Warning: LONG POSTING
Values - Part Two
Developing Organizational Values - File #2
Tell me more about your assignment. If I understood your posting, the org.
wants YOU to help employees develop values, or decide which values they
SHOULD adopt??? Not sure I get it.
But, if what they're after is discovering and reinforcing a set of positive
values already shared by employees that help the hospital move or maintain
its excellence, then perhaps a Future Search conference or a variation of one
will help bring forth the common ground of commonly held values. it's a
highly participative, democratic, and interactive method. Action items and
cross-organization participation teams can flow from a successful Future
Search Conference.
If you know of F.S. and its methodology, think how well it might meet your
needs. It looks to me, at first glance, like a great match. If you're
unfamiliar with Future Search, let me know & I can recommend a quick
reference for reading (I can even mail you something) and a Web site for
quick orientation.
I know how important it is to get employees involved in change in the
organization. When I was Director of O.D. & Training in a major medical
center here, we used a technology known as Real Time Strategic Change (very
similar to Future Search) to get quick, painless employee involvement in
bringing in managed care and a new emphasis on customer service, including
internal customer service, disseminated throughout the hospital.
The desired outcome is that employees plan their own future in the
organization.
An example is the Future Search process I am currently facilitating for an
academic hospital in Newark, N.J. The effort there is to re-establish a
positive relationship, lost over the years, between the hospital and its
community. F.S. and Real Time Strategic Change are highly adaptable
approaches.
Hope this helps. Mila Begun, Principal, WORKWISE, in N.Y.C.... but a former
South Floridian!!! I'll be back there in August for a wedding, staying in
Hollywood.
Thanks for your reply. When dealing with cynics, I try to take an open,
non-judgmental attitude, yet keep asking "value-based" questions. Like at
the start, when people display or express skepticism or even hositility for
having to engage in the process, I ask "what do you think the best use of our
time would be?" Then I ask other members if they would like to use the time
that way? I have to be flexible and be willing to try whatever they agree
on. The key is to get them talking, generating some kind of list on the flip
chart, and helping them draw conclusions and even make some decisions about
"what we should do next."
People get a sense that this is a new kind of planning, that you are 100% on
the level with them, and gradually they will express some issues or
suggestions that the group can work with.
If people are still resisting, I state my value that "all of us are putting
our life energy into being here...so, what do you want from investing your
life energy?" Then I wait 'em out.
Sometimes I feel like Christ on the cross: "forgive them, for they know not
what they do." Don't get discouraged. We have to remember that anyone with
a dysfunctional family brings all that baggage into the work place, then they
get hurt or robbed of their personal dignity (often unintentionally) by
events that arise from hierarchical structures--poor supervisors, selfish or
ignorant peers reacting to poor supervisors, etc., etc. No wonder people
pick up bad habits, lose their sense of responsibility and opportunity; blame
"the organization," and become passive aggressive.
Then you come along as a "safe target" for all their anger and frustration
and they dump it on you (or act it out passive aggressively.) I think the
ultimate value for any OD consultant is the conviction that there is the
potential for good in every person. I must balance that by acknowledging
Jung's "dark side" as well. I have found a few people who seem to be almost
totally evil (See Scott Peck's "People of the Lie.")...but I've also found
they eventually get what's coming to them.
I'm going on about this because I resonnate to the situation you describe.
One more thought. I was with a group just last week and rediscovered the
importance of a fundamental skill: "listening" (verb) others into saying what
they really want and what they are willing to do to get it. After 20 years
as an OD consultant I'm still working on that skill.
Let me know how you get along.
Dwight Fee, Annapolis, MD
I have responded privately to Ms. Probst, but thought I would share
information about a process known as Future Search with this list.
The wonderful response from Rick Corcoran describing visioning ties in with,
and is an essential part of the Future Search process. FS, as developed by
Marvin Weisbord, and described in Chapter 14 of his book Productive
Workplaces, is a participative, interactive large group process that brings
diverse people in an organization together to discover their common ground,
and to vision and plan their future together. It is very action oriented,
and provides a springboard for the organization's future development.
It is a process that may fit the needs of Ms. Probst's "assignment", if the
task is really to discover, rather than to impose, the positive values that
are operating in the hospital.
I know how important it is to get employees directly involved in managing
change in the organization. When I was Director of O.D. & Training in a
major medical center here, we used a technology known as Real Time Strategic
Change (very similar to Future Search) to generate quick, relatively painless
employee involvement in bringing managed care into the hospital along with a
new emphasis on customer service, including internal customer service, and to
get the new thinking disseminated throughout the hospital.
Future Search and Real Time Strategic Change are two excellent innovative and
democratic methods to bring employees into full participation to help plan
the organization's future.
Hope this is helpful.
Mila Begun, Principal, WORKWISE in N.Y.C., (
MMBegun@aol.com)
I consult in the area of values-driven culture change and have
developed an instrument for assessing organizational culture and
values alignment (personal with coporate). You can find more
information on my website
http://users.aol.com/soulspirit/ Richard Barrett
I've working with healthcare districts such as yours over the past few years
and
can offer advice and structure to get the alignment and participation you are
looking for. I'm currently working with Columbia on similar items.
I manage a 12 person consulting firm specializing in prescriptive
implementation
methodologies for organizational transformation....I take on a few clients
myself.
I would be glad to help you, with no charge or hidden agenda.......simply
give
me a call at my office in Miami.
Doug Williams
Executive Vice President
The Paul Hertz Group
305-598-2601
The last comment by Mila Begun on Future Search conferences was quite
apt but I would like to add another possibility. The Search Conference
technology of the Emery's and Harry Trist is also very useful in this
regard. I am not doctrinaire and can see good in all of these approaches
but the Emery framework IMHO is very good. Fred Emery dies the other day
and his legacy is there in this very valuable methodology.
Good Luck!!
From:
76252.1476@CompuServe.COM (janice c. cohen hird)
To:
NProbst261@aol.com (INTERNET:
NProbst261@aol.com)
Hi Nancy,
My name is Janice Cohen and I'm an OD consultant living in New Hampshire.
How
much time do you have? Its important to be realistic about time frames when
you
involve employees. You want to avoid inviting them into a process that
requires
6 months and give them 2. That in itself is a statement of corporate values!
However, a design can be developed for whatever time you have as long as you
communicate the time limitations up front and set realistic goals. Numbers
involved in actually assessing and establishing values will be influenced by
time. Continuous communications with everyone can help develop the support
you
will need to make the value live. Once you have a process design, its
important
to do an assessment of current values. There are a variety of processes that
can be used for this. I than like to create an experience for employees (at
least those involved ) to assess their personal values. The shared values
-and
usually there are more alike than different - become the desired values for
the
organization, if our workplace is not going to be in conflict with ourselves.
You than have a what we want, where we are scenario. By recongizing the gap,
you
avoid the cynicism of establishing values that no one thinks the company can
or
will commit to. it also is good information for developing strategies to
move
toward the desired values.
Hope this helps!