Friday, September 21, 2007

Recipe for Problem-Solving

Paraphrased from Lou Tice of the Winner's Circle Network, based on 40 years of study of organizations unleashing their potential:

1. Find an inspiring goal, a common vision of a clearly-defined end result, shared by everyone, talked about often and affirmed daily. Make it realistic, so that people can reach it, perhaps with a little creativity.

2. Develop a system for tracking performance and giving feedback. "What gets measured, gets done."

3. Reward desired performance, including innovation and risk-taking in meaningful ways to empower people to deal with problems directly at every level.

That's affirming to hear. My recent plans at work have been:

1. Rough out a set of specific goals, each with a person responsible and a due date.

2. Meet with small groups of employees, ones with experience, who can refine the initial goals and add new ones.

3. Hand the goals to my direct reports, charging them to work with their folks to further refine them.

4. Feedback? Still working on that one. I've talked up Giuliani's "morning meeting" from earlier post, and others sound interested in some type of peer review process.

5. The reward system is usually done on the fly since each employee is unique in the things that motivate them, since monetary budget is limited and the degree of success is best known at the end. Celebratory lunches for the team, individual thank-you notes praising specific contributions, or a little time off all succeed in varying degrees.

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