Re: Staff attitude

[Roy Greenhalgh <rgreenh@attglobal.net>]

I came across this text as part of a posting three weeks ago from a
respected member of the UK's training fraternity.

>“ …the important thing to achieve is some method of measuring actual
>behaviour against the standards set. This is easy when talking about
>rational measures, as you can be objective about performance. >However,
for emotional measures, the problem of subjective assessment >will limit
the value to be gained unless handled carefully.

>In order to maintain consistency across all appraisals, you will
require a >standardised (and dare I say it rational) approach to
gathering >information on behaviours and attitudes, benchmarking and
then >analysing performance against both the benchmark for the
individual and >the standards set.
>Analysis of gaps in performance will need to be carefully structured
and >development/training solutions will need to be tailored to each
individual.

>Whilst this sounds like a lot of work to set up, once the process is in
>place then it should be possible to support and sustain it within your
>current cost base, thereby delivering longer term substantial gains for
the >business - both financially and also in terms of the welfare of the
staff. As >you quite rightly identify, training line managers will be
absolutely crucial >to ensure consistency and objectivity.”

These ideas amaze and frighten me.  I am amazed that the "non-systems"
trainers can reach such areas of irrelevance as this, with little or no
evidence of the results of what they teach.  I am frightened that these
ideas are gaining such influence, making the job of system thinkers all
that much harder.  And above all, I fear for the prosperity and
livelihood of ordinary workers who don't have a say in the adoption of
these ideas.

We have seen some spectacular failures in private businesses and public
sector organisations recently on both sides of the Atlantic.  A reading
of the web-lists serving training organisations is showing the
proliferation of such crazy ideas.  There is hardly any argument against
them. I'm sure there is a direct link between business failures and the
opting for such command-and-control ways of "managing" staff.

Roy Greenhalgh