A JOURNEY TO CULTURE (2)
Posted on October 31, 2008 - Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Given how difficult it sometimes seems to quantify the results of attempting to govern through cultural change, some might be tempted to say that Methodist’s initiative was a leap of faith. Even Tom Daugherty, who directed the initiative, admitted skepticism. “You can’t always identify a clear line of sight between cultural change and operational performance,” [...]
Read More..>>Corporate Awards
Posted on October 30, 2008 - Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Abraham Harold Maslow, a late American psychologist, is noted for his “hierarchy of human needs” concept. He stated that human have five level of hierarchical needs, which, start from the lowest, are: physiological (such as breathing, food, water, sex, sleep, homeostasis, and excretion), safety (security of body, of employment, of resources, of morality, of the [...]
Read More..>>A JOURNEY TO CULTURE
Posted on October 30, 2008 - Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
How does a culture become more self-governing? Methodist Hospital System in Houston tackled that challenge in a very systematic way. In 1998, the board came to the conclusion that the nonprofit hospital chain had become too much like a for-profit enterprise, managing to the bottom line, and had lost touch with its values-based roots. To [...]
Read More..>>VALUES IN ACTION
Posted on October 29, 2008 - Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Values-based self-governance begins, of course, with values, a clearly articulated set of principles that define the nature and purpose of an organization in human terms. At GE/Durham, they use the phrase “Guiding Principles,” and it titles a document they consider their constitution. 20 In it, they articulate values of diversity and respect, a commitment to [...]
Read More..>>CLOSING GAPS
Posted on October 28, 2008 - Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Streamlining authority and putting information and decision making in the hands of those closest to the challenge make a team nimble and responsive, two qualities critical to thriving in a fast-moving market. More than front-loading decision making, however, self-governance holds the key to the next great leap in corporate efficiency: It closes the gap between [...]
Read More..>>TAKING CULTURE FOR A TEST-DRIVE (2)
Posted on October 27, 2008 - Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Everything about Sewell culture reinforces its three basic “spirits,” and they celebrate them every chance they get. “We tell lots of stories here,” Joe says, stating what has already become obvious to me in the course of our conversation. One of their favorites involves a technician who had recently been hired from one of their [...]
Read More..>>E-File Federal and State Tax Returns
Posted on October 26, 2008 - Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Do you receive income from wages, salary, tips, interest, unemployment compensation, state or local tax refunds, or social security benefits? If yes, that means you need a new way to file your tax returns with the IRS in a more accurate and faster process to refunds than if you send your tax return via US [...]
Read More..>>TAKING CULTURE FOR A TEST-DRIVE
Posted on October 26, 2008 - Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Joe Stallard is the vice president of human resources at Sewell Automotive Companies, which has become one of the largest family-owned car dealerships in the United States in large part because Sewell does culture. The 1,500 people who work at Sewell sell and service new and used vehicles, and their success depends on not only [...]
Read More..>>FREEDOM IS JUST ANOTHER WORD
Posted on October 25, 2008 - Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
When most people first think of self-governance in the abstract, it seems all well and good. But when they think about it concretely, fear creeps in. How can an organization function, they ask, when workers are free
to do what they want?
But what is freedom? Some people think that freedom is an absence of constraint. “If [...]
SELF-GOVERNANCE ON THE SHOP FLOOR
Posted on October 24, 2008 - Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
We have three compelling reasons to embrace the idea of governing through culture: We can, we must, and we should do so.
We Can
The evolution in transparency and communication, the breakdown of the fortress, and everything else we have discussed about the new conditions in the twenty-first century enable us to see and affect culture on [...]
