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What is an Organisation?

8 November, 2015 by James Lawther 4 Comments

You can’t improve it if you don’t understand it

You can’t improve your organisation if you don’t understand what an organisation is.

So I googled organisation, this is what I found:

Organisation: noun

/ɔːɡ(ə)nʌɪˈzeɪʃ(ə)n/

  1. An organised group of people with a particular purpose. – “a research organisation”
  2. The action of organising something. – “the organisation of conferences”
  3. The quality of being systematic and efficient. – “their lack of organisation”
  4. The way in which the elements of a whole are arranged.  – “the functional organisation”

I’m not telling you anything you don’t know…

We create organisations because if we synchronise our efforts we achieve more.  We create synergy.

Organisations are all about coordination, communication, purpose and effectiveness. So if our efforts aren’t synchronised we don’t have an organisation.

I don’t think anybody will disagree

The dilemma

Why do we spend so much time and effort optimising individual and functional performance?

  • Performance management
  • Incentive schemes
  • Centres of excellence
  • Functional strategies

And so little time coordinating and synchronising our efforts?

You can have the best people and the best functions, but if they don’t work together your performance will be dreadful.

Unconvinced?

Watch the video, an interesting minute and a half, I promise.

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Image by etolane

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: beliefs, point optimisation, systems thinking, video

About the Author

James Lawther
James Lawther

James Lawther is a middle-aged, middle manager.

To reach this highly elevated position he has worked in numerous industries, from supermarket retailing to tax collecting.  He has had several operational roles, including running the night shift in a frozen pea packing factory and carrying out operational research for a credit card company.

As you can see from his C.V. he has either a wealth of experience or is incapable of holding down a job.  If the latter is true this post isn’t worth a minute of your attention.

Unfortunately, the only way to find out is to read it and decide for yourself.

www.squawkpoint.com/

Comments

  1. Adrian Swinscoe says

    8 November, 2015 at 10:57 am

    James,
    Like we know from sports….just because you have a team of stars doesn’t guarantee that you’ll win the league.

    Adrian

    Reply
    • James Lawther says

      15 November, 2015 at 9:39 am

      All those years I spent playing “magnet ball” Adrian

      Reply
  2. Annette Franz says

    9 November, 2015 at 3:25 am

    Great video, James, to make your point. Why do we build organizations that are silo’d? Maybe we don’t set out to do that, but at some point, it happens.

    Reply
    • James Lawther says

      15 November, 2015 at 9:39 am

      Glad you liked it, the old videos often show how little things have changed

      Reply

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