Normally, if you want to find out what your company could do better you need to hire big dollar consultants who will come in and talk to the employees you’ve been ignoring conduct an extensive analysis and provide you with a lengthy report complete with graphs describing what you need to do different.
But that’s expensive and time consuming. So, in today’s post, I’m piloting the Diagnosis of Organization and Human resources (DOH!). This diagnostic tool will analyze your organization and highlight five areas that are, ahem, “opportunities for improvement”. Given the beta nature of this tool, it’s not 100% accurate yet, but I think you’ll find it remarkably close. Give it a minute to run and this diagnostic will provide you with a customized summary specific to your organization.
(It’s working, give it time… give it time…)
If you put your ear up to the screen you can hear the computering electrons working their magic in the background. [it sounds like: whirr whirr whirr]
(Give it time… give it time…)
Done! Scroll down for your customized summary analysis.
Customized Summary Analysis Results of Your Organization:
Your organization fails at: can optimize performance by focusing on:
1. Communication. Seriously, does anyone in your company talk to anyone else? Between the silos, walls, moats, and fiefdoms how do you get anything accomplished? Communicate occasionally and you’ll be amazed at the improvements. No, your passive aggressive emails that cc the everyone in the company do not count as “communication”. Back away from the keyboard and pick up the phone. Better yet, go talk to people face to face.
2. Customer Service. Consider the possibility that not blatantly offending the customer isn’t the same as providing great service. Even being better at customer service than your competition isn’t really enough because that isn’t really a high bar to beat. Try this: make a list of the five companies you will go out of your way to do business with. It’s probably less than half a dozen. Why is the list so short? Because while many companies can do inoffensive, vanilla-bland customer service, very, very few can do great customer service. Remember: better than bad doesn’t equal good.
3. Innovation. Yes, your company wants to be known as innovative, but your company punishes risk taking, frowns on anything different, and dogmatically enforces the status quo. “Innovation” is left to the seasoned senior managers who know how things ought to be done.
4. Diversity. Your organization treats diversity as a compliance issue instead of a way to benefit from many, many perspectives and ideas. Oh, and the lack of diversity is killing your “innovation” efforts.
5. Leadership. Your managers try hard and mean well, but most of them have never been taught how to lead. While there are a few standouts, many have trouble holding people accountable, a few (and you know who they are) are on a power trip, and the rest are doing ok, but just ok. “Sink or swim” is not a development strategy and flavor of the month training doesn’t teach anyone anything but cynicism. Your managers deserve better.
Bonus: As a thank you for trying out this diagnostic tool, we’re including an extra area of opportunity:
6. Hiring. Companies live or die on the quality of their employees and your hiring process is haphazard, misunderstood by some, ignored by others, and ineffective even on the best of days.
Analysis Summary:
Face it, your organization is in rough shape. The only thing keeping the doors open is that your competition has the exact same their own growth opportunities. The good news is that most of your challenges are very fixable: Improve your hiring process, focus on developing your current and future leaders, hire people who look and think differently (and listen to them), make customer service a top priority, and communicate to keep everyone connected and prevent isolation.
Yes, I’m in a smart aleck mood this morning. Although I make this stuff sound obviously simple, I know it’s not easy. There’s a reason many/most companies face these challenges. There is also a great advantage that goes to the companies that get it figured out.
Your thoughts?
fool (with a plan) 
LOL .. you are feeling a little spunky this morning, aren’t you?? As someone who is hired to train, to help supervisors, managers, owners to identify and address gaps and opportunities, here’s what I’ve found: the companies that hire me or other people just like me, get this. They understand the importance of all of your six points and because it’s not easy, they want someone to come in and help facilitate the process. I’m definately not one of the big dollar consultants though. Perhaps some of the companies hiring them really just want a fancy document with charts and graphs to make it look like they are doing something? Perhaps it’s more about the image than the change? (And that’s not a knock against big dollar consultants!)
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Yeah, I was in a playful mood. I don’t have a complaint with consultants – I spent most of my career as a contractor or consultant – but I do find it interesting that the same issues show up time and time again across organizations and industries. Many organizations thinks its problems are unique, but they rarely are. The challenges are often obvious, but of course the solutions aren’t always. Kudos to any company that recognizes it might be getting in its own way and is willing to do what it takes to move forward.
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