This is my thought paper about the ways to imrpove organizational effectiveness after taking a relevant class.
1. Two valuable things I learned about making better choices
Before making choices, people should collect relevant information and reevaluate the situation first. However, people are frequently constrained by some cognitive biases. Therefore, for most of the time, much of the reality is not seen or is ignored. In consequence, visualizing the situation or problems is of high importance to make wise decisions. A good practice in organization is to take a Gemba Walk. A Gemba Walk is the term used in Lean management philosophy, describing the process that leaders and managers observe the actual work process, and gain knowledge for continuous improvement.
Moreover, to better think about the visualized information, people can take advantages of some tools to change their perspective. For example, they can reframe the problems –by analyzing positive exceptions, asking what is missing, bringing outsiders into the discussion, etc. Based on solid information and thoughtful consideration, relatively wise choices can be made.
2. How to learn whether the ‘purpose’ for work team is meaningful and valid?
We should take several considerations when examining whether the purpose for our work team is valid.
First, we can see whether the purpose indicates an end result that the team members are responsible to deliver. If our team members don’t know what end result is desired, the purpose is not meaningful. In addition, we can take a walk to observe how the customer uses the outputs and talk with them. If the ‘purpose’ doesn’t reflect the most important thing of the services/products from the perspective of our direct customers, it cannot be valid.
Second, a ‘purpose’ must be a clear statement, and must be easy to understand.
Third, it’s better to be measurable so that performance against the objectives can be assessed. Measuring performance against objectives is a key element of control in teamwork.
Fourth, the purpose should be achievable. If it is not achievable, people will not bother trying to achieve it. In addition, the purpose should not be too easy either.
Last but not the least, if the team is in an organization, the purpose should aligns with the corporate strategy and mission. In addition, silo problems should be avoided.
3. What is standard work and why is it important?
A standard work is a predefined method to perform a task or several tasks in order to produce or deliver the best quality part or service in a safe manner within a predetermined time frame consistently. Standard work should also be the best-known practice for doing work.
If there is not standard work, there would be so much variation exists in the way work gets done that it is difficult to do a reliable assessment or take control actions. It is standard work that helps companies to see the differences between the way they want to work and the way work is actually getting done.
Moreover, without standard work, the processes would be so unstable that it is difficult to know exactly what impact an improvement might have had, and it is challenging to sustain any new methods due to the variations.
Furthermore, once an organization begins to stabilize its process, more time becomes available to concentrate on the longer-term, strategic issues that will move the organization forward, due to fewer exceptions and fewer variations from the standard work.
Just as you summarized, without a standard, there can be no improvement.
4. Beyond just doing a survey – how to gain a deeper understanding of employee engagement levels in a department or work group?
There are several ways to gain a deeper understanding of employee engagement level.
First, I can take a Gamba walk, through which I have an opportunity to see or to study with my own eyes and more deeply understand what is really happening. That is in contrast to what we might assume is happening. In addition, I can ask employees some subjective questions to evaluate the engagement level. In this process, I should distinguish between process and people and show respect to the employees rather than blame them and move on.
Second, both self-assessment and peer assessment can be conducted. For example, I can interview the other staffs about the opinion towards a specific employee.
Third, I can refer to the results of some metrics indicating engagement level.
5. Why is sustaining the 'gain' so difficult and what is one-step leaders can take to do a better job of this?
The lack of standard work partially explains why the gain and improvement is hard to sustain. Without standard work, the processes would be so unstable that it is difficult to know exactly what impact an improvement might have had, and it is challenging to sustain any new methods due to the variations.
What is more, there is a tendency to assume the processes do what they are supposed to do, and we simply take action to solve problems. However, for most of the time, if people go back and revisit the ‘purpose’ of the process, they may find that it doesn’t really perform that way. Most of the reality and problems are not seen.
To solve these problems, leaders could first establish a standard work, and then make subsequent improvements on the standard work. In addition, they should take a ‘process view’ – Gemba Walk – to see whether the work is performed aligning with the purpose and whether there are some underlying process issues or abnormalities.
In other word, standard is the best-practiced baseline to be improved, while Gemba Walk provides clues for what the company should improve further.
6. Provide an example of 'visual controls' or visual methods.
Here is an exmaple. As what a professor required on class, all students rated the class performance every session and put their scores on the whiteboard for four norms – whether we have fun, whether we are on time, whether life experience is involved, and whether student engagement is high.
I think this visual tool is very helpful. Simply hung on the wall, the whiteboard frequently remind us of the norms we have already established. Moreover, we can easily view the scores and notice the discrepancy between what we want to achieve and what we have already achieved. As a result, we will adjust our behavior and work harder to align with the norms.
7. The key metrics that measure team performance
Customer (C)
Activity Count (how many or how much) (A)
People Development &/or Safety (P)
Quality (Q)
Process Capability (PC)
Productivity (Pty)
Delivery/Timeliness/Velocity (on-time, how quickly, etc.) (D)
Supplier Performance (S)
Cost ($)
Other (O)
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