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Suggest You - Creating Organizational Values
So you’ve just returned to your office from a successful meeting with a Realtor®. At the end of it they expressed optimism in your services, and told you some famous last words, “I’ll be sure to send you my next deal…”…a week goes by, no deal……two weeks go by, no deal……a month later, still no deal.To make things even more painful…you’re chatting with a title rep about business and they mention the agent’s name. You probe deeper and uncover that the agent has done 3 transactions in the past 30 days. Before we jump to conclusions, it’s possible they were the listing agent. Or they could have been the buyer’s agent, but the buyer came to them pre-approved. We just don’t know.You re-trace your steps backwards and look for clues. You’ve left messages regularly and had one or two quick, really quick conversations, more like, “Hi, how are you,” and that’s it kinda conversation. But nothing appears out of the ordinary. Why didn’t they send you a deal as promised?We may never know that answer, but we do know that in the process of initiating a relationship, you have to continue sending messages that deliver content.
The relationships that need to be analyzed include the following:
* Service-delivery personnel with the client group
* Service-delivery personnel with their supervisors
* Supervisors with Managers
* Managers with Executive
* Executive with CEO
* CEO with Board of Directors
When determining the expectations of each group, care must be taken to ensure that expectations are described in observable, measurable terms. This will eventually enable inclusion of the expectations in a performance evaluation system. Care must also be taken to robustly facilitate these group discussions to ensure that they remain factually focused, future focused and constructive. Initially, there may be some difficulties encountered regarding the airing of ‘dirty laundry’. Strong leadership and patience will be required to move through this portion of the process.
The exercises are carried out in a hierarchical fashion, i.e., beginning at the front line
When you are preparing for a presentation, you must keep in mind who exactly your audience is.If you are presenting to people who you already know, then you have an enormous advantage over someone who is going to face an audience they have never previously met.Your aim in giving a presentation is to give your audience something that they want, something that is important for them, something that is interesting to them, and something that is relevant to them.Clearly you cannot even hope to achieve these aims unless you have a good idea of who your audience is.So before you begin to formulate the content of your presentation, make detailed enquiries into the makeup of your audience. You need to know who they are, why they are listening to your presentation, what their previous knowledge of the topic is, what they intend to do with the ideas you will convey through your presentation, and what their expectations of you are.You need to know whether they are experts in the field, how much knowledge and jargon you can take for granted and how much background you will have to explain. You would feel better armed if you knew precisely what their opinions, prejudices,
Today more than ever, organizations have an overwhelming requirement to be founded upon strong Values, Ethics and Principles. This becomes even more critical for publicly funded organizations.
All too often, an organization can believe that it is founded upon a set of values that is known and understood by all its employees. When one scratches the surface, it soon becomes clear, however, that much of this ethical, principled foundation is not so well understood and in fact may only exist in the minds of those within the organization.
If one is to insist upon ethical conduct within the organization, such conduct can only be described and assessed against a backdrop of organizational values.
This, then, becomes the starting point for any organization in its efforts to strive for highly principled, ethical employees.
The Process
Moving any organization along the ethical continuum involves some well defined and meaningful processes; not necessarily significant in terms of cost or time but significant in terms of consistency in outcomes, attitudes, organizational commitment and organizational learning.
As the processes evolve, there are dynamic effects on participants in that they develop a sense of ownership or buy-in, and on the organization in that it created an opportunity to test the viability of existing beliefs, as well as form the basis for new, perhaps more responsive and reflective organizational principles.
It has been determined that a very viable methodology that can be employed is that of soliciting the views and opinions of a variety of people and groups in a focus group environment. The groups ought to include members of the following groups:
* Client groups
* Partners
* Community members
* Civilian oversight bodies
* Significant ethnic and/or cultural groups
* Education professionals
* Others
The Foundation
As previously stated, every effort toward moving an organization toward ethical excellence involves either defining, reconfirming or creating the foundation of values.
Frequently, organizations either make comment or at the very least tacitly imply that their people are their most valuable resource. This cannot be simply a catch phrase; indeed, it must be a demonstrable reality within the various levels of the organization.
If the Values of the organization are to be subscribed to by all members of the organization, there must be a process designed whereby the significant levels of the organization will have meaningful, observable input into the creation of the values.
One may be tempted to simply adopt a set of values that appears to fit. With a modest amount of research, the values of a variety of organizations can be obtained and adapted to the organization. Although this may appear to be more effective in the short term, in the longer term, this process has some inherent weakness, not the least of which is a total lack of buy-in and ownership throughout the organization.
A Typical Ethics Project - The Six-Week Plan
Steps:
1. Clarification of Project Charter
2. Collection of external data
3. Focus Group Activity Design
4. Focus Group Activity Testing
5. Focus Group Participant Identification
6. Focus Group Activities (on site)
7. Collation of Focus Group Results
8. Classification of Focus Group Results
9. Draft Values Document
10. Vetting Process – Up, down, across
11. Communications Plan Draft
12. Implementation Plan Draft
13. Implementation Plan Testing
14. Communications Plan Testing
15. Training Strategies
16. Communication, Implementation, Training
Best Practices Review
This entails reviewing information collected during a private sector search of corporate Best Practices.
External Data Collection
This entails amassing information available from sources other than the research mentioned above. This includes Internet search, literature search and other research sources.
Design Focus Group Exercises
This entails the creation of exercises to be utilized during the focus group discussions. The exercises will be designed to solicit information and/or personal views from participants relative to the services being provided, the appropriateness of these services, the clients’ priorities, other points of view, etc.
The intent is to make certain that numerous and varied points of view are solicited from a variety of sources, including stakeholders, clients and partners.
Focus Group Activities
These activities will entail providing the participants with information relating to values statements and other similar documents from the private and the public sectors. They will be asked to translate these values into a form that would be useful to the client organization.
Participants from client group and other stakeholders will be asked to provide the information and points of view relative to public expectations, community priorities, etc., that will be useful in determining the proper focus of the eventual deliverable.
The relationships that need to be analyzed include the following:
* Service-delivery personnel with the client group
* Service-delivery personnel with their supervisors
* Supervisors with Managers
* Managers with Executive
* Executive with CEO
* CEO with Board of Directors
When determining the expectations of each group, care must be taken to ensure that expectations are described in observable, measurable terms. This will eventually enable inclusion of the expectations in a performance evaluation system. Care must also be taken to robustly facilitate these group discussions to ensure that they remain factually focused, future focused and constructive. Initially, there may be some difficulties encountered regarding the airing of ‘dirty laundry’. Strong leadership and patience will be required to move through this portion of the process.
The exercises are carried out in a hierarchical fashion, i.e., beginning at the front line
The Client: New Deal Playing Card Company “Making the best of the hand you are dealt.”Several months ago I took a phone call from an executive at The New Deal Playing Card Company. Her husband had just invented, patented and launched a unique line of ergonomically correct playing cards designed to fit the natural curvature of the hand. The woman had come across a magazine article about another client of mine whose new product was receiving some widespread media exposure. “Can you do the same for us?” she inquired. We did and to our delight the campaign was even more successful than the other campaign she had initially inquired about.We researched and implemented a multi-faceted campaign of publicity and media exposure that quickly spread the news about New Deal Playing Cards through the media market. We generated dozens of features in media outlets nationwide including: every local print and TV medium in their market; large general circulation magazines like Men’s Health, Entrepreneur, Woman’s Day and Child, to name a few; National Public Radio; and several newspapers and TV news broadcasts.How Did We Do It? Diversified Publicity The key to a successful media campaign is
It has been determined that a very viable methodology that can be employed is that of soliciting the views and opinions of a variety of people and groups in a focus group environment. The groups ought to include members of the following groups:
* Client groups
* Partners
* Community members
* Civilian oversight bodies
* Significant ethnic and/or cultural groups
* Education professionals
* Others
The Foundation
As previously stated, every effort toward moving an organization toward ethical excellence involves either defining, reconfirming or creating the foundation of values.
Frequently, organizations either make comment or at the very least tacitly imply that their people are their most valuable resource. This cannot be simply a catch phrase; indeed, it must be a demonstrable reality within the various levels of the organization.
If the Values of the organization are to be subscribed to by all members of the organization, there must be a process designed whereby the significant levels of the organization will have meaningful, observable input into the creation of the values.
One may be tempted to simply adopt a set of values that appears to fit. With a modest amount of research, the values of a variety of organizations can be obtained and adapted to the organization. Although this may appear to be more effective in the short term, in the longer term, this process has some inherent weakness, not the least of which is a total lack of buy-in and ownership throughout the organization.
A Typical Ethics Project - The Six-Week Plan
Steps:
1. Clarification of Project Charter
2. Collection of external data
3. Focus Group Activity Design
4. Focus Group Activity Testing
5. Focus Group Participant Identification
6. Focus Group Activities (on site)
7. Collation of Focus Group Results
8. Classification of Focus Group Results
9. Draft Values Document
10. Vetting Process – Up, down, across
11. Communications Plan Draft
12. Implementation Plan Draft
13. Implementation Plan Testing
14. Communications Plan Testing
15. Training Strategies
16. Communication, Implementation, Training
Best Practices Review
This entails reviewing information collected during a private sector search of corporate Best Practices.
External Data Collection
This entails amassing information available from sources other than the research mentioned above. This includes Internet search, literature search and other research sources.
Design Focus Group Exercises
This entails the creation of exercises to be utilized during the focus group discussions. The exercises will be designed to solicit information and/or personal views from participants relative to the services being provided, the appropriateness of these services, the clients’ priorities, other points of view, etc.
The intent is to make certain that numerous and varied points of view are solicited from a variety of sources, including stakeholders, clients and partners.
Focus Group Activities
These activities will entail providing the participants with information relating to values statements and other similar documents from the private and the public sectors. They will be asked to translate these values into a form that would be useful to the client organization.
Participants from client group and other stakeholders will be asked to provide the information and points of view relative to public expectations, community priorities, etc., that will be useful in determining the proper focus of the eventual deliverable.
The relationships that need to be analyzed include the following:
* Service-delivery personnel with the client group
* Service-delivery personnel with their supervisors
* Supervisors with Managers
* Managers with Executive
* Executive with CEO
* CEO with Board of Directors
When determining the expectations of each group, care must be taken to ensure that expectations are described in observable, measurable terms. This will eventually enable inclusion of the expectations in a performance evaluation system. Care must also be taken to robustly facilitate these group discussions to ensure that they remain factually focused, future focused and constructive. Initially, there may be some difficulties encountered regarding the airing of ‘dirty laundry’. Strong leadership and patience will be required to move through this portion of the process.
The exercises are carried out in a hierarchical fashion, i.e., beginning at the front line
Does anybody recall the old cartoon in which the wolf and the sheepdog greet each other with "Mornin', Sam." and "Mornin, Ralph," punched a clock and spent the remainder of the show trying to destroy each other? Remember? The wolf attempts to steal the sheepdog's dumb, grazing, none-the-wiser, completely oblivious, sheep and, by the end, the pair pf adversaries "clock-out" and retire for the evening, their job's done until the next episode."Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy," (Isaiah 54:16). Just who IS that blacksmith - this "waster" who destroys - anyway? I contend that it is the devil, the enemy of our souls, God's lackey, a flunkey who continually shoots himself in the foot in his attempts to kill, steal and destroy the dumb, grazing sheep of God. He is our adversary (that's what "Satan" actually means) - like the leader of a terrorist network, he's bent on wreaking havoc upon those who love God. He is mighty...But God is ALMIGHTY!Allow me to explain:In the New Testament, on several occasions, we see the devil referred to with the term
One may be tempted to simply adopt a set of values that appears to fit. With a modest amount of research, the values of a variety of organizations can be obtained and adapted to the organization. Although this may appear to be more effective in the short term, in the longer term, this process has some inherent weakness, not the least of which is a total lack of buy-in and ownership throughout the organization.
A Typical Ethics Project - The Six-Week Plan
Steps:
1. Clarification of Project Charter
2. Collection of external data
3. Focus Group Activity Design
4. Focus Group Activity Testing
5. Focus Group Participant Identification
6. Focus Group Activities (on site)
7. Collation of Focus Group Results
8. Classification of Focus Group Results
9. Draft Values Document
10. Vetting Process – Up, down, across
11. Communications Plan Draft
12. Implementation Plan Draft
13. Implementation Plan Testing
14. Communications Plan Testing
15. Training Strategies
16. Communication, Implementation, Training
Best Practices Review
This entails reviewing information collected during a private sector search of corporate Best Practices.
External Data Collection
This entails amassing information available from sources other than the research mentioned above. This includes Internet search, literature search and other research sources.
Design Focus Group Exercises
This entails the creation of exercises to be utilized during the focus group discussions. The exercises will be designed to solicit information and/or personal views from participants relative to the services being provided, the appropriateness of these services, the clients’ priorities, other points of view, etc.
The intent is to make certain that numerous and varied points of view are solicited from a variety of sources, including stakeholders, clients and partners.
Focus Group Activities
These activities will entail providing the participants with information relating to values statements and other similar documents from the private and the public sectors. They will be asked to translate these values into a form that would be useful to the client organization.
Participants from client group and other stakeholders will be asked to provide the information and points of view relative to public expectations, community priorities, etc., that will be useful in determining the proper focus of the eventual deliverable.
The relationships that need to be analyzed include the following:
* Service-delivery personnel with the client group
* Service-delivery personnel with their supervisors
* Supervisors with Managers
* Managers with Executive
* Executive with CEO
* CEO with Board of Directors
When determining the expectations of each group, care must be taken to ensure that expectations are described in observable, measurable terms. This will eventually enable inclusion of the expectations in a performance evaluation system. Care must also be taken to robustly facilitate these group discussions to ensure that they remain factually focused, future focused and constructive. Initially, there may be some difficulties encountered regarding the airing of ‘dirty laundry’. Strong leadership and patience will be required to move through this portion of the process.
The exercises are carried out in a hierarchical fashion, i.e., beginning at the front line
While it is tempting to just leap into a new business because of it’s exciting possibilities, a few key planning points will vastly increase your chances of success. These steps aren’t difficult, but they’re easy to skip. Many businesses ultimately depend on a slim profit margin, so planning can really help the process. Too many restaurant patrons, for instance, assume that running a restaurant seems fun because of the many restaurants they have visited, but restaurants have an especially high failure rate.One of the key factors in planning a business model is simply researching the demand for your product. If you are great at making kitty blankets, for instance, it’s worth checking out to see if there is a market for it. The entrepreneur may find that there are three times as many potential customers for dog blankets, and by simply adding dogs to your marketing strategy, you will increase your sales four times over. This fact would be an important one to know before all the labels, website promotion, and branding was done with the words “Kitty” instead of “Pet”!Supply is worth researching, too. Keeping with the pet blanket approach, you may find that there are tons of di
Best Practices Review
This entails reviewing information collected during a private sector search of corporate Best Practices.
External Data Collection
This entails amassing information available from sources other than the research mentioned above. This includes Internet search, literature search and other research sources.
Design Focus Group Exercises
This entails the creation of exercises to be utilized during the focus group discussions. The exercises will be designed to solicit information and/or personal views from participants relative to the services being provided, the appropriateness of these services, the clients’ priorities, other points of view, etc.
The intent is to make certain that numerous and varied points of view are solicited from a variety of sources, including stakeholders, clients and partners.
Focus Group Activities
These activities will entail providing the participants with information relating to values statements and other similar documents from the private and the public sectors. They will be asked to translate these values into a form that would be useful to the client organization.
Participants from client group and other stakeholders will be asked to provide the information and points of view relative to public expectations, community priorities, etc., that will be useful in determining the proper focus of the eventual deliverable.
The relationships that need to be analyzed include the following:
* Service-delivery personnel with the client group
* Service-delivery personnel with their supervisors
* Supervisors with Managers
* Managers with Executive
* Executive with CEO
* CEO with Board of Directors
When determining the expectations of each group, care must be taken to ensure that expectations are described in observable, measurable terms. This will eventually enable inclusion of the expectations in a performance evaluation system. Care must also be taken to robustly facilitate these group discussions to ensure that they remain factually focused, future focused and constructive. Initially, there may be some difficulties encountered regarding the airing of ‘dirty laundry’. Strong leadership and patience will be required to move through this portion of the process.
The exercises are carried out in a hierarchical fashion, i.e., beginning at the front line
Tabletop panels are fundamentally rectangular pieces that are used for trade show displays. They come in different styles and sizes and make for efficient display modes in trade shows. Tabletop panels are of a compact size and this makes them easy to handle and can be shipped to the trade show location with the required graphics already in place. Often, briefcase style cases are also included for transportation. Due to the fact that panel displays are available in a wide and varied range of color schemes and design choices, you can have the option of coordinating your display to your exact requirements.You could choose to include a company's logo or any particular color scheme that is representative of the company. On an average table top trade show displays are known to be more durable when contrasted with the pop-up kinds of displays. However they do have a drawback that they are not as easy to assemble.Another interesting advantage of using a table top is that when you are cramped for space it can really come to your rescue. Table top trade show displays are particularly popular as they are not only small and light but are also extremely professional in their appearance. Table
The relationships that need to be analyzed include the following:
* Service-delivery personnel with the client group
* Service-delivery personnel with their supervisors
* Supervisors with Managers
* Managers with Executive
* Executive with CEO
* CEO with Board of Directors
When determining the expectations of each group, care must be taken to ensure that expectations are described in observable, measurable terms. This will eventually enable inclusion of the expectations in a performance evaluation system. Care must also be taken to robustly facilitate these group discussions to ensure that they remain factually focused, future focused and constructive. Initially, there may be some difficulties encountered regarding the airing of ‘dirty laundry’. Strong leadership and patience will be required to move through this portion of the process.
The exercises are carried out in a hierarchical fashion, i.e., beginning at the front line and moving in an ordered fashion up through the organization to the most senior level. The initial exercises must be thoroughly analyzed before the subsequent exercises are undertaken. The results of the initial exercises form the basis for subsequent discussions as the exercises move up through the organization. At each stage of the process, by-in and/or official agreement of the subject groups must be solicited and received before moving on.
Focus Group Information Analysis
This involves the collection, collation, analysis, interpretation, and summarizing of the information collected during the Focus Group Exercises.
Communications Strategy
This document is intended to act as a formal strategy for communicating the focus of the project. It is intended to supplement or augment the implementation plans. Senior Executive will be the sponsoring entity for the final Communications Strategy.
Implementation Strategy
This is intended to act as a step-by-step process for implementing the deliverables of the project. This will be tied hand in glove with the Communications Strategy. This portion of the project will lead the organization toward the Training Strategy and Evaluation Strategy.
Testing
This phase of the project involves testing the assumptions and/or analyses arrived at during the Focus Group Information Analysis phase. It will involve returning to the site of the Focus Group activities and discussing the resulting document with a portion of the original group. This phase moves the organization toward the buy-in required by all employees, clients and stakeholders.
Organizational Inoculation
Once the Organizational Values are defined, there must be methods devised that permit these values to be injected back into the organization and all of its employees at every opportunity. The Values must be reiterated at each and every opportunity, in various organizational documents, in recruiting and selection, training, promotion, succession planning, etc. Performance evaluation must also have values-based criteria in order to ensure that the adherence or subscription to the values is being observed, measured and valued.
Training Strategy
This is an open-ended, conceptual document that will be intended to stimulate discussion around the issues of information transfer within the organization. A hypothetical approach will be presented to the appropriate decision-making body for discussion and potential action.
Summary
Defining Organizational Values can and does set the tone for all operational and administrative efforts. It is only through a comprehensive analysis of a host of relationships, within and involving the subject organization, that a true picture of the appropriate values comes into focus.
There is much to be gained through active participation of clients and other stakeholders in these dynamic exercises. There is a great deal to be lost, however, if the results of the focus group activities are not taken seriously or if they are minimized or altered to any appreciable degree.
The result of all of this effort will be a Values Statement that is truly reflective of the clients’ expectations of the organization. It will also reflect the organizational culture that needs to be fostered to create an entity that is credible and trustworthy.
R.J. Fitches Inc. (705) 325-6164 Toll Free: 1-888-325-6164
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