Post on 13-May-2015
BUILDING
HIGH-PERFORMANCE ORGANIZATIONS
IN THE
CITY OF SOUTHLAKE
HPO
Employee
Involvement
Self-directing Work Teams
Integrated Technologies
Organizational Learning
Process Improvement
What is a high performance organization?
• High performance organizations (HPOs)– HPOs are intentionally designed to:
• Bring out the best in people
• Produce organizational capability that delivers
sustainable organizational results
– HPOs place people first
– Knowledge based economy
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What is a high performance organization?
• Emphasis on intellectual capital– Intellectual capital is the foundation for HPOs
– Organize work-flow around key business
processes and use work teams within these
processes
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Key Components of HPO
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HPO
Employee
Involvement
Self-directing Work Teams
Integrated Technologies
Organizational Learning
Process Improvement
Key Components of HPO
• Employee involvement– The amount of decision making delegated to
workers at all levels– Employee involvement can be visualized on a
continuum:
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No Involvement or
Parallel Involvement
Moderate Involvement or
Participative Mgmt
High Involvement or
Employee Empowerment
Employee
Involvement
Thomas Jefferson, 1820
“I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of a society but the people themselves, and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion.”
Employee
Involvement
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How do high performance organizations operate?
• Southwest Airlines and employee involvement:– Flat and lean hierarchy– Heavy team emphasis throughout organization– Paper work minimized– Rapid decision making emphasized– People were empowered to do “whatever it takes” to
get the job done
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Employee
Involvement
Employee
Involvement
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Discussion
• City of Southlake and employee involvement:– What do we do right?– How can we improve?
• Teach, mentor, and motivate
• Provide knowledge, skills, and information required to make good decisions
• Remove the barriers to empowerment; “bureaucracy busting”
Employee
Involvement
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Implementing Employee Involvement
Rich Teerlink, CEO, Harley-Davidson, quotedin Fortune, August 22 1994, p. 20.
“If you empower dummies, you get bad decisions faster.”
Employee
Involvement
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6 Q’s to Empowerment:– Adheres to City’s values?
– Legal and ethical?
– Good for our customers?
– Fit within SMS?
– Within approved budgets?
– Are you willing to stand behind your decision?
Southlake IT EmpowermentEmployee
Involvement
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JUST DO IT!
If the answers to these questions are “YES,” don’t ask permission;
Employee
Involvement
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Southlake IT Empowerment
“For 25 years, you've paid only for my hands when you could have had my brain for nothing.”
A union president to Jack F. Welch, Jr., Chairman & CEO of General Electric Co.
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Employee
Involvement
Lessons from DilbertEmployee
Involvement
Key Components of HPO
• Self-directing work teams– Empowered to make decisions about planning,
doing, and evaluating their work– Sometimes called self-managing or self-leading
work teams– Important in HPOs due to:
• Need to tap employees’ expertise and knowledge• Need for employees to manage themselves
Self-directing Work Teams
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How do high performance organizations operate?
• Southwest Airlines and self-directing work teams:
– Longer term service teams
– Ad hoc teams for specific projects or duties
– Culture promotes cooperative activities
Self-directing Work Teams
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Discussion
• City of Southlake and self-directing work teams:– What do we do right?– How can we improve?
Self-directing Work Teams
• Assemble the organization to accomplish the vision
• Create mechanisms that align the parts to form an integrated whole
• Requires stewardship; acting above “turf” as an agent of the whole
Self-directing Work Teams
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Implementing Employee Involvement
Key Components of HPO
• Integrated technologies– Focus on providing flexibility in manufacturing
and services and involves job design and information technology
– Key components:• Just-in-time systems• Use of computers
Integrated Technologies
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How do high performance organizations operate?
• Southwest Airlines and integrated technologies:– Integrated use of information technology in
distribution, order entry, crew pairings, dispatching
of flights, revenue management, schedule planning,
and parts replacement
Integrated Technologies
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Discussion
• City of Southlake and integrated technologies:– What do we do right?– How can we improve?
Integrated Technologies
• High performing companies make strategic use of technology
• Need to be willing to change at an accelerated pace – can’t keep the status quo
• Utilize employee IT competency
Integrated Technologies
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Implementing Integrated Technologies
Lessons from DilbertIntegrated Technologies
Key Components of HPO
• Organizational learning
– A way for organizations to adapt to their settings
and to gather information to anticipate future
changes
– HPOs are designed for organizational learning
Organizational Learning
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How do high performance organizations operate?
• Southwest Airlines and organizational learning:– Deeply rooted in Southwest’s culture– Letters and newsletters about company business– Managers encourage workers to spend time at jobs
other than their own– Southwest’s “University for People”
Organizational Learning
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Discussion
• City of Southlake and organizational learning:– What do we do right?– How can we improve?
Organizational Learning
• Encourage personal learning, renewal, growth, and change; requires seeking and using feedback
• Build a continuously learning and improving organization
• Redesign, reengineer, and reinvent key strategies, structures, and systems
• Benchmark and study “best practices”
Organizational Learning
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Implementing Organizational Learning
Key Components of HPO
• Process Improvement– A total commitment to:
• High-quality results• Continuous improvement• Meeting customer needs
– Tightly integrated part of HPOs• Encourages all workers to do their own quality planning
and checking
Process Improvement
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How do high performance organizations operate?
• Southwest Airlines and process improvement:– “Southwest Spirit” focusing on a strong work
ethic, a strong desire for quality work, going beyond the call of duty, helping others, and doing the “right” thing
– TQM qualities are reinforced by empowerment, learning, and communications devices
Process Improvement
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Discussion
• City of Southlake and process improvement:– What do we do right?– How can we improve?
Process Improvement
• Redesign, reengineer, and reinvent systems to meet customer needs
• Complete tasks right the first time
• Continuous improvement– Need to ask if the activity is necessary
– If so, can it be done better?
Process Improvement
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Implementing Process Improvement
“It’s open season on bureaucracy, autocracy, and the waste and nonsense that grow in any large institution.”
Jack F. Welch, Jr., Chairman and CEO,General Electric Company
Process Improvement
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How do high performance organizations operate?
• Southwest Airlines as an HPO– Other HPO considerations: vision/direction setting
package• “The mission of Southwest Airlines is dedication to the
highest quality of Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit.”
• Strategic elements in direction setting• Core values
HPO
Employee
Involvement
Self-directing
Work Teams
Integrated Technologi
es
Organizational
Learning
Process Improveme
nt
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How do high performance organizations operate?
• Southwest Airlines as an HPO
– Other HPO considerations: the people• Attitude reflecting “Southwest Spirit” is a key hiring
requirement
• Attitude more important than other hiring qualifications
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HPO
Employee
Involvement
Self-directing
Work Teams
Integrated Technologi
es
Organizational
Learning
Process Improveme
nt
How do high performance organizations operate?
• Southwest Airlines as an HPO– Other HPO considerations: compensation
• Flight attendants paid by the trip• Incentives for employee performance• Pilots’ salaries are comparable to other airlines but they
fly 40% more hours• Profit sharing and 401k plans• Usual airline fringe benefits
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HPO
Employee
Involvement
Self-directing
Work Teams
Integrated Technologi
es
Organizational
Learning
Process Improveme
nt
How do high performance organizations operate?
• Southwest Airlines as an HPO– Other HPO considerations: outcomes
• Highly satisfied employees• Strong commitment to the company• Low turnover• Strong performance on various productivity measures• Active in contributing to the communities in which it
operates
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HPO
Employee
Involvement
Self-directing
Work Teams
Integrated Technologi
es
Organizational
Learning
Process Improveme
nt
“Great leaders...inspire their followers to high levels of achievement by showing them how their work contributes to worthwhile ends. It is an emotional appeal to some of the most fundamental needs - - the need to be important, to make a difference, to feel useful, to be part of a successful and worthwhile enterprise.”
Warren Bennis and Bert Nanus, Leaders(NY: Harper & Row, 1985)
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1. According to whom are we high performance?
2. What does high-performance mean to us?
3. Our vision/values must be both articulated and lived, and our vision must be translated into a shared action plan; What values will guide us in achieving it?
Implementation Questions
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Implementing HPO in Southlake
• How might we better implement HPO characteristics/components?– In our Departments?– In our Focus Area Cabinets?– To meet our strategic objectives?
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Discussion
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