Jeff, thanks for your post- cost management is important to consider
because if we can quantify the bottom line benefits from implementing
learning organizations then many more companies will allow learning
explorations.
I advocate downstructuring as the best way to facilitate learning
(downstructuring means removing structures such as job descriptions, job
titles, the need to be in an office between 9 and 5 and so on- effectively
freeing all people to expand their role and interests to achieve their
full potential).
When trying to quantify the bottom line benefits from downstructuring for
clients, I talk about:
1. An increase in revenue from increasing the proportion of work activity
which is business and not busyness.
Effectively, business is that time we spend in our organizational contexts
which is directly associated with making progress towards our goals: it is
not the transaction costs in getting to the meeting but the meeting
itself. These organizational contexts are increasingly outside of
traditional and outmoded static forms of organization such as hierarchies
and offices.
So much of what we do in our outmoded organized systems such as offices
and jobs is busyness. We find that because we are allocated a certain
vertical market industry sector to look after, we are not very busy when
that sector isnt. We cannot explore other market sectors- or at least
learn the jargon in those sectors! Its not our area.
Cumulatively, this leads to actual performance being far below the
potential performance that could be achieved if these outmoded organized
constraints were removed and everyone was free to learn.
The revenue increase is the value of business activity and ideas per
person which do not get generated or pursued because of busyness. The
increased growth can be calculated as the percentage of inputs generated
or processed but suppressed, delayed or rejected as outputs by
organizational systems. The lost growth is the percentage of work effort
expended that is busyness and not business. The good thing is that the
more organized you are, the greater the benefits from downstructuring that
you can unleash.
Removing busyness is perhaps the systematic cost driver that Jeff wants to
identify.
2. Reduced costs.
Running an office is costly but you can reduce the fixed costs of doing
business by decreasing the reliance on outmoded offices and organizational
structures which cause busyness. For example, costs fall by having fewer
desks per number of employees and letting people work from home. Hot
desking is a better utilization of space because the same people use
different desks at different times: work is location independent these
days, both inside and outside of traditional offices.
3. Human benefit from reduced stress, reduced pollution, increased
freedom. This is a benefit to the individual and to society from reduced
hospital bills, sickness absence, time spent getting to work using
transportation and so on. This is often the initial reason for exploring
learning organizations: the humane side.
In sum, downstructuring to facilitate learning corporations reduces costs
and increases revenues!!
I hope that this helps somewhat- if you identify that systematic cost
driver, then please do share it!
Rgds sincerely Simon Buckingham, www.unorg.com, buck@dial.pipex.com
"unorganization: business not busyness!"
--Simon Buckingham <go57@dial.pipex.com>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>