Organizational Energy vs Cultural Rigidity

Organizational Energy vs Cultural Rigidity
November 18, 2015
Mayflower Hotel
Michael Farbstein, Feith Systems

Organizational energy – the extent to which an organization (team) has mobilized its emotional, cognitive and behavioral potential to pursue goals.

Where does it come from?  From each of these factors – and they can be good or bad.  Depending upon how the company/agency is doing – there will be good or bad energy.

1. Corporate goals – are they good? Looking ahead?  Is there buy-in?
2. Organizational structure – is it a flat or a hierarchical organization?
3.  Acquisitions – is the company growing or is it being acquired?
4. Financial Statements – is business in the black or in the red?  What are projections?
5. Stock Prices – is the price of shares staying steady, rising or falling?
6. Regulatory Oversight – is the company under scrutiny?
7. Product Development – are you developing new products or lines of business?
8. Public recognition – is the staff rewarded and promoted publicly?
9. Change – has there been a lot of change?  Is the company stagnant?
10. Technology – is the company keeping up with technology or falling behind?

Cultural Rigidity –

1.     Employee turnover
2.     IT projects (success vs failure)
3.    Organization chart
4.    Employee mobility
5.    Number of policies
6.    Financial Stability
7.    Incentives required to change
8.    Product and service offerings stability
9.    Technology

Business Process Management (BPM) –

Effective BPM solutions promote structure and are fluid.  BPM respects Rules, Roles and Time while increasing OE until the work process becomes stagnant (and it will) resulting in personnel rigidness.  Organizations need to constantly change to serve their audience and meet shifting organizational goals.  BPM solutions adapt through evolution, not revolution. 

Structure doesn’t cause Rigidity; Stagnation causes Rigidity.

When energy is high, rigidity is low.  When energy is low, staff is rigid.

Look at the energy cycle – don’t introduce new technology when energy is low – people will be resistant to any imposed changes.

How do you predict implementation success?

Measure variables (Feith has four 15 question surveys)

Factors:

• Energy level of the organization
• Workers’ degree of rigidity
• Individual’s work satisfaction
• Nature of the technology

Other highlights from the day:

Workers spend 20% of their time finding the correct information.  (That’s one day per week!)

86% of organizations cannot deliver their information efficiently.

We have a records identification dilemma – the lion’s share of RM is categorization.  Once you identify the categories, the rest falls into place.

Business Process Management (BPM) – it is run by the rules.  How long does it take to get through the process?  Most system software only tracks the path – not the timeline or what happens when things don’t move along in a timely manner.

BPM takes the informal knowledge of the worker and elevates it to enhance the organization and it becomes structural knowledge.

Generally, no single person knows every step of the process.