Organizational Excellence
The following is a statement about organizational excellence by Clyde E. Gumbs:
All over the world, organizations purport to be seeking the key to producing excellence
in fulfilling their missions; however most find that they are reacting to the crisis of the moment, and fighting what seems
to be a heroic and seemingly losing battle to:
·
Motivate their workforces
·
Satisfy those they seek to
serve
·
Operate within their existing
financial constraints
Unfortunately, this situation, in most cases, has led to organizational cultures
of resignation, inauthenticity, uninspired “doing”, underperformance, costly turnover, and constant efforts to
avoid personal responsibility for the shortcomings associated with the existing environment.
Furthermore, there have been those who have attempted to compensate for lack of excellence by engaging in a variety
of forms of unethical and perhaps even illegal behavior.
Although there are many complex and well-regarded models for impacting organizational and workforce performance, I
believe that it is most effective to approach these issues in simple and pragmatic terms. I
assert that for organizational and workforce excellence to exist, inspiration, adequate training and adequate support must
be present. Organizational and workforce excellence will not occur, if
any of these three elements is not present. Accordingly, there are three
questions to be asked when evaluating the source of the failure to achieve organizational and workforce excellence.
The first question to ask is, “Are the managers and other employees inspired to fulfill on the organization’s
mission, vision, goals and objectives.” This is the first question to be
asked because the results of any attempt to develop and implement appropriate training and support will be disappointing in
an uninspired environment. Furthermore, until managers and employees are inspired
to participate, it is generally not entirely clear what the appropriate training and support should be.
The second question to ask is: “Do all employees have the requisite training to fulfill upon the
organization’s mission, vision, goals and objectives. No matter how
inspired employees may be, they can only perform at a level consistent with their training.
The third question to ask is: “Are all employees receiving the support required to fulfill on the
organization’s mission, vision, goals and objectives. Inspired, well-trained
employees will not be inspired for long if they are not receiving adequate support.
The answers to these three simple questions can serve as a basis to intervene effectively to impact performance in dramatic ways.
Most managers can readily accept the premise that inspiration, adequate training
and adequate support are critical elements of organizational and workforce excellence. These managers can also imagine that
it is possible to develop good training and support programs; however they are generally at a loss for how to inspire their
employees over extended periods of time; particularly those who are paid relatively low wages or salaries and those performing
repetitive, seemingly tedious, and/or relatively menial tasks.
Despite their roles or responsibilities, human beings who see themselves as the fulfillment
of an inspired and inspiring vision are generally excited and inspired to be who they need to be and do what they need to
do to see that vision fulfilled. The key is to be able to create an organization
that relates to itself as an inspired team of people instead of a collection of people merely doing something potentially
useful together. There is little similarity between a collection of people
merely doing something useful together and an inspired team that is:
·
Comprised of
team members, aligned to fulfill an inspired and inspiring vision
·
Turned on about
what the team will be known for and will have accomplished
·
Turned on about
the thrill of participating effectively in that inspired team
Sustainable organizational excellence is possible solely for those organizations with members inspired to: be excellent,
produce excellence and honor excellence whenever and wherever it occurs. This
requires transformation not merely externally induced, temporary and unsustainable motivation.
