Combine Perspectives from Dissimilar Organizational Ideal Best Practice Principles in New Ways

The potential for combining ideal practices is improved if you consider places where two or more ideal group practices are based on different principles that could be combined to create a breakthrough for your organization.

Here's an example to help you understand this process: Jazz combos improvise playing music. No one knows who will play next or what they will play within a piece. The process works because the combo practices a lot and learns to closely observe what one another is doing so they smoothly adjust to each other. Postal services rarely fail to deliver mail that is entrusted to them. That's true both because postal workers understand the importance of the mail (they are customers, too) and roles are clearly defined in ways that reduce the risk of mail being lost.

Let's combine and apply these two principles. Assume that you want your organization to develop more flexibility by ensuring that each person learns how to do at least one other person's job who works in the same unit. In that way, if someone is out for a day, work proceeds smoothly. Using the jazz combo example, you might give workers the opportunity to choose what other job they learn. Only if some jobs were not going to be learned would you need to make assignments. To ensure that the learning occurs, you could set practices so each person spends half the session helping someone else learn and the other half learning. To ensure that coordination is smooth, you could ask those who have the jobs to write out steps for the tasks so that the substitute would not forget an important step. To make that forgetfulness even less likely, you should schedule some time where each substitute spends a day on the receiving end of the work in order to appreciate (as postal employees do) what it's like to rely on what's done.

Such cross-training usually goes very slowly in most organizations. What's missing? Usually, the cross-training doesn't even begin until after a supervisor reviews an employee and decides to recommend cross-training. As a result, few have completed cross-training at any given time. Regular opportunities to learn aren't scheduled in many organizations, so the training proceeds slowly. Because the employee may have no interest in learning the other job, the employee may avoid the learning opportunity altogether. It's even rarer to see the results of such a job as a customer either internally or externally.

Naturally, if you can combine three principles, that's even better. And combining four principles is better still.

How might you do that?

Start by developing a list of at least 50 examples of where groups routinely perform near perfection. Then, look for the principles behind each of those examples. Finally, begin combining the principles in new ways.

Maestro, your breakthrough awaits!

Copyright 2007 Donald W. Mitchell, All Rights Reserved

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