|
[ Return to Library index ]
Organisational Culture
Workplace Stress and Burnout:
Organisational strategies for reducing its impact
The failure to sufficiently investigate and address the problem of workplace-generated stress produces an energy-sapping, performance-limiting state of mind afflicting people who are otherwise committed to acting responsibly on behalf of those they serve and support. As the pace and demands of work increase, this problem - already at epidemic proportions - is becoming seen as inevitable and unavoidable. Maybe, maybe not. What ought you do about it?
 Download the full article »
Leading & Developing Organisational Culture
PART 1: The Way Things Are Round Here
Whatever honourable ideals an organisation claims to hold remain unrealised until individual and collective behaviours are aligned with them. Culture change begins by changing behaviours, not with cleverly-contrived Power-Point presentations, new logos and themes, or catchy one-liners. People have heard it all before. They're used to all kinds of failed exhortations to fire-up the workforce. This article outlines the most common problems with conventional “culture change” initiatives.
Download the full article »
Leading & Developing Organisational Culture
PART 2: Communicating Clarity & Behaviour Change
This discussion continues, with practical “Start Here” steps towards a radically different approach.
Download the full article »
Enhancing Performance of Community and Not-for-Profit Groups
Community or not-for-profit groups are often full-time or part-time workplaces. Commonly, their potential far exceeds actual performance, a challenge often regarded as inevitable and therefore rarely addressed. While it may be predictably normal, much of the waste is needless and preventable. Three articles address these issues, with much relevance to workplace groups elsewhere:
The Challenge »
A Generic Diagnosis »
A Generic Prescription »
Mergers: Fusion or Confusion
A merger-in-progress of two large service groups is struggling to achieve its intentions. What's happening has many lessons for everyday leadership, management and self-management practices, beginning with this: Well-honed, generic personal and group management operating systems can provide clarity where there is confusion, and procedural certainty when we don't know what the heck we should do next. When there is no map, they can serve as a reliable compass. Sadly, some leaders operate with neither map nor compass.
Download the full article »
Planning and Managing Improvement Initiatives
Before launching an improvement initiative, work with your colleagues to identify the underlying assumptions you hold about continuous improvement. It's an uncommon approach, but one that can significantly limit the number of initiatives that end up in the organisational swamp. I've constructed a list of useful generic assumptions for this purpose, to help you start the process. In this article I also discuss other often-overlooked considerations for saving time and heartache with improvement (change) projects.
Download the full article »
Consequences of Conventional Power & Control Arrangements
While much can be accomplished under the conventional arrangement of organisational control and administration, it has largely inevitable limitations. Achievements come at a high cost to the people subject to them. Further difficulties arise from vacillating wildly between two polar extremes, Oppressive Autocracy and Messy Democracy, a characteristic of many leaders, groups and organisational systems. We do well to understand why and how the system itself creates problems and where to begin making the improvements that are possible.
Download the full article »
Optimising Organisation Surveys
Conducting an organisation-wide survey aimed at establishing workplace reference-points, is like having a very significant conversation. As with any discussion, our intentions and the way we go about realising them can significantly affect how it turns out. Here are some questions worth considering before proceeding with a survey, to check that you're intending to have the right conversation about the right issues in the right way, to produce useful results.
Download the full article »
Learning from Change Initiatives
Organisational change initiatives led and managed well, inspire the commitment of those who are subject to change, and help reduce stress usually associated with unwelcome change. But very many change initiatives are led and managed improvisationally, by re-inventing the wheel each time. The organisational memory of constructive change process is lost because it's not methodically passed on or held in readily-accessible resources. Here's an approach to reversing that trend.
Download the full article »
Intelligent Support or Ain’t it Awful!
They can form anywhere at any time at all levels of seniority, no matter what the group's original purpose for meeting. The predominant theme is consensus that we could be more successful, happy and achieving if it wasn't for those appalling SOB's and pathetic individuals who get in our way. Wherever Ain't it Awful groups exist you can be confident that certain things are going on in the lives of their members and certain conditions are present in their organisations.
Download the full article »
All material on this site is © 2007 Tom Watkins.
|
Do you need the information on this topic? Identify the