Mary Apodaca posed a question:
> "It is traditional wisdom in the business world that a coporation is only
> as good as the people it employs."
>
> How would you react to this statement--in writing, that is?
I would not put such a statement in writing because it sounds like blaming
the troops for management errors. IMO the statement should be that the
company will only be as good as the sum of the quantity and the quality of
each working person's output of products to external customers and that
quality and quantity are a function of how well employees are supported in
terms of tools, materials, parts, policies, leadership, discipline,
planning, procedures, training, documentation, peace of mind, direction
and the like.
Support is provided by supervisors, managers and executives and therefore
it is they who will dictate how good the company is in the long run. The
choice as to good and how good or bad and how bad is one which is made by
the bosses. If the tools provided are only half as good as the best tools,
the employees quality and/or quantity of output has been capped at one
half. Unfortunately, employees see the poor tool as an example of the
acceptable quality standard and use that standard of quality in performing
work. So a company takes a double hit from a poor tool, the leadership
side of the equation.
Another key bit of understanding is that the working level is the best
judge of support and if given the chance will make known every deficiency
so that bosses can make support superior to all. If bosses devote
themselves to this corrective process, the company will become far better
than most, far better than good under any measure of quality,
productivity, creativity, teamwork and just plain loving to come to work.
What's more, there are a set of "how tos" by which to carry out this
strategy and I stand witness to their great power.
Regards, Joan
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Joan Pomo The Finest Tools for Managing People
Simonton Associates Based on the book
jpomo@gate.net "How to Unleash the Power of People"
--"jpomo@gate.net" <jpomo@gate.net>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>