20. “REWIRE Your Organization” means:
Re-imagine the connections in your
organization with respect to core business
functions.
Recruiting
Education
Workforce Management
Innovation
Risk Management
Engagement
G’Day. My name is Lee White. My company is Decision 3D. I am here today to talk about how the connections that exist within your organization have a direct impact on your organization’s performance. Also, I am going to show you an approach to start optimizing those connections in order to improve performance.
Communication and information sharing is the process by which knowledge, experience and opinion is passed from one person to another. It is also...
...about connections and relationships. Which means that the process of communication and information sharing cannot be separated from the environment in which it exists.
(Pause)
Any thoughts, comments or questions?
Has anyone ever worked for this guy?
Was collaboration possible in this environment?
Were you very productive?
Did the organization benefit from this kind of behavior?
Have you ever had a great working relationship with a coworker?
Was collaboration easy?
Were you productive?
Did the organization benefit?
Effective communication and information sharing supports collaboration.
To build a collaborative environment, you need to improve the connections that constitute your communication and information sharing capabilities.
(Pause)
Any thoughts, comments or questions?
OK, so where do we start?
There are also some new tools that are showing promise. These tools go by many names. I will refer to them collectively as social technology.
But should this be the first step?
You must keep in mind that these are just tools.
Without an idea of what you want to accomplish, you have no ability to select the correct tool.
Another factor to consider is culture. Are the attitudes and behaviors within your organization conducive to supporting collaboration?
If you don’t deal with some old school attitudes no collaboration tool will be effective.
Without a clear picture of what you want to accomplish, no effort to create a collaborative environment will be successful.
So to create a collaborative environment...
your infrastructure
your behavior
your attitudes
your culture
and your organizational objectives
must work together.
(Pause)
Any thoughts, comments or questions at this point?
Where do you go from here? What does it look like in practice?
Rewire also has a second meaning.
Let’s look at these specific functions from the perspective of how communications and information sharing support collaboration and lead to desired outcomes.
If you have a workplace that values input from all employees, rewards collaboration, and where management decisions are transparent, people will want to work there. If you can attract the best, productivity goes up and costs go down.
The best training you can get is when it is real time, where you need it, without a lot of trouble. In a collaborative environment, everyone shares in the training and benefits from the learning opportunities.
When you know, who knows what, in your organization you have access to a huge amount of knowledge and expertise that is readily available. This is an invaluable asset.
When people that think differently, collaborate and think together, the outcome is unique and often better than traditional solutions.
A significant portion of the work done (and expense incurred) in any organization is going back and fixing problems found too late. Project transparency allows more eyes to see the work and increases the odds of catching problems early.
When all corners of the organization are collaborating, employees feel connected and part of something bigger. Employees that are engaged will put extra effort into the job. Ultimately this will translate into better products, service and customer perception.
So to put it all together, when you design your tools and process appropriately
focus on the operations that drive the business
you will optimize the connections in your organization
and through collaboration, deliver the results you are looking for.