The ChallengeEffective leaders understand the critical importance of including front line supervisors in the Vision development and
refinement process for a variety of reasons. First, most employees regard their immediate supervisors as "the company." Consequently, and as stated in the Strategies & Solutions newsletter dated 1 June 2004, "the Supervisor is potentially the most effective person in the organization for influencing employee attitudes toward their work and
toward the organization." (Reference www.jimjoseassociates.com, click on Strategies and Solutions tab, click on Leading through Supervisors I: Role Clarification.)
Second, employees receive more information from their Supervisors about how the company is doing than from any other source.
Third, employees understand they must perform according to standards articulated by their immediate Supervisor. Why? Because they understand that their Supervisor usually controls or significantly
influences much of their work environment and what they want from it, such as convenient work schedules, decent pay increases, timely vacation/personal leave and medical leave, desired promotions, relevant training and development opportunities, job rotation that makes sense, and meaningful transfers. Finally, and because of the above, Supervisors are strategically positioned to provide input to organizational leaders about
employee attitudes, concerns and motivators.
Given this, Supervisors are also strategically positioned to be champions of the Visioning process and critical to the future direction of the organization. Regrettably, however, it has been my experience that most Supervisors are excluded from the Visioning process and
therefore do not feel they have any obligation to champion it with employees. Rather, they confine their activities to working the Mission of the organization.
Note:
Mission is used here to mean what an organization does and Vision means the future direction of an organization. An organization must have a Mission because it exists to do something; but it does not need a Vision to exist; it is contended here, however, that it does need a Vision to persist. Organizations without meaningful Visions that are understood and embraced by employees have a high risk of failure.
The Strategy: Include Rather Than Exclude Supervisors And Sooner Rather Than Later
Although working the Mission is the first task of every employee and Supervisor, having Supervisors who are enlightened about the future direction of the
organization, committed to it and championing it can be the difference between a Visioning process that is ineffective and one that is highly effective. A highly effective Visioning process is one characterized by employees who understand where the organization is going, how it is going to get there and what their individual role is in that process. Employees "feel" involved in the future success of the organization, act
like "owners" of the means to that success, and therefore are enthusiastic ... even proud to be champions of the organization to the stakeholders and publics of the organization. The key to this kind of employee attitude is a Supervisor who is enrolled in the Visioning process.
Supervisors can be effectively enrolled in the Visioning
process through a diversity of means, all of which bear on leadership attitudes and styles. Enrollment begins at the beginning of the Visioning process, not after the fact. The environment for participating in the process must be wholesome and designed to comfortably elicit input from Supervisors. And, the enrollment process must be complete in that Supervisors understand the Vision, the reasoning behind it and are
prepared to articulate and champion it with their employees.
The Solution: An Inclusive Visioning Process with Credibility
1.
Beginning at the Beginning.
Supervisors should be asked to provide ideas for specific, future direction strategies for the organization at the outset of the Visioning process and directed to consult with their employees for input prior to articulating their ideas. Employees want to be part of the future organization if
only to have a job. Most employees will react positively to being consulted about the future direction and some will have ideas that merit consideration. The result here is that the Supervisor can be an informed participant at the next level of development, which is providing input to organizational leaders.
2.The
Environment for Effective Supervisor Participation
Providing input to organizational leaders must occur in an environment that is wholesome and comfortable for the Supervisor. The most effective environment I have used is a one-day work session devoted to brainstorming ideas by a group of Supervisors, together with
their immediate managers, and led by an external consultant. Essential to the effectiveness of this environment is for this group to develop five to seven Behavioral Norms (ground rules to some) as the first order of business. This ensures the Supervisors help to craft the environment so that it is comfortable for them to behave candidly, openly and honestly. Examples of Behavioral Norms include: a) We will openly,
honestly express our ideas; b) We will all participate; c) We will respect each other's right to speak; d) We will record all ideas; e) We will evaluate the idea, not the person.
Roles are then clarified as follows: the consultant leads the session; the managers listen, ask clarifying questions and do not
evaluate any idea expressed; Supervisors speak and clarify ideas. In other words, this is a thinking and educational session with an open, team-based format that recognizes that every participant has special gifts to bring to the table and each gift is respected. This is not a performance management session with a hierarchical format.
This work session environment has three phases after the Behavioral Norms have been set and Roles clarified. The first and second phases take place at the work session. The third phase immediately follows the work session within ten working days.
Phase 1, Brainstorming Ideas:
All ideas are captured, listed as expressed in the words of the sayer, and not evaluated.
Phase 2, Evaluating and Prioritizing Ideas: When all ideas have been expressed, they are then evaluated and prioritized in
the following categories: Seriously Consider, Consider, Hold for Later Consideration. Thus, no idea is rejected; all are valued -- some for consideration now and some later.
Phase 3, Moving Prioritized Ideas Forward:
Immediately following this one-day work session during which ideas are brainstormed and prioritized, the participating managers are responsible for faithfully moving the results (prioritized ideas) forward in the Visioning hierarchy to the leaders of the process or to the executive leaders of the organization, whichever is appropriate. During this process, the managers must remain faithful to the results in reporting them,
after which they can and should express their views on the viability of the prioritized ideas. This phase should take place within ten working days of the work session to have maximum credibility with the Supervisors that their time was well spent and their ideas will receive attention.
3. Completing The Process
The next phase is the body responsible for crafting the draft Vision considers the prioritized ideas from the Supervisors together with the ideas expressed by other constituencies of the organization, such as middle managers, executives, customers, directors, vendors etc. The draft Vision is developed and then proceeds to the executive group
for consideration and conditional approval. Conditional approval means the executive group has considered the draft, massaged it as they see fit and agreed to a version they can all support. NOTE: This phase of the process should be completed within fifteen working days.
The draft Vision is then validated by being referred to the same Vision group that crafted the original draft and to the same group of Supervisors who provided prioritized ideas. The executive group assigns one to three members to shepherd this process by being the champions of the draft Vision to these two groups, and they are
charged with being open and sensitive to suggestions for improvement. When this consultation is completed, the executive champions take the draft Vision and any ideas they have heard for improving it from the Vision group and Supervisors back to the Executive Group. The Executive Group approves the final Vision and rolls it out according to a deliberate, strategic educational process.
NOTE: This phase should be completed within ten working days.
The intended result of the above enrollment process is a Supervisor group that feels they "own" the Vision for a new direction. These Supervisors will actively champion the Vision with employees, enrolling the employees as champions to the stakeholders and the publics of the organization.
Final Thought
Contact me to discuss designing and implementing a Visioning process for your organization, including a strategy for enrolling your Supervisors as champions of the results. E-mail me at jim@jimjoseassociates.com OR call me at 520 / 825 - 8015.
EDITOR'S NOTE
Strategies & Solutions is published by Jim Jose Associates LLC to help you develop more effective people, leaders and processes to positively impact your core business. Jim Jose, Ph.D., SPHR,
is an organizational effectiveness and leadership strategist whose results-oriented, people-focused approach is valued by both public and private clients throughout the western US, including Alaska. For more information, visit www.jimjoseassociates.com.
Copyright (c) 2004 Jim Jose Associates LLC. All rights reserved. We encourage you to reprint and distribute with appropriate credit.
Copyright (c) 2003 Jim Jose Associates LLC. All rights reserved. We encourage you to reprint with appropriate credit.
