This book is described as a management tool that outlines foolproof ways to increase productivity by fostering excellent morale in the workplace. Since the company I work for is struggling, I decided to read this book (and two others). These are my thoughts on the key concepts of Gung Ho!
Worthwhile Work: Knowing we make the world a better place. Knowing why we are needed.
Shared Goals: “It’s the buy-in that makes the difference. It’s the commitment to making the goal a reality that has to be shared.” Goals cannot be “announced”. There has to be a sustained commitment to the goal(s) by all of us.
Values: Values are lived. Values sustain the effort of meeting the goal. “Values become real only when you demonstrate them in the way you act and the way you insist others behave.” I think we are so afraid of losing staff/employees that we don’t live our values. We don’t hold other people accountable to our values as a company.
We need two types of
goals: result goals and value goals. What impact do we want to have on the lives of our staff
and community? Here is the difficult part: “You can’t impose agreement to
values any more than you can to goals, but you can, and must, impose
conformity. If people don’t respect your values, then they work elsewhere. You
wouldn’t keep someone who didn’t work for your result goals. Don’t keep people
who won’t honor your values either.”
Here is another statement which I agree with: “Managers keep control by pretending information is sensitive and withholding it. It’s great for power trips but it doesn’t lead to trust.” I understand that we have to maintain confidentiality outside the workplace and be in compliance with HIPPA laws, but the leadership team could benefit by sharing information in certain situations. It would also be a way of being more consistent within the company. Part of the breakdown of trust between departments is from inconsistent implementation of policies and performance management.
2) In Control of Achieving the Goal: We need to decide who is best in each (well-defined)
role within the company. “The real secret of successful management is
discovering what people do naturally and then figuring out how to adapt the
organization to take advantage of natural behavior.” If everyone’s “role” at was better
understood by others then there wouldn’t be so much mistrust, negativity and
anger between departments/positions/roles. It always comes back to
“perception” of what others are doing when they are not at the office. People
do not trust that other people are doing their jobs. Why do you trust some people more than
others? Transparency builds trust.
3 Cheering Each Other On: It’s how most of us get through the day each day. But we quite obviously don’t support other departments and they don’t support us. There is certainly no cheering going on at our company.
Enthusiasm equals mission times cash and congratulations. Gift cards don’t fix problems. Gift cards and money are great when acknowledging someone’s hard work, but they don’t “fix” problems. In my opinion, another differential; another wage increase; another referral bonus; a hiring bonus; a retention bonus – whatever you want to call it – will NOT fix problems. It will not bring us the motivated, invested, quality staff that we need. “Running a business from numbers is like playing basketball while watching the scoreboard instead of the ball. Look after the basics if you want success, and the first basic is the team.”
One final quote from the book regarding cash vs. congratulations: “Lots of labor troubles have spirit issues at the core. Lack of respect may be the biggest. But you’d look a little silly walking around with a picket sign demanding affirmations that what you do matters and that your contribution is valuable. So cash becomes the measuring stick. It’s easy to count and it’s easy to compare.” Employees need help understanding that what they do is valuable.
Trust, honesty, integrity, values, transparency, quality. This is what's important to be a successful company.
No comments:
Post a Comment