Teams and Organizations

Work organizations are very complex social entities.

They are what we choose to make them.

You want to increase the quality of your own organization

You want to increase your Team or Group's IQ level

You want to improve your competitiveness

Consider the many aspects that interrelate and evolve together in an organization. Changes in any one of these environments affects the others. Here is the internal view:

internal influences on organizations
Diagram: Don Hellriegel, John W. Slocum, Jr and Richard W. Woodman, Organizational Behavior, Eighth edition

Here is the external view:

external influences on organizations
Diagram from Mullins: Management and Organisational Behaviour, 7th edition

My work addresses the part of the iceberg under the water. The culture. The stuff many people have traditionally seen as non-quantifiable and not really important.

Stewart Clegg, an organization theorist, says that the givens of organizations are ambiguity, uncertainty, imperfection and paradox. He says that all organizations have the following imperatives or recurring problems that they need to address:

  • articulating mission, goals, strategies and main functions
  • arranging functional alignments
  • identifying mechanisms of coordination and control
  • constituting accountability and communication
  • relating rewards and performance
  • achieving effective leadership

Doing business in a globalizing world is challenging. Your bookkeeping or accounting is probably being handled by a specialist so you’re fine there. But your enterprise is not just about the economic bottom line. Peter Drucker says that "to emphasize only profit...misdirects managers to the point where they may endanger the survival of the business. To obtain profit today they tend to undermine the future … To manage a business is to balance a variety of needs and goals..." The Practice of Management (1999)

W. Edwards Deming says the idea that "if you can't measure it, you can't manage it" - is wrong. More here.

A need that has been under-appreciated for too long is that of the internal customer. Its importance is increasing. Keen managers are addressing it.

Financials aside, you need a fresh approach and perspective.

The internal customer – your employee
Internal marketing (IM) is an ongoing process that happens inside a company whereby the functional process aligns, motivates and empowers employees at all levels to consistently deliver a satisfying customer experience.

There are many reasons to consider your employees today. Here’s one: "71% of the workforce is either under performing or actively undermining their work:

  • Engaged employees – 28 % only
  • Not-engaged employees – 54%
  • Actively Disengaged – 17%

"[W]hen dollars and cents are tallied, the cost of disengagement is severe. Using very conservative estimates, our study shows that on average, the lost productivity cost of active disengagement represents a full $3,400 per $10,000 of salary."... "if the salary is $50,000, the cost is $17,000, and so on..." These numbers are from the Gallup Organization and the book Follow this Path. See also the outline of the Q12 for work organizations.

Bottom line: disengagement is expensive and engagement is profitable. See also, "only 2 of 11 care".

Lack of engagement usually exists because employees need a clearer understanding of their own unique energies and preferences for how they approach their work. This might seem like a small thing but lack of critical knowledge here will negatively affect individual performance and teams. Addressing it, will improve competitiveness....

To reveal underlying energies at the individual and team level, I use one of the most powerful tools on the market today called 5 Dynamics. Its reporting is extremely accurate because it relies on neurologically inclined preferences at the individual level. It bypasses the personality and measures individual and team energies. "In the 20th century, we taught people how to manage personalities. In the 21st century, we need to teach people how to manage process". Center for Creative Leadership.

The individual is still the starting point for synergizing, effective, networking teams. Drucker again: "Success in the knowledge economy comes to those who know themselves — their strengths, their values and how they best perform."

Competing on price is old school

Today most every product or service is commoditized.Your only real competitive edge today is your relationships with your employees and their relationship together as a working team.

The competition can't steal an empowering culture and relationship.

You have control here. Invest here.

In my team building workshops I bring together a 21st century business development tool with a unique and well researched perspective on how to enhance teams in your business.

After the workshop, you and your employees will communicate and contribute more effectively. The result will be an improved financial bottom line, increased productivity, happy and more satisfied customers - beginning with the internal ones - then the external ones.

Do you know the most important fact about business today?

Contact me for a free consultation on how to increase your Team IQ