Workshops
Module I – It’s All About Work; Organizing Your Company To Get Work Done
Workplace organizations exist first and foremost “to get work done,” that’s what organizational structure is all about. This one day workshop goes beyond the principles outlined in the book, and presents frequently overlooked organizational design principles -- principles that address problems and challenges of today’s organizational structures. Armed with the principles and practical examples presented in this class, participants will be positioned to …
- Analyze and evaluate the health of their organization’s current structure
- Identify potential organizational pathologies
- Recommend or implement new solution sets to alleviate existing organizational problems
- Foster employee satisfaction in the workplace by altering organizational structure, that is, redefining authorities and accountabilities
- Gain valuable insight into organizational working relationships that will increase productivity and effectiveness
- Redesign their organization to be both efficient and effective
- Organize their company to get work done!
Each section will feature a Q&A session with the author aimed specifically at implementation challenges they may encounter.
Module II - Designing Effective Working Relationships
Role relationships describe how people work together in any organizational setting. Some roles require a form of working relationship with individuals within their own organizational element, e.g., manager-subordinate, project team leader, shift supervisor, etc. Other roles contain specific accountabilities and tasks that an individual role incumbent simply cannot accomplish by himself/herself, e.g., dotted line reporting, collaboration, co-manager, etc. Regardless of type, these working relationships contain the volatile ingredients of interacting accountabilities and authorities.
In the absence of specification, individuals are free to make their own rules about what they can and cannot do in relation to one another. Some people may procrastinate while others throw their weight around. This may create an environment or culture of unease and vague suspicion, which can grow into downright mistrust. This has encouraged an unrealistic behavioral approach to organization, in which conflict and inefficiency are explained in terms of the motives and personalities of the individuals concerned. Consequently, organizational development is often perceived in terms of quasi-psychotherapeutic approaches designed to change the attitudes and behaviors of individuals and how they cope with authority, power and conflict. The solution is not to attempt to “fix” individual personalities, e.g., to practice psycho-therapy; but rather to establish the required accountability and authority context for all roles and working relationships throughout the organization.
“Designing Effective Working Relationships” presents a roadmap to clearly define the nature of accountability and authority between roles, both horizontal and vertical. The course lays out a set of seven clearly defined types of working relationships. Participants will be positioned to…
- Analyze and evaluate the health of your organization’s working relationships
- Establish minimum accountabilities and authorities of a manager
- Identify and clearly define diagonal and horizontal working relationships
- Implement the seven different accountability and authority definitions
- Reduce or remove your manager’s role in diffusing “ personality clashes”
- Dramatically increase the effectiveness of cross functional teams
- Reduce the “influence of personality” from working relationships
- Clearly establish “who can tell who to do what” for specified tasks
Module III - Designing A Talent Pool Management System and Assessing The Capacity and Capability Of Your Personnel
Module IV – Leadership – Bringing All The Organization Together
Education Services
Elliott Jaques was one of the premier educators in the world. He understood the impact of education in our society and its role in developing an effective organizational structure that allows people to work to their full individual capacity. We’ve taken his principles and adapted them to today’s world. One of our significant findings is that if you don’t first educate your workforce in a theory of organizational science they will individually apply their own personal theories. The ensuing lack of a cohesive and agreed upon set of management principles makes change management virtually impossible. The objective is to institutionalize a proven set of design principles so as to get internal ownership of these principles. This ownership, in turn, allows the organization to systematically apply and/or modify the principles to best meet their changing needs. Education also sets the stage for development of a proper system of governance.