Building: High Performance Organizations
In over 20 years of real-world experience, OLC has helped organizations develop specific "Organizational Capabilities" that enable the achievement of high performance, foster innovation and engagement, and help knowledge workers use their full potential.
OLC's "Bigger Pie" Initiative
Let's stop arguing about who gets the biggest piece of the pie, let's work together to make a bigger pie. Lack of knowledge... that is the problem -W. Edwards Deming
"How do you make a bigger pie?" The purpose of "The Bigger Pie Initiative" is to share OLC's answers to this this question with individuals and groups who seek ways to build a better world for all.
The Bigger Pie Initiative
"The world economy isn't growing fast enough, and this is starting to cause some serious problems...So how can a business leader help save the world - or at least his or her country? The answer starts right in his or her own workplace. ...Doing so starts with you in your company. And it spreads around the country from there. When and if your company, and then country, doubles its workforce engagement, only great things will follow an economic boom, an explosion of innovative ideas, and a surge in entrepreneurship."
These words are from the introduction to a report published in 2013 by Gallup entitled "State of the Global Workforce - Employee Engagement Insights for Business Leaders." The report provides findings from Gallup surveys undertaken in 2010 and 2011 on the status of employee engagement in 140 countries. The surveys found that only 13% of employees were engaged in the workplace.
A low level of employee engagement is a clear indicator that an organization is not fully using the capabilities of its workforce.
In the first phase of the development of the railway system coal powered locomotives which had an overall efficiency of around 5% were used to pull the trains. In the second phase of development of railway systems diesel electric locomotives were used these locomotives had an efficiency of around 30%. This second phase represented a radically different approach for powering locomotives which brought significant benefits to society.
Today's challenge is to implement a radically different approach for managing our organizations. W Edwards Deming provided the following perspective on this challenge.
We're living in prison under the tyranny of the prevailing style of management... We need to throw overboard our theories and practices of the present, and build afresh.
Deming also stressed the importance of having a theory for the way we manage organizations. Thus, to build afresh we need a new theory for managing our organizations. OLC has for the last 25 years been undertaking research and undertaking projects to help develop and test a theory of management which can realize a high quality working life and radical improvements in organizational performance. The goal of the "Bigger Pie" initiative is to share with individuals and groups an understanding of this new theory, why it is effective and how to implement it.
In a paper on "Awakening Faith in an Alternative Future" Peter Senge et al provided their views on "The Emergence of Living Institutions." OLC's Dr. Bob McQueen wrote "Organizational Evolution" to help clarify what is meant by Living Institutions.