Below are two images that represents one of those simple contemplation ideas or thoughts on life, just for consideration as to personal or organizational innovation and improvement. The first one is a giveaway, but the second one is a paradox. Maybe, for learning possibilities, I should have reversed the order, but then people will probably just skip by and ignore this opportunity…
The impetus came when I got a Creative Whack Pack (1992) last night. I flipped through it and thought I need to do a card deck around the many dozens of our Square Wheels LEGO images as a tool for some creative thinking on implementing improvements as well as innovating solutions to workplace realities. (We’ve been using images as creative thinking tools since we first started playing with Square Wheels® One back in 1993. That has been a most interesting journey.)
So, from that review of the card deck framework, I started generating two new “posters” around people and performance:
The reality is that both Square Wheels® and Round Wheels already exist. Square Wheels are exceptionally common, a daily occurrence actually, since so many systems and processes simply do not work well — but so few people seem to understand that things can be fixed and improved. Few things out there seem to work smoothly and continually and continuous continuous improvement is an organizational reality. But people also resist change when they believe things are working.
The Square Wheels Project is our course focused on improving the facilitation skills and engagement competencies of managers. All sorts of statistics point to this as an organizational issue worldwide, to the reality that engagement is awful in many places, and the the issues that motivation and innovation are critical to long term success. But it is NOT just about identifying problems. It is about implementing solutions and that is often impossibly hard without the active support of the people doing the job.
It is not simply the identification of the problems, it is the implementation of solutions that is critical to success and the involvement and engagement of the workforce. And how one actively involves and engages people in change is the key. That is a SKILL. It is not accomplished from yelling and telling or by people simply using power to try to influence — that just generates resistance. We see that in all kinds of statistics (low engagement, lack of respect, employee turnover, etc.)
Performance Management Company has been supporting workplace issues of people and performance since 1984. We offer simple teambuilding tools and the Square Wheels® themed tools for engagement and change management, to keep things straightforward and simple.
If we can provide some support, let us know,
For the FUN of It!
Dr. Scott Simmerman is a designer of team building games and organization improvement tools. Managing Partner of Performance Management Company since 1984, he is an experienced presenter and consultant.
You can reach Scott at scott@squarewheels.com
Connect with Scott on Google+
Learn more about Scott at his LinkedIn site.
Square Wheels® is a registered trademark of Performance Management Co.
LEGO® is a trademark of The LEGO Group
Also published on Medium.
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