Observations Defined
“Observations” have a dual meaning for us. We routinely do a study with our clients which we call “observations.” The concept is to spend some time watching a process from the perspective of an employee or man- ager. Initially it’s a little unnerving for the person being observed however, once they see we are not evaluating them, just watching the process, they get fairly comfortable with the technique. It’s quite fascinating to see how a typical day unravels.
We used the same term “observations” for the title of this book but we’re using it in a slightly broader context. From the work we have done in various industries over the past twenty years, we’ve tried to distill a few problems that we’ve found to be fairly common in organizations.
One of the advantages consultants have, besides the luxury of being somewhat of an armchair quarterback, is that we see similar problems in many different organizations. We also observe similar problems in differ- ent languages and on different continents. This allows us to look for specific issues with every new client. Another advantage is that we get to work with many bright managers, some of whom have figured out innovative ways to deal with some of the common problems they face. Some of these innovative ideas work very well when applied to similar problems in very different industry sectors. Of course, not all of the observations we discuss in this collection have an easy solution. Most are actually fairly complex organizational issues that require different thinking and approaches best suited to their particular environment.
Sometimes we are simply presenting a typical issue that crops up frequently.
Our hope is that the observations we present are interesting, sometimes informative or even educational, and ultimately help provide a perspective that gives managers some ideas as to how they might improve the performance of their organizations.