOUNDATION
Does your company have guiding statements (e.g., mission, vision, and values or "hedgehog") that have been shared with all employees?
Are your company's guiding statements clear and inspirational?
Do your guiding statements help employees evaluate opportunities, make decisions, and evaluate progress?
Do your employees work on things that consistently support who the company says it is and where it says it's going?
Are your values defined in a way that helps employees choose among alternative actions?
Will your current culture help your organization achieve its desired future?

LEVEL II: AUDIT: INFRASTRUCTURE
Are there adequate policies and procedures in place to guide your employees?
Are your policies and procedures clear and easily understood?
Do your employees consistently follow your policies and procedures?
Are your policies and procedures consistent with your corporate values and culture?
Do your employees have the systems, equipment, and materials they need to do their jobs well?
Do your employees have the support and assistance they need to do their jobs well?

LEVEL III: AUDIT: COMMUNICATIONS MEMBRANE
Do your employees know the corporate mission and vision (or "hedgehog") and how they relate to their positions?
Do your employees know the most important things that will be used to evaluate their performance?
Do your employees know the rewards and opportunities they can realize if they perform well?
Do your bosses and employees engage in ongoing and specific conversations about their expectations of one another?
Do your employees know the consequences to them and the organization that may result if they don't perform up to expectations?
Do your bosses and employees engage in ongoing and specific conversations about how well each of them is performing?

LEVEL IV: AUDIT: INDIVIDUAL
Do your employees have the requisite intelligence and abilities to perform well in their positions?
Are your employees in positions that suit their behavioral and personality preferences?
Do your employees have the desire to do a good job in the positions they are in?
Do your employees know the facts and information they need to perform well in their positions?
Do your employees have the skills they need to perform well in their positions?
Do you continually develop the knowledge and skills of your employees?


Is it Important to You and the Organization?



VALUES SURVEY SECTION 1: WHAT THE ORGANIZATION VALUES
Accountability
Advancement
Attention to detail
Challenge
Collaboration
Commitment
Common purpose
Communication
Continuous improvement
Customer satisfaction
Diversity
Empowerment
Enjoyment
Excellence
Experience
Feedback
Flexibility
Independence
Influence
Innovation
Integrity
Involvement
Job satisfaction
Job security
Openness
Personal development
Quality
Recognition
Respect
Results orientation
Routine
Safety
Status
Support
Teamwork
Tradition



VALUES SURVEY SECTION 2: WHAT IS IMPORTANT TO YOU AT WORK?
1. A clear idea of what I am responsible for
2. Opportunities for promotion
3. Being careful to make sure everything is accurate
4. Opportunities to take on difficult tasks and achieve success
5. Maintaining cooperative working relations with staff in other departments
6. Committed to achieving the strategic objectives of the company
7. Knowing how well my work contributes to the overall company objectives
8. Keeping well informed about company issues and initiatives
9. Doing things better than they have been done before
10. Knowing if my customers are satisfied with the work I do for them
11. Welcome and embrace the variety of differences in other people
12. The authority to make decisions in my area of responsibility
13. Work is a pleasure, not a dull routine
14. Produce outstanding results at work
15. Knowledge and skills learned through long experience
16. Comments from others that provide information on how I am performing
17. Willingness to accommodate and respond positively to changes
18. Freedom to make decisions without other people taking control
19. Doing things that have an effect on other's behavior and actions
20. Opportunities to think of new ideas and original ways of doing things
21. Everyone can be relied on to do what they say they will do
22. A chance to participate in discussions and influence decisions
23. The job I do provides me with a strong sense of satisfaction and achievement
24. Feel secure in the knowledge that at work I have good prospects for the future
25. A chance to share ideas, views, and opinions about work
26. The opportunity to further develop my knowledge and skills
27. Maintaining high standards in the quality of my work
28. Having my achievements acknowledged by others
29. To be held in high regard by work colleagues
30. Achieving my objectives and high levels of productivity
31. Following correct procedures that do not vary much
32. Safe working practices and environment
33. Achieving a high standing within the company based on my achievements
34. The chance for me to willingly give help and encouragement to other people at work
35. The opportunity to work with others and be part of a team
36. Following long established working customs


Does Your Organization Have the Elements to Implement Organizational Learning and Knowledge Management?

In the field of organizational development, transformational interventions focus on aligning key organization elements such as culture, structure, mission, values, and strategies with one another, and with the organization's (changing) environment. Instead of concentrating on producing incremental change, transformational interventions are designed to produce fundamental, rapid, paradigm-shifting changes that are mandated by equally significant changes taking place in an organization's environment and/or technology. Members of successful organizations develop an ability to continuously rethink and reorient themselves. They realize that stubbornly clinging to old, familiar ways has destroyed many previously successful organizations. The information needed to guide members charged with implementing transformational change is discovered through the processes of innovation, learning, knowledge acquisition and sharing, and adaptation.

The organizational learning change process (a type of transformational OD intervention) is designed to enhance an organization's ability to acquire and develop new knowledge. Organizational learning is distinguished from the knowledge management change process (a related but distinct type of transformational OD intervention), which focuses on organizing and using knowledge to improve member performance. Both organizational learning and knowledge management interventions focus on helping members achieve higher levels of performance, but they do so in different ways.

Organizational learning interventions help organizations become skilled at promoting and improving effective learning processes, whereas knowledge management interventions focus on helping organizations organize and use information. This assessment is designed to help members use a simplified set of models to assess and then improve their organization's learning skills and knowledge management abilities by way of increasing overall effectiveness.


Organization Learning Process
Organizational learning interventions provide a structured way for organizations to examine the fit between their structure (teamwork, layers, lateral relations, networking, etc.), information systems (gathering and processing information), human resource practices (appraisals, rewards, training), culture (openness, creativity, experimentation), and leadership (openness, risk taking, reflection, communication, vision, etc.), and their organization's overall strategy. To carry out this examination, members use four interrelated activities:
1. Detecting. The first activity utilizes gap analysis to identify variations between desired and actual conditions. This is where organizational learning begins. Where are we? How does that compare to where we need to be?
2. Creating. Members devise solutions to identified gaps between desired and actual conditions. How will we work together to overcome the gaps?
3. Testing. Members apply identified solutions to identified problems. Let's try out our proposals.
4. Applying. Members arrive at conclusions about the effects of the solutions they have applied, and then extend that knowledge to other relevant situations in the organization. Did our solutions close identified gaps? If not, what else can we try? Finally, how will we institutionalize our successful solutions to identified problems?

Three Learning Models
The results of the four-step examination process are put to work through any of three learning models:
1. Adaptive learning (incremental changes to the status quo): Members reinforce existing theories. Adaptive learning emphasizes unilateral control of environments, and protecting oneself and others from potentially hurtful information. No fundamental change occurs at this level, but simple solutions may resolve straightforward, uncomplicated problems.
2. Generative learning (change the existing organizational assumptions): Members make free and informed choices, demonstrate internal commitment to their choices, and continually assess the effectiveness of solutions being implemented. Generative learning emphasizes openness, feedback, personal mastery, and collaboration—all characteristics of successful organization learning interventions.
3. Learning how to learn (improves both the adaptive and the generative learning processes): Members use generative learning to assess how effectively their organization employs the four-step organization learning process. Can our organization successfully identify gaps, plan how to fill those gaps, implement and then institutionalize our plans? Can we learn?


ORGANIZATION LEARNING AND KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT ASSESSMENT
Part 1: Organizational Characteristics
A. Structure
? 1. Members are encouraged to demonstrate behaviors such as teamwork, building strong horizontal relations, and networking across boundaries.
? 2. Members are encouraged to demonstrate behaviors such as information sharing, systems thinking, openness to information and their environment.
? 3. Members are encouraged to learn about wider parts of organization and reduce barriers to learning.
? 4. A relatively flat organizational chart enhances opportunities for employee involvement in problem solving and decision making.
? 5. Members are empowered to make relevant decisions that influence the organization.
B. Information Systems
? 6. Information systems help members gather and process complex information.
? 7. Information systems help members share a rich body of complex information.
? 8. Members are encouraged to manage knowledge for competitive advantage.
? 9. Learning is directed at helping members bring about transformational change.
? 10. Information systems help members reach higher levels of learning.
C. Human Resources Practices
? 11. Organization members are the ultimate creators and users of organizational learning.
? 12. Performance appraisal and reward practices are designed to help members learn.
? 13. Human resource systems encourage members to gain and share new skills and knowledge.
? 14. Human resource practices emphasize continuous learning and improvement.
? 15. Training and development activities provide members with opportunities to learn.
D. Organization Culture
? 16. Our assumptions, values, and norms encourage members to collect, process, and share information.
? 17. Our culture encourages members to be experimental, open, and creative.
? 18. Members actively learn from their failures.
? 19. Our values and norms encourage members to innovate and try new things.
? 20. Mistakes and errors are treated as a normal part of the innovation process.
E. Leadership
? 21. Our organization depends on its leaders to be truly effective.
? 22. Our organization's leaders are actively involved in member learning.
? 23. Our organization's leaders model openness, risk taking, and reflection.
? 24. Our organization's leaders communicate a compelling vision of the learning organization.
? 25. Our organization's leaders personally advocate and provide support for learning.

Part 2: Organization Learning Processes
A. Discovery
? 26. Members are helped to identify theories they can use to address problems, make decisions, and interact with each other.
? 27. Members are encouraged to be open and frank with each other.
? 28. Members are encouraged to behave as colleagues, and suspend individual assumptions as much as possible.
? 29. Members are helped to identify assumptions and beliefs that they can use to guide their daily behavior.
? 30. Members are helped to identify factors that support functional learning, and avoid dysfunctional learning in the organization.
B. Invention
? 31. Members are encouraged to develop and then use theories that lead to more effective actions in the organization.
? 32. Members are encouraged to learn by doing.
? 33. Members are encouraged to break out of existing mind-sets, see new realities, and identify new possibilities.
? 34. Members are encouraged to confront and openly discuss their habitual actions and methods.
? 35. Members are encouraged to invent new theories for behaving, organizing, and learning.
C. Production
? 36. Members are encouraged to use systems thinking instead of linear thinking; be aware of complex interrelationships; and view the whole system instead of its parts.
? 37. Members are encouraged to experiment, and demonstrate internal commitment to change efforts.
? 38. Members are encouraged to identify previously unrecognized forces operating in the organization.
? 39. Members are encouraged to apply valid information and use free choice when making decisions.
? 40. Members are encouraged to openly discuss and correct identified errors that accompany attempts to implement new theories.
D. Generalization
? 41. Members are encouraged to learn how to learn.
? 42. Members identify organizational structures and processes that support learning.
? 43. Members assess how effectively organizational structures and processes facilitate learning.
? 44. Members openly question their theories about learning.
? 45. Members publicly test the effectiveness of both their personal learning strategies, and those of the overall organization

Part 3: Organization Knowledge Processes
A. Generating Knowledge.
? 46. Members are encouraged to critically examine the organization's competitive strategy.
? 47. Members learn how to create customer value.
? 48. Members identify areas where knowledge is likely to pay off best.
? 49. Members emphasize customer service and demonstrate high levels of knowledge about customer preferences.
? 50. Members are encouraged to acquire or create knowledge to help them break traditional frames of thinking.
B. Organizing Knowledge
? 51. Organizational knowledge is put into a form that members can readily use.
? 52. Organizational knowledge is refined to increase its value to members.
? 53. Organizational knowledge is categorized and stored in databases where it can be assessed and used by members.
? 54. Methods are devised to facilitate personal exchanges between members who have knowledge and those who need it.
? 55. Knowledge is applied to various projects and customers.
C. Distributing Knowledge
? 56. Mechanisms are created to help members gain access to needed knowledge.
? 57. Organizational knowledge is easy for people to find.
? 58. Members are encouraged to access information on an as-needed basis.
? 59. The organization relies on member control and initiative for knowledge distribution.
? 60. The organization provides specific assistance and organized channels to promote knowledge transfer among members.

For more Information:
* Team & Organization Development Sourcebook , Training & Performance Sourcebook, Organization Development & Leadership Sourcebook

Team & Organization Development Sourcebook. High-Performance Work Team. Team Creativity and Performance. Team Building and Decision Making