Replying to LO24879 --
Jim,
>From what you described about your organization and its "employee
ownership" approach--a classic! Management doesn't want to open the
discussion about how their practices--"theory in use"-- create the
opposite effect of what they say they want to have happen--the espoused
"We've spent almost ten years trying creating a culture of employee
leadership in our company."
I'd be curious to know what they have tried over the last ten years!!
I also chuckled over your comment about reading about this sort of thing
over and over. If one goes into any of the trendy bookstores with large
sections on Business and Management, one finds many new volumes. "This"
leadership style, "that" approach to creating "sustainable" change. The
reality is that very often they are just rehashing what has been
researched or written about years ago. Oh yeah, sure, there are sometimes
new little twists but I find that just doing some basic research into the
"grandfathers" of organization development (or management science) can
generate a "wow" and realization that we don't really have to look too far
from the tree roots. (On this note, Harvard Business Review has just
republished its line of "classics.")
We do have tools to change cultures but unless there is a real desire to
do so with management championing the change, it is merely talk. I think
it is akin to the person who WANTS to stop smoking or WANTS to lose one
hundred pounds but perhaps lacks the skills or the personal motivation to
truly do the hard (and sometimes painful) work required.
Thanks for your post.
Sandy Wells
> What I've heard in our company is more like "management is accountable for
> setting the vision and strategy." It's then the job of the rest of us to
> plan in small teams how we are going to execute our part of that strategy.
> This seems to run contrary to the message of ownership that we all hear.
> Ownership to me (in a strict interpretation of that term) means I
> participate in the discussions of those things - vision and strategy, and
> then once we've decided upon "our" vision and "our" strategy we proceed
> to plan how we're going to get from here to there.
>
> We've spent almost ten years trying creating a culture of employee
> leadership in our company, but as much progress as we've made, we still
> have a bunch of noise that keeps us from truly realizing that idea. In
> addition to the above, there are things such as golden parachutes for
--"Sandy Wells" <sjwells@earthlink.net>
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