I am fortunate enough to be able to visit many different organisations and work with a large variety of people in these organisations. In some companies there is a great focus on business improvement tools, in others there is focus on building personal skills. I often find that many people are dissatisfied with the performance of their organisation where they take this blanket approach to improving their business. At Unbound Business Solutions we believe that for organisations to be effective and to really achieve the results that they desire it is necessary to take a holistic approach to continuous improvement. This means applying the right tool by the people who have the range of skills to use the tools in the manner they are needed. We need people who can see the relationships between all aspects of the organisation.
When people consider systems thinking and have the broad skillset to complement their thinking we are able to develop high performance work teams. We have helped a number of people to develop their understanding of organisations and process as well as helping develop their practical skills to be able to manage the diverse situations and personalities that they confront in their daily work lives.
We recently worked with an organisation where they had done a good job of implementing Lean Manufacturing tools. Though, in speaking with the front line supervisors it was clear there there were some issues in motivating some staff members and importantly how to address individual performance issues. There seemed to be some underlying thought that they “system” will get people to self regulate and improve their performance automatically. This can work for people who are already self-motivated but what of the people who just want to get through doing the bare minimum?
Through our leadership development program, many of these supervisors were better able to handle these difficult team members. In fact, one supervisor also confided to me that after the training they actually enjoy their role much better than they did before.
Even organsiations with a simple structure can be complicated. The reason is that organisations are comprised of people and people all have different abilities and characteristics. Good organisations have good managers, excellent organisations have leaders.
At Unbound Business Solutions we help build better leaders!
