Ownership means different things to people. I think people mold the definition to their line of thinking which I think makes sense. why would anyone want to change their definition to suit someone else's thinking anyways?
At the end of the day, it is all about getting things in the corporate world, the owner is the one that takes credit for getting it done :)
Friday, June 12, 2009
Monday, May 11, 2009
What is "Bias for Action"
"Bias for action" is a core that some companies use as a motivating factor to take timely action. "Bias for action" in my opinion is to take action without doing a tonne of analysis, the ability to take actions quickly and be right about it a lot.
Note that all the answers to the FAQ's below are my opinions
Why is bias for action important?
Because it encourages employees to take quick action when they notice something that is wrong or could be improved upon
How is it measured?
Anecdotal examples typically
How does it impact the day to day workings of the people in the company?
It can instill a sense of urgency
How does it impact the culture?
It can make the company results driven and can encourage employees to take risks for expediting the business results
How can you be right if there is not enough time spent on analysis?
The belief is that leaders are right a lot and that they can make quick decision just by looking at a few key metrics.
Can it be gamed?
Like anything in the corporate world, it can be gamed and played to the tunes of your manager
Feel free to add onto the FAQ's
Note that all the answers to the FAQ's below are my opinions
Why is bias for action important?
Because it encourages employees to take quick action when they notice something that is wrong or could be improved upon
How is it measured?
Anecdotal examples typically
How does it impact the day to day workings of the people in the company?
It can instill a sense of urgency
How does it impact the culture?
It can make the company results driven and can encourage employees to take risks for expediting the business results
How can you be right if there is not enough time spent on analysis?
The belief is that leaders are right a lot and that they can make quick decision just by looking at a few key metrics.
Can it be gamed?
Like anything in the corporate world, it can be gamed and played to the tunes of your manager
Feel free to add onto the FAQ's
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Some common core values
What are some of the common core values that you see across the major organizations in Corporate America? I have compiled a list below that were part of the core values in corporations that I have worked (past and current)
- Various flavors of Customer/Client focus
- Ownership
- Relationships
- Leadership
- Creativity
- Bias for action
What else have people seen? In future posts, I am going to expand on each of the core values and write about what each of these mean for me and will look at some real world examples (including some cynical one's)
Metric for Corporate Culture
Corporate culture is considered an important reason to work for a company by a lot of folks. What does corporate culture really mean? and How is it measured if at all? How do companies establish this culture and make sure that it is in the veins of each and every employee?
I have worked for a few companies and all of them were proud of the culture of their company. Couple of them had established core values within the company that applied to everyone and in one case they tweaked it to the different roles within the company on top of the base set of core values. Personally I felt that the core values provided some sort of a guiding principle though they can mis-interpreted at certain times to make people look good. I have not found a place that uses a quantitative approach to gather and publish metrics around company culture. I am not sure how you would go about gathering and publishing these metrics though surveys come to mind. Surveys are useful if done on a large sample I would think, however since surveys are based on what and how people are thinking, in my mind it is not necessarily a rigourous tool.
Has anyone used other methodologies to report on corporate culture?
I have worked for a few companies and all of them were proud of the culture of their company. Couple of them had established core values within the company that applied to everyone and in one case they tweaked it to the different roles within the company on top of the base set of core values. Personally I felt that the core values provided some sort of a guiding principle though they can mis-interpreted at certain times to make people look good. I have not found a place that uses a quantitative approach to gather and publish metrics around company culture. I am not sure how you would go about gathering and publishing these metrics though surveys come to mind. Surveys are useful if done on a large sample I would think, however since surveys are based on what and how people are thinking, in my mind it is not necessarily a rigourous tool.
Has anyone used other methodologies to report on corporate culture?
Why do people work?
A good percentage (don't know the exact percent) of people in the world work for a company or someone else. I myself work for a big corporation in the pacific northwest. I have wondered several times about the reasons for people holding jobs and doing those jobs for several years. I have talked to a few people in my social circle to understand their motivation and almost all of them said that they would not be doing what they are doing currently if they could afford it. Simply said, everyone was in it for economic reasons.
Assuming that is the case for the majority of the folks on the planet, it is fascinating that the human race has created a civilization that is effective in keeping people busy in just living their life. This is an important aspect atleast in my mind since if humans had plenty of time on their hands, it is not guaranteed that they will put it to productive use. Like the old saying goes "an idle mind is devil's workshop".
So, that brings us to some of the questions about the human race itself - is this whole modern civilization just a sham that man has created that imprisoned the human race? Is the mechanical nature (for most people) of the worklife taking away the natural instincts and driving the evolution in a different path from the past?
Assuming that is the case for the majority of the folks on the planet, it is fascinating that the human race has created a civilization that is effective in keeping people busy in just living their life. This is an important aspect atleast in my mind since if humans had plenty of time on their hands, it is not guaranteed that they will put it to productive use. Like the old saying goes "an idle mind is devil's workshop".
So, that brings us to some of the questions about the human race itself - is this whole modern civilization just a sham that man has created that imprisoned the human race? Is the mechanical nature (for most people) of the worklife taking away the natural instincts and driving the evolution in a different path from the past?
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