The Power of The Visible Organisation..

Imagine watching a sporting match , say a game of cricket, where there are no announcements, or commentary or display boards giving any information. If all one sees is a lot of activity with players running all over the playing ground with someone bowling and some chaps batting, obviously it will be difficult to fathom what is really happening.

If one has not even an inkling as to who is winning or losing and what are the runs or run rate required to win the match or wickets remaining etc, the game will in all likely-hood not sustain the interest of the spectator. Not only spectators but players too will soon get bored, and likely to lose interest in the game /match and of course the results. Unfortunately this is the same situation in many organisations. Many employees within organisations haven’t a clue on what is happening. Yet they are screamed at, lectured, and sent to motivational and training camps to get them to be enthusiastic about an organisation for which they have little interest other than the immediate gain they can draw.

Employees are paid, so they show up for work and unlike the cricket game it is difficult for them to leave, because the organisation provides a lively-hood. Many managements and Human Resources managers have not yet realised that with the hired hand comes the complete woman or man

One of the causes of high attrition rates is that employees are totally disconnected from their organisation in mind and spirit. In these so called "invisible organisations". People working for such organisations have no idea what their organisations long term or even immediate goals and plans are.

Employees and team members have little or no idea as to how their individual contribution helps them or their organisation to meet its goals. Felling adrift , they remain clueless as to what is going to happen to their own careers and their personal future. They often jump ship to board another one and find most often the same depressing situation. All that most employees think about are, is how to get through the day, get paid and get away from their work environment to do something more interesting and meaningful with themselves. In essence employees are at work physically, but the organisation is almost invisible to the individual beyond the physical things like buildings, offices, equipment, material and computers etc. They see lots of people and an immediate boss who is normally domineering and more likely than not as clueless as the employee.

When measurable results are compared with targets and people can see clearly outputs attributed to their efforts, they become and remain motivated. If they are made a party to setting those goals for which they are held accountable they appreciate the need to act.

All organisations that grow from a small to larger organisations go through this phase. When they become invisible to their team the organisation faces major challenges.

The key to get people interested and then committed to an organisation's plans and goals is to share relevant information with them. From my own experience I would say that both commitment and resulting performance is greatly improved maybe twice as much of the original.

People are generally good and want to do good, all they need is an opportunity to bring out the best in themselves. Do yourself and your employees a favour and give them the chance to show you and themselves what they can actually achieve.