Saturday, March 08, 2008

Thank God It's Monday!

More often than not, when a large CHANGE is planned in an organization, there is an exodus of people!

"During Organizational Change (read downsizing, re-engineering, merger, and so on)", Kenneth Cloke and Goldsmith asked, "Why is the human side of the change process THE LAST ELEMENT... thought out?

And, they came up with 14 Values "We Need to Humanize the Way We Work" in their book Thank God It's Monday!

They believe that these fourteen values will humanize organizations, empower workers, reduce conflict and increase employee satisfaction. A snapshot:
  1. INCLUSION - involve everyone in the process
  2. COLLABORATION - work together for consensus, not compromise
  3. TEAMS and NETWORKS - small work teams
  4. VISION - toward something better and worthwhile
  5. CELEBRATION of DIVERSITY - diversity valued as a source of richness, vitality and strength
  6. PROCESS AWARENESS - the value of process (listening, ability to work with others, ...) more then technical ability
  7. OPEN and HONEST COMMUNICATION - and how destructive poor information sharing can be to an organization's health
  8. RISK TAKING- and the need to trust those we work with
  9. INDIVIDUAL and TEAM OWNERSHIP of RESULTS
  10. PARADOXICAL PROBLEM SOLVING - willingness to solve problems with outside the box solutions that are not necessarily consistent with popular notions of the problem
  11. EVERYONE is a LEADER - shift from a leader to everyone playing a role in decision making
  12. PERSONAL GROWTH SATISFACTION - seek to make work personally and emotionally rewarding for employees
  13. SEE CONFLICT as an OPPORTUNITY - the positive value of conflict
  14. EMBRACE CHANGE
Whether or not you are embroiled in a CHANGE, it could be good idea to send this list to your CEO!