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Organizational Innovation for Quality Momentum
Old-style organizations were geared to achieve stability as best they could. Establishing and maintaining a favourable "status quo" was the goal, and the methods included hierarchy, functional structure and supervisory management. But to survive and thrive in today's economies, companies do not seek to achieve stability. Accordingly, they have diminished the importance of hierarchy, replaced functional structures with cross-functional teams, and have eliminated supervision in favour of synergy and employee empowerment.
Instead of aiming to achieve stability, organizations which pursue quality excellence must work to build a growing momentum that will carry them forward. There can be no such thing as "business as usual". Excellence demands that we continuously improve our standards, our skills and our structures and systems. This will allow us to create products and services with ever-increasing degrees of quality and value. To do this, we must build momentum.
This requires that we act on two fronts. The first front involves energizing, inspiring, exciting and pushing ahead. This can be thought of as increasing the power of the organization to move towards progress. Remember that this does not include loud exhortations or lengthy speeches about excellence. In fact, generating genuine momentum is something that is best done with straight talk and decisive and responsible action. Let your deeds speak louder than your words. Give employees the information and knowledge they need to act responsibly. Provide them with opportunities to excel, and reward and recognize that excellence when you see it. Focus everyone's attention on improvement, by;
closely monitoring flexibility, as described by lead times, changeover times, time to market, and the number of new product introductions,
comparing the organization to the competition, or benchmarking the "best in class" examples of companies doing it right,
increasing the contact between employees and their customers, and
establishing performance appraisal systems that recognize employee co-operation, learning, and work in support of team objectives
The second front requires more delicate actions that are geared to identify, minimize and or eliminate the sources of resistance that are holding the company back. There may be any number of factors that act to drain momentum and energy from the forward movement of the organization. This resistance must be sought out and eliminated wherever possible.
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