Ben:
Near the end of your posting, you write.
"How do you measure performance in a knowledge-centered envronment? How do
you define quality? Is quality the speed of service? Or is the accuracy of
the service. Or is it both? How do you measure the accuracy of the
service? We tend to measure speed because it is much more quantifiable.
And quality, well, shit, that's just too hard to measure..... It's
difficult to understand how the ISO9000 standard applies to the work we
do. We have processes, but the efficiency with which people follow those
processes is totally dictated by their personal knowledge: the more they
know the faster they go, and the more accurate their
answers.....Consistent service? Only if everyone know the same thing, can
recall information at the same rate, and can create new knowledge at the
same pace. None of this is very likely.....I would be very interested in
talking to those of you who face similar issues."
Ben, I don't pretend to know answers to all of your questions nor is this
the place to explain all of what I believe I can contribute. But I hope to
offer enough to prompt a phone call from you to discuss your questions.
I believe that every one of your questions has something in common as part
of an answer for all of them. That something in common is a leader
(transformed supervisor)-partner (transformed subordinate) relationship.
For optimal success, organizations must have a well defined mission that
is understood and owned by all employees. It is rare, but it is just as
important for leaders and their partners to have a two person team mission
that supports the organization mission.
The team mission is the beginning point for both of them to identify the
kind of questions you pose. They have to: 1) share their personal missions
and figure out how they can mesh them with each other's and the team
mission, 2) define their expectations in response to the kinds of
questions for employee job responsibilities and leader's support
responsibities, 3) agree on how to quantify and measure the performance of
each expectation and put it in writing, and 4) regularly review thier own
and each other's actual performance compared to their agreed upon
responsibility achievement goals to decide which responsibilities to
concentrate on for improvement. This is the foundation of continuous
improvement and the source of guidance for deciding on what learning each
person needs to be a contributor in learning organizations.
I believe that the only place your questions can be answered is within
individual leader-partner teams. It's the place where there is the most
understanding of what the specific questions are. It's the natural place
(relationship) for discussing and answering the questions. It's the place
where the kind and quantity of support are the most clear and aviailable
to optimize employees learning how and accomplishing job responsibility
espectations.
So the message here is that the questions you pose will have different
answers for every employee and every circumstance. The broader question is
how do organizations transform supervisors into leaders and subordinates
into partners so they can have win-win team relationships in which they
can and will continually discover and discuss the kind of questions you
pose and work as a team to answer them.
I have a six page "Overview" of a nineteen module program that
accomplishes that kind of transformation and team relationships. It's in
WP5.1, WP6.0 for Windows, Microsoft Word, and Macintosh formats. Let me
know if you would like to review this "Overview" and I will attach a copy
of it in an email for you. PLEASE NOTE YOUR FORMAT PREFERENCE.
I would very much like to discuss your questions with you on the phone. My
guess is that such a conversation will be more fruitful quicker if you
have reviewed the "Overview" first but please don't hesitate to call any
time.
Duke Nielsen, President, Performance Systems 303-795-1660
Dukington@aol.com
--Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>