Khartoum Management Forum

Peter TotterdillDirectorWorkplace Innovation Limited

Joint Chief ExecutiveUK Work Organisation Network

Visiting ProfessorKingston University London

[email protected]

The Participative Organisation

The UK Work Organisation Network A not-for-profit coalition committed to shared knowledge, collaborative action and policy advocacy

• The future of work and organisations• Closing the gap between leading-edge practice and common practice

www.workplaceinnovation.eu

A distinctive approach

• Evidence-based• Diverse backgrounds, common values• Stimulating “employee voice”• Committed to win-win outcomes• Sustainable change, not quick fixes

Innovation in work organisation:

an under-utilised resource?

• Competitiveness and innovation• Quality of working life• Employee engagement• Healthy working• Talent wars• Active ageing• Social inclusion

The past is an increasingly unreliable guide to the future

Survival is not compulsoryOf the Fortune 500 firms listed in any year from 1975,

over a third disappeared ten years later. Only one firm remains from the 1900 list. For smaller firms the odds are much worse.

Put simply, change is imperative.

Times of economic downturn are Times of economic downturn are times to invest in people and times to invest in people and

workplace innovation. workplace innovation. Now is the time to engage people in Now is the time to engage people in

finding creative solutions.finding creative solutions.

Organisations under pressure• There will be winners and losers at the end of the

current crisis• The business environment is less predictable• Product ranges and services change more quickly• Constant imperative to offer more differentiation and

choice• Customers expect high quality service at speed, when

and where it suits them best• Companies expected to be environment friendly and

ethical

Traditional ways of organising Traditional ways of organising work and traditional work and traditional approaches to management approaches to management are inadequate in an are inadequate in an increasingly volatile world.increasingly volatile world.

Work and CapitalThen

Work Anonymous and replaceable

Capital Personal and unique

Svenskt Näringsliv – Confederation of Swedish Enterprise

Work and CapitalThen Now




Work and CapitalThen Now


Personal and unique


More and more anonymous and replaceable


“. . . a clear concentration on those factors in the work environment which determine the extent to which employees can develop and use their competencies and creative potential to the fullest extent, thereby enhancing the company’s capacity for innovation and competitiveness while enhancing quality of working life.”

Hi-Res Study (available at www.ukwon.net)

The critical importance of employee voice

Towards the High RoadTowards the High Road

• Beyond the Low Road of cost-driven Beyond the Low Road of cost-driven restructuringrestructuring

• Innovation: the ability to do things Innovation: the ability to do things differentlydifferently

• Convergence between enhanced Convergence between enhanced performance and quality of working lifeperformance and quality of working life

High Road:Quality

Low Road:Costs

Strategy WorkOrganisation

HRWO

Neo-Taylorism

Total QualityManagement

Team Work

Project Groups


Team Work

Project Groups

Quality Culture

Quality Control

semi autonomousholistic taskscontinous improvement

co-operation over hie-rarchical boundaries

Multiskilling

Job RotationShort Work Cycles

taylorist product development

High Road:Quality

Low Road:Costs

Strategy WorkOrganisation

HRWO

Neo-Taylorism


Team Work

Project Groups


Team Work

Project Groups

Quality Culture

Quality Control

semi autonomousholistic taskscontinous improvement

co-operation over hie-rarchical boundaries

Multiskilling

Job RotationShort Work Cycles

taylorist product development

Organising, Involving, Learning

The Slick Organisation

Innovation in work organisation:

an under-utilised resource?

• Competitiveness and innovation• Quality of working life• Employee engagement• Healthy working• Talent wars• Active ageing• Social inclusion

Dialogue,Reflection,Negotiated Action

SharedKnowledge &Intelligence

ORGANISING

INVOLVING LEARNING



Job design

Teamwork

Organising

Teamworking

Effective teams:•are multi-skilled and work on a common task •have high levels of discretion for managing their day-to-day work •allocate tasks between themselves •plan and pace work according to the outlined requirements of the business •recruit and train new team members •actively seek improvements to the work process.



Involving

CommunicationChange

ImprovementInnovationPartnership

Management / Workforce Partnership

• Often a formal partnership agreement• A representative employee forum• A shared commitment to new ways of

working together• A joint search for ‘win-win’ outcomes• Boxing and dancing

• Setting an agenda relevant to stakeholders

• Closeness to the drivers of change

• Proactive or reactive

• Supporting transition

• Building resilience

• Maintaining commitment

Moving partnership beyond IR and HR

• Partnership representatives as knowledgeable participants in innovation and change?

• Building skills and competencies in partnership and engagement

• Time and commitment

The roles and competencies of partnership representatives



Learning

CompetenceKnowledge

sharingDialogue

ORGANISING

INVOLVING LEARNING

Developing & using competencies High involvement innovation

Shared learning and knowledge

Organising, Involving, Learning

SELF ASSESSMENT

Taking Stock

•Representative participation alone has little direct impact on performance.•Direct participation is strongly correlated with improved performance against several indicators.•BUT these improvements are both enhanced and more sustainable when direct and representative participation co-exist in a series of mutually reinforcing practices.

South Maasland Hospital, The Netherlands

Signposts?

• Tegral• Kaiser Permanente• Tower Automotive• Lindum Group

Towards the High RoadTowards the High Road

• Beyond the Low Road of cost-driven Beyond the Low Road of cost-driven restructuringrestructuring

• Innovation: the ability to do things Innovation: the ability to do things differentlydifferently

• Convergence between enhanced Convergence between enhanced performance and quality of working lifeperformance and quality of working life

BOARDSenior Management Team


Strategic Knowledge


Strategic Knowledge

Stakeholders


Strategic Knowledge

StakeholdersOpportunitiesThreats


Strategic Knowledge

StakeholdersOpportunitiesThreats

Leadership, Strategy, Values

Workforce

Workforce

Practical Knowledge, Experience, Ideas

Workforce

Management, Work Organisation, Productive Reflection

Practical Knowledge, Experience, Ideas

Workforce




Workforce




Workforce




GAP?

Workforce




LineManagement

Workforce




LineManagement

CompetenceRole definitionClarity

Workforce




Systems and Procedures

Workforce




BehavioursTrustAdaptability

Systems and Procedures

Workforce




Innovation & Improvement

Workforce




Knowledge, experience, creativityTwo dimensions to every jobCommon purpose

Innovation & Improvement

FORMAL, RIGHTS-BASED

REFLECTIVE AND KNOWLEDGE-BASED

TEAM-BASED PROBLEM SOLVING

INFORMAL

Self-organised teamworking

Empowering job design and individuals engaged in dialogue

Employees participating as experts in improvement and innovation

Partnership involving Trade Union or Workplace Representatives




INFORMAL



Knowledge Sharing






INFORMAL



Knowledge SharingTACIT KNOWLEDGE INTO STRATEGY

STRATEGY INTO PRACTICE






INFORMAL





Ensuring quality of dialogue Partnership involving Trade Union or Workplace Representatives





INFORMAL





Ensuring quality of dialogueMANAGEMENT

SYSTEMS & PROCEDURES

PRODUCTIVE REFLECTION



ORGANISING

INVOLVING LEARNING

PRODUCTIVE REFLECTION

ERICSSON RADIO SYSTEMS, GÄVLE

The Green Room

Productive Reflection and Transformation

Individual creativity

Team effectiveness

Organisational innovation and transformation

Productive Reflection

The Workplace of the Future?



Developing Innovation Capability

Impact

Time

Level 1 – Pre (‘natural improvement’)

Level 2 – Structured

Level 3 – Goal-Directed

Level 4 – Proactive

Level 5 – Capability

ORGANISING

INVOLVING LEARNING

•

Employee engagement in the UK

• Engaged employees generate 43% more revenue.• Engaged employees: 2.7 sick days per year,Disengaged employees: 6.2.• Engaged employees are 87% less likely to leave.• 67% of engaged advocate their organisations; only

3% of the disengaged do so.• 59% of engaged employees say “work brings out

their most creative ideas” – only 3% of disengaged agree.

Case studies show evidence of:

· long term competitive advantage/service improvement;· harnessing employee knowledge and creative potential;· responsiveness to market demands;· continuous improvement and innovation;· increased productivity;· greater customer care, quality and reliability;· new technologies creating a need for change;· cost reduction;· improved industrial relations;· enhanced quality of working life;· improved recruitment and retention.

If it works . . .

. . . why isn’t everyone doing it?

DISCUSSION

What are the principal obstacles and dilemmas which organisations face in securing sustainable and effective change?

And what can leaders do to overcome them?

Obstacles

Limited awareness

Poor access to actionable knowledge

Partial change

The organisation as a black box

The problem of HR

Change is messy

A PEOPLE CENTRED APPROACH

People shape organisations but organisations shape people

Entrepreneurial Organisations and Entrepreneurial Individuals

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Sally


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CONFORMITY


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SYMBOLIC ENTREPRENEURSHIP


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Jess


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RESISTED


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Sonya


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ENTREPRENEURIAL ORGANISATION

Line managers: barrier reef or resource for change?

• overwhelmed by emails and paperwork with little differentiation between ‘priority’ and ‘routine’ communications;

• accepted the need to manage within rigid financial constraints but given little indication of how to prioritise between competing demands on limited resources;

• received too little information on the rationale for new policy initiatives making it difficult to appreciate their importance;

• rarely offered the opportunity to bring their knowledge and experience to the policy design process;

• often poorly briefed by senior management on effective approaches to policy implementation;

• risk-averse through fear of blame and poor performance ratings;• lacked opportunities for peer support in discussing common

problems, sharing successful practices and raising issues of shared concern with senior management;

• sometimes lack training and competence required to manage change successfully.

Roles and expectations of managers

The Decision Grid

Decision area:

Somebody up there decides I decide Department Managers decide

Somebody up there decides in consultation with me

I decide in consultation with . . .

Department Managers decide in consultation

with me

Innovative ways of engaging employees in change

Employee-driven scenario planning

Forum theatre is a powerful way of engaging staff mentally and emotionally in change and innovation.

The characters in the play can’t resolve the challenges they face without the help of your employees. In addressing these fictional problems your employees are also reflecting on their own working practices and workplace relationships.

Forum theatre

Forum theatre

productive reflection

Forum theatre

productive reflection

improvement

A case study . . .

The client wanted to:• narrow the gap between staff• unleash ideas for improvement• enhance quality of working life• prepare for an uncertain future

We helped achieve these aims by: • capturing stories of working life• analysing problems and causes• working with leaders• facilitating a Change Conference• establishing staff action groups

RESULTS:• 40 actionable ideas for

improvement• Increased engagement• Enhanced leadership

“Peter’s experience in effectively facilitating diverse groups in a Change Conference setting was evident. All aspects of the facilitation focused on fostering the active participation of attendees. Most important was the emphasis on working groups to take the change agenda forward. The team were professional, flexible, supportive and reliable.” Gwen Moore, VEC NPF, Ireland

• Listening to stories of working lifeListening to stories of working life

• Reporting backReporting back

• Making a playMaking a play

• Change ConferenceChange Conference

Dramatic Partnership

Making it happen

Dramatic Partnership

EMPLOYEES

MANAGEMENT

EMPLOYEES TRADE UNI ONS

NETWORKING FOR ALL

Learning Networks• Managers feel ownership of the learning process,

increasing motivation and engagement• Practical learning related to everyday reality• No jargon, time efficient & time sensitive• Tailored to the needs of participants• Not reinventing the wheel• Benchmarking against competition• Psychological support• Development of business with other companies

Action Learning

Action Learning

In Action Learning, participants work together to support the future actions of each individual set member. The emphasis is on sharing knowledge and experience to help address problems and strengthen future actions.Mutual support, empathy and co-operation are the conditions for success.

Sustainable innovation requires:

• Open dialogue and partnership within the organisation

• Widespread learning from outside the organisation

REGULATORY& POLICYFRAMEWORKS• National• European

GLOBALINNOVATION

GLOBALSTRATEGIC ALLIANCES

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR MARKETS

THE REGION

Intermediate Institutions

Regional Strategy

Regional Labour Markets

Supply Chains

Advanced Business Services Knowledge Networks Technology Transfer Innovation

ICTsSkills

Innovation Entrepreneurship Technology TransferKnowledge Networks

THE ENTERPRISE Global MarketsGlobal Mobility

THE ENTERPRISE Competitive StrategyOrganisational Competence Networks People

People at the centre of change

• Change is unpredictable

• It often fails

• There is no blueprint

• Experimentation and learning are unavoidable

• You need everyone’s help

• Space for reflection and dialogue is essential

www.ukwon.net

www.workplaceinnovation.eu