Advice for Entrepreneurs Who Want to Really Understand Their Strengths and Weaknesses

I have consulted with organizations large and small, working in the following capacities:

  • Merger and Acquisition Integration
  • Large-Scale Organization Change
  • Culture Building
  • Organization Redesign
  • Strategic Planning

To help with my work, I have developed a four-factor organization effectiveness model. This model holds that all effective organizations:

  • Develop and communicate a clarityof purpose and direction
  • Enlist the sincere commitmentof all organizational members
  • Skillfully executethe things that matter
  • Build mutually beneficial relationshipswith important outside constituencies

This four-factor model is my main organizational assessment tool. I use its component parts to assist in identifying client problems and opportunities and planning consulting projects.

Organizational Effectiveness Snapshot:

You can use this audit to determine how well your organization stacks up against these four secrets. Answer each question. Any question to which you answer “no” indicates an area where you can improve your organization’s performance. Your truthful answers to these questions will provide you with the beginnings of a blueprint for enhancing the performance of your organization.

 

CLARITY 

QUESTION YES NO
1. Our organization has a well-defined Mission Statement that clearly defines our reason for existence.
2. Our organization has a well-defined Vision Statement that clearly defines our direction and three to five year goal.
3. Our organization has a three to five year strategic business plan that is based on our Mission and Vision Statements.
4. Our organization has an annual business plan that clearly defines our short-term (one year) goals and that is based on our strategic plan.
5. Individual and departmental objectives are based on the organizational annual business plan.
6. Our organization has a well-defined set of values that clearly defines what’s important to us an organization.
7. Our organizational values provide guidance for decision making in ambiguous situations.
8. Our people know and understand our Mission, Vision, Strategic and Annual Plans and their part in making them a reality.
9. Our people understand our Organizational Values and conduct themselves in a manner consistent with them.
10. Is there a sense of team spirit and esprit de corps?

 

COMMITMENT

QUESTION YES NO
1. We have a rigorous screening process to determine whom we invite to join our organization.
2. When people join us, our orientation and onboarding ensure that they feel welcome and part of something special.
3. Our organizational Mission, Vision and Values instill a sense of pride in our people and help them feel that their individual jobs are important.
4. Our people trust us to be fair in our dealings with them.
5. We treat all of our people with respect and dignity.
6. Our people know what is expected of them in their jobs.
7. Our people have the information, materials and equipment they need to do their jobs.
8. Our leaders encourage, and are open to, our people’s ideas and suggestions.
9. Our leaders provide our people with regular, open, honest and balanced (positive and negative) feedback.
10. Our leaders recognize people for their contributions.
11. We provide our people with the training they need in order to be successful in their current positions.
12. We provide our people with developmental opportunities to assist them in preparing for future opportunities.
13. Our reward systems (both monetary and non-monetary) reinforce our people for their accomplishments in support of our Mission and Vision, and for working in a manner consistent with our organizational Values.

 

EXECUTION

QUESTION YES NO
1. We have well-defined metrics that are linked to our strategic and annual business plans.
2. We use these metrics to manage our business and measure our progress toward our goals.
3. We revise our plans based on the information we glean from a review of our performance versus our metrics.
4. We use both qualitative and quantitative measures in determining our performance and managing our business.
5. Our organizational structure facilitates collaborative decision making and problem solving.
6. Our business processes are robust and in control.
7. We make use of process improvement technologies, tools and techniques to ensure the robustness of our business processes.
8. We make full use of available information technology to gather and analyze data that assists us in managing our business.
9. We are skillful at anticipating, adapting to and managing change.

RELATIONSHIPS

QUESTION YES NO
1. We have strong, truthful, trusting, long-term and mutually beneficial relationships with our customers.
2. We have strong, truthful, trusting, long-term and mutually beneficial relationships with our suppliers.
3. We have strong, truthful, trusting, long-term and mutually beneficial relationships with the government agencies that regulate us.
4. We have strong, truthful, trusting, long-term and mutually beneficial relationships with the communities in which we do business.
5. We have strong, truthful, trusting, long-term and mutually beneficial relationships with the people who have invested in our success.
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