People were expected to do their work routinely. Flexible applications, creativity, innovation, and mass customization were not sought, encouraged or offered.

The goals were replicability and efficiency. Work was segmented into small pieces to ensure its replicability.

Much like the guilds of medieval Europe, experienced crafts people passed on their knowledge to apprentices and newcomers.

The focus was on doing one’s job well, but with little attention to creating synergy across the different areas contributing to the production process.

Today, the goals are flexibility coupled with efficiency. Workers are encouraged to think outside the box.

People are expected to problem solve within the framework of the value chain.

In today’s reality, workers have to come together to generate value, rather than working independently.

What it takes to create value in today’s world is different from what it took yesterday. People have internal customers to satisfy, and depend on internal suppliers to achieve their tasks.

Attention has to be paid to creating synergy across different areas contributing to the production process.

Instead of expertise being specific, today’s workers will be more effective if they appreciate the interconnectedness of knowledge, and if they are able to bundle knowledge from a variety of applications into one solution or into a response.

Taking control of your destiny involves creating an organization that is capable of acting out your strategic intent in ways that create value and advantage.

For one thing, this requires that the members of an organization are smart about the broad marketplace. This savvy must extend beyond the boss’s office.

It must work its way through the whole organization; see the conversation on gaining market savvy considered in section 7.

If the workforce is going to work together for extraordinary results, then they’ve got to be skilled at thinking together.

The work force, as a whole, must see that a part of its role is to be thoughtful about their work. It’s not enough to show up and “do” your job.

The Fernley & Fernley Story: A great example of a company that has dedicated itself to responding to the changing requirements of creating value. They stuck with traditional values but moved away from the idea of only delivering them in traditional ways. [Read Now]

Thinking Together Is More Powerful Than Thinking Alone:

The workforce needs to have the necessary information to think intelligently about the business environment, if they are to collaborate with you to fulfill the brand’s promise.

Second, the workers need to have a clear frame of reference against which to balance conflicting demands or changing priorities.

A clear compelling purpose is a fundamental element in any High-Performance organization.

Rather than each worker making decisions from their own desktop-driven point of view, the business idea, expressed through the brand promise can serve as their guiding star.

It is the company’s purpose that provides the template necessary for worker to turn data into information and information into knowledge.

A third requirement for an empowered workforce is the expectation of ongoing conversations about the work.

When processes become inflexible and overly rigid, innovation dries up. When the way it has been becomes the way it must be, people have no need to talk about the work.

In a continuously changing environment, workers must be expected to talk about their perceptions and their observations.

Decisions need to be made at every level within the framework of the business idea. Finally, people need to operate within a culture of trust (see Ciancutti and Steding, 2000).

It has to be safe to think, to talk, and to act in good faith.

It is in these ways that true thought partnerships are sustained throughout the enterprise.

In turn, as mentioned above, these thought partnerships are the framework for the collaboration necessary for agile, innovative enterprise.