Simple thoughts on how things really work in most organizations, set up as a haiku:
In any work environment, leaders (aka wagon pullers) often lose track of what is happening at the back of their wagons.They are insulated and often isolated and it is important to remember that,
“A desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world.”
(John LeCarre)
(John LeCarre)
Similarly, workers (at any level of the organizational hierarchy) will lose sight of the missions and visions and become less aligned to goals and expectations. They simply will not have the current leadership vision of where they are going and what lies ahead of them.
“If you don’t know where you are going, any path will get you there.”
(Lewis Carroll)
(Lewis Carroll)
Here is a Dr. Seuss-style poem on The View at the Front and the Back and the issues of alignment and motivation:
Periodically checking in and talking about issues and opportunities is useful as well as motivational. Having smart management systems with clear expectations and solid feedback systems are critical, but so are occasional alignment conversations, because that view at the back is very different than the wagon puller‘s view at the front.
When it comes to productivity improvement and innovation, the ideas are also pretty straightforward. The Round Wheels of Today will, inevitably, become The Square Wheels of Tomorrow. There is a need for continuous continuous improvement of systems and processes and how people are managing roadblocks and new ideas. Thus, the necessity to step back from the wagon on occasion to see what new ideas should be implemented.
The exemplary performers in any organization are essentially using Round Wheels in a world of Square Wheel Wagons. They simply do things differently. And they can share those best practices with their peers, improving group performance. But the group has to feel involved and engaged, because:
“Nobody ever washes a rental car.”
(Scott Simmerman)
(Scott Simmerman)
So, we will encourage you to work to better involve and engage and align your people, at any level of the organization, to shared goals and expectations and to focus on the reality that they all have ideas that can be implemented to improve organizational results.
Our last haiku and recommendations thus looks like this:
People WANT to be involved and engaged and feel part of the team, they want results of the group and their personal contributions to be appreciated. Square Wheels is a very simple approach to involving and engaging people and focusing them on things that can and should be improved.
PMC offers an online training program at The Square Wheels Project and also a stand-along toolkit of powerpoints, handouts and instructions, something we call the Stupidly Simple Square Wheels Facilitation Toolkit.
Please also note that we are also sharing reprintable posters of these scenes and frameworks for free through our poems blog and newsletter.
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For the FUN of It!
Dr. Scott Simmerman is a designer of team building games and organization improvement products. Managing Partner of Performance Management Company since 1984, he is an experienced presenter and consultant who designs simple, powerful learning tools.
See the powerful new Square Wheels LEGO teambuilding game,
The Collaboration Journey Challenge
You can reach Scott at scott@squarewheels.com
See his poems and performance haiku poems at www.poemsontheworkplace.com
Learn more about Scott at his LinkedIn site.
Square Wheels® is a registered trademark of Performance Management Company
LEGO® is a trademark of The LEGO® Group®
Also published on Medium.
Dr. Scott Simmerman
(I have NO idea about why the formatting of this post became so ugly. And I messed with trying to fix it to no avail. I guess it is one more datapoint proving that The Square Wheels really ARE everywhere!)