A Process is a Process - NOT! LO15089

Richard C. Holloway (learnshops@thresholds.com)
Tue, 23 Sep 1997 00:09:07 -0700

Replying to LO15083 --

Eugene Taurman wrote:

> Your note sounds like many of companies. I want to reinforce a point you
> made. What management rewards is of extreme importance far more important
> than how we reward. Your company rewarded for following a process. It is
> most important to reward results and they must be the right results.
> Rewarding the wrong behavior and wrong results will kill a company..
>
> If management does not know what results are important to the business and
> then measures those then will get whatever. Management's decision about
> what to measure ranks at the very top of the list of management's
> responsibilities. Your management abdicated that one. Which is also fairly
> normal. Many managers do not even include this in their list of self
> expectations.

Your points are well made, Eugene.
I would add only that
the fundamental information concerns purpose.
Purpose should drive benchmarking,
measuring, and rewarding.
Purpose is the overarching end,
toward which our goals should be moving us.
Process, structure and patterns fold outwardly
from the unifying theme of organizational purpose.
When this is lost, so is everything else.
Sometimes measurers attempt
to quantify irrelevant objects. Purpose
fades into an empty gesture
of measurements. My mind's
eye focuses on terrible examples
of this phenomenon. Rewards go
to those who meet the goals
set by those who measure and reward.
A reinforcing cycle begins.
The organization falters.
Almost all is lost at this point.

This cycle occurs in relationships, sciences, education, religion,
warfare, manufacturing, sales, human services, government, the arts.

regards,

Doc

-- 
"The surest way to corrupt youth is to instruct him to hold in higher
esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."
		-Friedrich Nietzsche


LearnShops: cost-effective, timely, tailored to support your strategic
needs.


Richard C. "Doc" Holloway  Visit me at <http://www.thresholds.com/>
Or e-mail me at <mailto:learnshops@thresholds.com>
Mailing Address: 	P.O. Box 2361		Phone:01 360 786 0925
		 	Olympia, WA 98507 USA	Fax:	01 360 709 4361


     Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations
    For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>