Dr. Timner writes.....
>One of my clients needs to roll-out a new initiative to a national
>organization of 14,000 people and is looking for a "model" or example of
>how to do this. Of course, she will use varoious standard channels, but
>we thought some of you might have some innovative ideas or experiences to
>share. We would be very grateful--thanks!
Jane - I was struck by the various comments to your post, and how many
were directed to the technology of communication. From my experience with
a much smaller organization (1,900), technology is an issue, but a
relatively minor one. I am making an assumption that the initiative is
very important, and that it is therefore tightly bound with the core
purpose of the organization.
Senge and others point out the importance of making this communication
very much two-way. In fact, they write of top-down, bottom-up and
middle-out all occurring simultaneously. The challenge, in my experience,
is to keep the message consistent, and to pay very serious attention to
feedback. Not paying attention to feedback loops from senior managers,
middle managers and staff is, IMO, one of the surest ways to kill any new
initiative.
You may be familiar with a quality process called Quality Function
Deployment. It is designed to drive customer focus upstream and help
mediate several organizational dilemmas (Inward Focus vs. Outward Focus,
Production vs. Quality, Product vs. Product Family). One of the more
complete treatments of QFD is found in _Better Designs in Half the Time_
by Bob King.
A similar concept is required for policy deployment. I have seen some
treatment of Policy Function Deployment or Management Function Deployment.
Both seek to drive business focus down, while maintaining very rich
feedback loops. When combined with QFD, MFD or PFD helps close the loops
in setting and evolving management functions and policies.
Thanks.
Mike.....
Michael A. Gort
Gort@mail.com
(203) 316-9454
--Michael Gort <gort@mail.com>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>