Your company has a clear organizational mission and vision. If you are lucky, the mission and vision can be differentiated from that of other organizations (e.g., “We want to be the premiere…”). Values are espoused and drive organizational behavior. So, how do you take the organizational vision and roll it down to your department or team? How do you ensure that your team’s efforts align with that of the overall organization?
Accountability Defined
Author: Paul Dillenburg, Date: 12/7/2010Interested in finding out if your organization struggles with accountability? Pose this question from the book Influencer (Patterson et al) to your co-workers, “What does it take to get fired around here?” If the responses you hear are not performance-related, then what are employees telling you they are accountable for? What examples are given? Are the responses consistent with the mission, vision, and values of your organization? What are employees rewarded for or punished for? What message does a lack of punishment send to poor performers or those that violate the mission and values of your organization?
Your Stories, Your Culture
Author: Paul Dillenburg, Date: 9/21/2010In the course of our work, we are asked to assess organizational culture. Common areas we focus on in our assessment of the organization are the elements of culture. While there are a number of elements, one I’ve found particularly interesting is organizational stories. Stories are defined as the written or spoken accounts that take a variety of forms including legends, myths, and sagas. These may be “official” accounts or “unwritten rules” about what it is like to work at the organization. They are the “physical” descriptions of culture that are passed from employee to employee that help define what the organization is all about. To help define what it means to work in your organization, think about the following:
