Business Symptoms
At Choice Awareness Management, we have recorded some systemic business symptoms, which have shown-up during some of our consulting projects. We place them here for you to gain some initial understanding of the impact to your organization.
Top Observed Symptoms
Clear Purpose/Existence statements are either absent and under articulated throughout the business, units, departments, and individuals. For those statements defined, there is little current reliance upon them because they no longer apply in real situations. These wall sticker statements, performance plans, and evaluations are ineffective substitutes while becoming bankrupt over time.
Active choices system supporting purpose/existence statements are unaligned with an uneven commitment of people resulting in loss of high enrollment participation.
Primary business processes operate against the belief system. Many critical and highly visible processes lack integration (i.e., Formal vs. informal, automated vs. manual, etc.).
There are inconsistencies prevalent throughout essential business processes from planning, through implementation and execution.
Faulty communications occur within/among internal and external stakeholders because the language supporting the stakeholder choices system does not match the overall company choices system. Individual choices prevail and override, especially during perceived stress and crisis conditions when challenges/issues/problems arise.
Problem resolutions and process adaptations are not pegged to systemic choices system and therefore, ineffectively adjusted.
Unpredictable outcomes prevail with inconsistent measures for tracking and reporting excellence.
Team and Individual heroics characterize success and are not scalable because of subsequent problems.
Language and behaviors which operate outside of the belief system undermine productivity, demoralize people, and thwart success.
(Wisdom Sidebar): When reading the items above, ask yourself:
Is it possible that any of these conditions occur within my organization?
How were you able to notice it happening?
How many people in your group recognize these conditions beside you?
Have they ever brought them to your attention?
What does it mean to your productivity, the morale of your people and your customers and clients?
What would your vendors say about you?
More Questions
Do you concur that people are the primary assets of your business? If so, then what kinds of actions, words, and processes would you need to put into place to allow your people and other stakeholders to prosper and contribute at high levels of participation?
For each business symptom, turn it into a question by beginning each sentence with:
Which or How come our
Then ask yourself, your employees, and other stakeholders.
Be prepared to be open for new ideas with their feedback - you may be pleasantly surprised with what shows up.
Additional Considerations
We further recommend reading the “Rise of the Caring Industry” (e.g. Hoover Institute Stanford University, Policy Review #161. The central issue is the level of unhappiness and loneliness experienced by individuals in our culture. Ponder what has occurred in our society these past fifty years. We bet that you will notice similarities in the manner and ways in which people communicate inside your stakeholder groups.
