In the world of organisational effectiveness Cialis Professional it is sometimes interesting to ask the question; “Do people make a difference?” Where the savings that come from effectiveness projects in the very largest organisations can run into billions, it is easy to assume that all that matters is the budget and the calculator. In this article we consider whether people can actually make a difference to the success of these projects.

Managing Change

I was speaking to a change manager of my acquaintance a few weeks ago. He was thinking about his next project. “Where I start”, he said, “is with the accounts. I go straight to the accountant, get the budget and map the spend. Kamagra Gold Once I’ve identified where the money goes, the rest is easy.” I smiled. I’d heard similar words before, but they don’t reflect my own experience, which tells me that if you want your project to succeed you need to pay attention to the people that are involved.

People are the key to these projects for three reasons:
*Leadership
*Ideas
*Sustainability

Let me explain.

Leadership

Let me first all of remind you, tongue in cheek, that leaders are people. I know that it doesn’t always seem that way, but… It actually requires some pretty far sighted leadership to get the best results. Leaders need to determine the degree of challenge, they need to set priorities, they need to allocate resources, and they need to provide support. Then they need to back off and give the people, who really understand what the issues are and how they can be solved, space to deliver. That’s not so easy when the leader’s own sponsors are applying pressure to get results.

Ideas

It is the local people who understand the problems that their organisation viagra propecia celebrex has with its customers, and most probably know exactly what they need to do to put it right. That knowledge and those ideas need to be harvested.

Sustainability

The people in the organisation need to believe in and support the change. They need to believe that it is taking their organisation in the right direction. They need to believe that the change is right for their customers, and they need to believe that the change is right for them. If they don’t, then any initial benefits will not be sustained, they will evaporate through time and the organisation will be back where it started. Only the people in the organisation can make the change sustained.

The Evidence

I came across a recent report that reinforced this argument for me.

Government in the UK had embraced the quest for effectiveness and efficiency as part of its approach to reducing its financial deficit. Those e-words are on everybody’s lips and the various governmental departments are wrestling with the problem. It was a report however from the local government scene that caught my eye.

Pilot projects have been running in local government for some time. In many of the studies there has been a focus, not surprisingly, on mapping the financial spend within the particular organisation. However, the Suffolk study has taken a broader “whole systems” approach with representatives of as many as twenty two public, private and voluntary bodies coming together to try to make life better for their local citizens. They have started “with people, citizen’s and colleagues and focused on developing the relationships to sustain change”. The premise behind this trial is that to create long term sustained change it’s the people involved, their relationships and the trust developed between them that will make the real difference.

It is of course too early to report that they have achieved long term sustained change, but the signs are good. The participating agencies have been able to learn to work together to create a shared purpose and to collaborate together, sometimes sharing budgets, in an attempt to redesign the service delivery to focus on the needs of the local citizens.

It would appear that, in Suffolk at least, when it comes to realising organisational effectiveness and the imperative of making substantial budgetary savings, the route to ensuring that those savings are sustained is to be through people.

People do make a difference.

Author Bio: Eric Thompson has spent over 20 years helping others to make their organisation effective. Find out more about organisational effectiveness. For more articles and enquiries visit JEST Management Services Articles

Category: Business/Management/Organizational
Keywords: organisational effectiveness