We now enunciate certain basic principles underlying communication with people.
• All people are motivated: We cannot motivate them. We can only guide them by their motivations.
• People do things for their own reasons: Show them what they want and they will move heaven and earth to get it.
• People change because of pain: When the pain of remaining the same becomes greater than the pain of changing, people change.
• The key to effective communication is identification: When something becomes personal, it creates interest. Therefore, an effort should be made to create a sense of belongingness.
• The best way to get people to pay attention to you is to pay attention to them.
• Pride is a powerful motivator.
• You cannot change people; only their behaviours.
• The worker’s perception becomes the supervisor’s reality.
• You consistently get the behaviours you consistently expect and reinforce.
• We all judge ourselves by our motives; but we judge others by their actions.
An understanding of these principles can help us improve communication in our company. In this context, an interesting concept is that of a company without boundaries.
Building a Company without Boundaries
The concept of a company without boundaries essentially means the removal of all barriers to the flow of information and ideas into and through your company. In some companies, information flows through the corporate structure, but only through narrow, carefully restricted channels.
In a typical old-style corporation, ideas and information flow up and down “chimneys of power” running from the executive offices down through several layers of management. Often information is bottled up in bureaucratic compartments and never reaches the people who could really benefit from it. There are several good reasons for modern companies to dismantle these barriers to free-flowing communication. It helps companies to be focused, flexible, fast, and friendly.
To focus the efforts of the entire workforce, your organisation should not be criss- crossed with walls that impede the flow of communication. Similarly, you cannot be flexible if you have a structure in which every division and department is a closed information loop (with no lines of inter-departmental communication). This also restricts our response to market changes and can limit institutional growth. This is particularly important in this era of globalisation privatisation and liberalisation, characterised by rapid changes. Moreover, faster the flow of information through different layers of management, greater is our responsiveness.
Finally, to be friendly, people must talk to others inside and outside the organisation. Being customer-friendly also leads to organisational growth.In the old days, everyone had to “go through channels.” In the new business environment, the channels have to be removed. The organisation must practice free flow of information and ideas.
In a company without boundaries, internal functions are shared. Engineering does not design a product and then “hand it off” to manufacturing. They work in a team culture with marketing and sales, finance and strategy, customer service experts so that everybody owns the task. How do you classify your organisation?
Do you practice team culture? You may like to list important innovations as a manager.
In many organisations, the company’s way is not the best way; yet it considers it to be the only way. When such an attitude prevails, the organisation literally shuts out a world of innovative ideas.
Let us narrate the story of General Electric (GE) to drive home the point. Since GE was receptive to ideas from beyond its corporate walls, it was able to reduce its average inventory levels by $200 million a year. This is what happened: GE found an appliance company in New Zealand using an innovative method of compressing product cycle times. It put the method through a trial run in a Canadian affiliate, then transferred it to its largest appliance complex in Louisville, Kentucky. The method, which GE dubbed “Quick Response” enabled GE to respond more quickly to customer needs.But GE did not just introduce it in Louisville and forget it. It brought people in from all 13 of its major businesses to study the method and adapt it to their own operations.
A company without boundaries does not just shop for ideas among other companies in the same business. GE dispatched people to Wal-Mart to learn about the management practices that have propelled this business to the forefront in retailing. Smaller companies can use the boundary-less concept to acquire products and expertise that they cannot afford on their own. If you are wrestling with a tough problem, look for some other company that has had the same type of problem and has solved it. If you cannot afford the R&D required to develop the technology you need,look for somebody who has already developed the technology and buy it. Since energy has become most critical for the national economy, corporate houses which have ventured into energy generation and distribution are bound to reap benefits if they follow such examples.
Divisions within a Corporation
Another boundary might be the lines that run between Divisions of a Corporation.Removing the interior walls by practicing integrated diversity helps each Division to grow. Under this concept, a diversified Company consisting of many different businesses facilitates sharing of knowledge and technology. If one Division develops a piece of technology, the company looks for multiple applications. For instance, in GE’s Medical Systems, experts from Aerospace helped with the development of ultrasound technology. Engineers from Aircraft Engines helped Power Systems to cope with expanded worldwide demand for gas turbines.
Moving personnel across Divisional lines provides fresh perspectives, not to mention hybrid vigour. In 1991, GE transferred leadership in four of its 13 major businesses,with new leaders coming from other GE businesses. These internal transfers give executives throughout the company broad-based experience. They no longer think narrowly of divisional interests; they have adeveloped sense of belongingness for the organisation other than its micro- segment.
Amongst the toughest boundaries to dismantle are the ones individual managers erect around the borders of their turf. In the old days, people were given incentives of upward mobility; a raise in salary and title. However, in such situations there is a lurking fear that each manager may carve out a little fiefdom and fiercely defend it. You must have seen in your organisation that departmental heads defend/justify the action of their workforce, even if it causes losses.
Look at your own work place. How many of your “managers” really need to manage?In a boundary-less Corporation, there is a greater need for people who coach, advise and facilitate through teamwork than for people who control and direct through authoritarian management. If you review the job titles and job descriptions in your company, you may see opportunities to reduce the number of management positions by replacing functionaries with leaders. If you do this, you will be amazed at the way the boundaries of authority can be turned into avenues of cooperation.Many of the bureaucratic boundaries erected by corporate functionaries exist because individuals feel insecure and resist change. GE sought to remove these boundaries through a programme it calls “Work-Out.” During these sessions, people are free to speak out on any topic that turns them on. Often, the complaints they raise are addressed on the spot. One union leader, given a chance to lecture at Work-Out, told the group that he used to have three clearly defined enemies: the IRS, the Russians and GE management. Now, he said, there’s only one: the IRS. The Company Without Boundaries is the company of the future. If you remove the barriers between your company and its stakeholders, you create a community of mutual interests in which everyone works toward the good of all. That is what you call a win/win situation.
• All people are motivated: We cannot motivate them. We can only guide them by their motivations.
• People do things for their own reasons: Show them what they want and they will move heaven and earth to get it.
• People change because of pain: When the pain of remaining the same becomes greater than the pain of changing, people change.
• The key to effective communication is identification: When something becomes personal, it creates interest. Therefore, an effort should be made to create a sense of belongingness.
• The best way to get people to pay attention to you is to pay attention to them.
• Pride is a powerful motivator.
• You cannot change people; only their behaviours.
• The worker’s perception becomes the supervisor’s reality.
• You consistently get the behaviours you consistently expect and reinforce.
• We all judge ourselves by our motives; but we judge others by their actions.
An understanding of these principles can help us improve communication in our company. In this context, an interesting concept is that of a company without boundaries.
Building a Company without Boundaries
The concept of a company without boundaries essentially means the removal of all barriers to the flow of information and ideas into and through your company. In some companies, information flows through the corporate structure, but only through narrow, carefully restricted channels.
In a typical old-style corporation, ideas and information flow up and down “chimneys of power” running from the executive offices down through several layers of management. Often information is bottled up in bureaucratic compartments and never reaches the people who could really benefit from it. There are several good reasons for modern companies to dismantle these barriers to free-flowing communication. It helps companies to be focused, flexible, fast, and friendly.
To focus the efforts of the entire workforce, your organisation should not be criss- crossed with walls that impede the flow of communication. Similarly, you cannot be flexible if you have a structure in which every division and department is a closed information loop (with no lines of inter-departmental communication). This also restricts our response to market changes and can limit institutional growth. This is particularly important in this era of globalisation privatisation and liberalisation, characterised by rapid changes. Moreover, faster the flow of information through different layers of management, greater is our responsiveness.
Finally, to be friendly, people must talk to others inside and outside the organisation. Being customer-friendly also leads to organisational growth.In the old days, everyone had to “go through channels.” In the new business environment, the channels have to be removed. The organisation must practice free flow of information and ideas.
In a company without boundaries, internal functions are shared. Engineering does not design a product and then “hand it off” to manufacturing. They work in a team culture with marketing and sales, finance and strategy, customer service experts so that everybody owns the task. How do you classify your organisation?
Do you practice team culture? You may like to list important innovations as a manager.
In many organisations, the company’s way is not the best way; yet it considers it to be the only way. When such an attitude prevails, the organisation literally shuts out a world of innovative ideas.
Let us narrate the story of General Electric (GE) to drive home the point. Since GE was receptive to ideas from beyond its corporate walls, it was able to reduce its average inventory levels by $200 million a year. This is what happened: GE found an appliance company in New Zealand using an innovative method of compressing product cycle times. It put the method through a trial run in a Canadian affiliate, then transferred it to its largest appliance complex in Louisville, Kentucky. The method, which GE dubbed “Quick Response” enabled GE to respond more quickly to customer needs.But GE did not just introduce it in Louisville and forget it. It brought people in from all 13 of its major businesses to study the method and adapt it to their own operations.
A company without boundaries does not just shop for ideas among other companies in the same business. GE dispatched people to Wal-Mart to learn about the management practices that have propelled this business to the forefront in retailing. Smaller companies can use the boundary-less concept to acquire products and expertise that they cannot afford on their own. If you are wrestling with a tough problem, look for some other company that has had the same type of problem and has solved it. If you cannot afford the R&D required to develop the technology you need,look for somebody who has already developed the technology and buy it. Since energy has become most critical for the national economy, corporate houses which have ventured into energy generation and distribution are bound to reap benefits if they follow such examples.
Divisions within a Corporation
Another boundary might be the lines that run between Divisions of a Corporation.Removing the interior walls by practicing integrated diversity helps each Division to grow. Under this concept, a diversified Company consisting of many different businesses facilitates sharing of knowledge and technology. If one Division develops a piece of technology, the company looks for multiple applications. For instance, in GE’s Medical Systems, experts from Aerospace helped with the development of ultrasound technology. Engineers from Aircraft Engines helped Power Systems to cope with expanded worldwide demand for gas turbines.
Moving personnel across Divisional lines provides fresh perspectives, not to mention hybrid vigour. In 1991, GE transferred leadership in four of its 13 major businesses,with new leaders coming from other GE businesses. These internal transfers give executives throughout the company broad-based experience. They no longer think narrowly of divisional interests; they have adeveloped sense of belongingness for the organisation other than its micro- segment.
Amongst the toughest boundaries to dismantle are the ones individual managers erect around the borders of their turf. In the old days, people were given incentives of upward mobility; a raise in salary and title. However, in such situations there is a lurking fear that each manager may carve out a little fiefdom and fiercely defend it. You must have seen in your organisation that departmental heads defend/justify the action of their workforce, even if it causes losses.
Look at your own work place. How many of your “managers” really need to manage?In a boundary-less Corporation, there is a greater need for people who coach, advise and facilitate through teamwork than for people who control and direct through authoritarian management. If you review the job titles and job descriptions in your company, you may see opportunities to reduce the number of management positions by replacing functionaries with leaders. If you do this, you will be amazed at the way the boundaries of authority can be turned into avenues of cooperation.Many of the bureaucratic boundaries erected by corporate functionaries exist because individuals feel insecure and resist change. GE sought to remove these boundaries through a programme it calls “Work-Out.” During these sessions, people are free to speak out on any topic that turns them on. Often, the complaints they raise are addressed on the spot. One union leader, given a chance to lecture at Work-Out, told the group that he used to have three clearly defined enemies: the IRS, the Russians and GE management. Now, he said, there’s only one: the IRS. The Company Without Boundaries is the company of the future. If you remove the barriers between your company and its stakeholders, you create a community of mutual interests in which everyone works toward the good of all. That is what you call a win/win situation.
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