John Woods responded to Jeff Petkevicius asking a question. I am impelled
to respond to both questions.
>Jeff Petkevicius asks:
>
>>If you were attending a four hour workshop on the subject of empowerment
>>and empowering workers in all levels of an organization, What would make
>>the workshop valuable to you?
Jonh Woods response in, in part
>I have a question in response to this one: Who is the workshop for? I
>hope it is for top management.
My preferences for a workshop would be for it to be one that immediately
empowers. The General Electric Company 'Workout' workshops are a prime
example. Senior managers and workers met with the express intent to take
meaninless or counterproductive work out of their business.
During these meetings anyone surfaced a problem, a solution was suggested
and someone was selected to implement the solution. After the meeting
that someone and a manager were expected to follow through until the
problem was eliminated.
What I like about this type of workshop is that the management is
committed to walk the talk before the workshop is scheduled. It
demonstrates right off the starting block that everyone is listened to and
everyone can make a difference.
Modeled after the General Electric 'Workout' process is what we are
calling a 'Town Meeting.' The concept is a meeting of all of the people
involved in the business process with the intent of improving the
performance of that process. The introductory paragraph describes the kind
of empowerment workshop in which I like to participate.
Begin quote from 'Town Meeting'
-----------------------------------------------------------
This monograph describes a process for implementing actions to improve the work
processes in any business situation meeting the following conditions.
1. The manager is willing to cede solution development and
implementation to the unit's workers.
2. The unit's workers are willing to take responsibility for the
solutions.
These conditions exist where the business unit is a community of people
who are open, mutually respect each other, and have the intent to be
successful in their work.
The process described is intended to help the business units conduct
collaborative meetings during which solutions to work problems are
accepted, plans to implement the solutions made, and to complete the plans
after the meetings. It is an end to end process from problem and solution
identification through to implementation of the solution and celebration
of the success.
End Quote
--A leader is best when people barely know he exists. Of a good leader, who talks little, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say, "We did this ourselves." "The Way" The Tao
Bill Hobler bhobler@worldnet.att.net
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>