Your People are an Untapped Wealth

That “gold mine” that you may be ignoring; the wealth you might be wasting is your people. Every business relies upon its people. Every job, from the most menial to the most complex, is necessary and contributes to the success of an organization. And in most companies, every job function is clearly defined and every employee held to a routine performance of those duties.Routine expectations are how the “gold” is ignored and the wealth lost. Because that routine expectation underlies employee management – so prevalent throughout the business world – tosses away the true potential of every employee. That management style belongs to a bygone era.

Applying 19th Century Management Principles to 21st Century People

The so-called “modern” management principles were developed by Frederick Taylor in his principles of Scientific Management.

Taylor believed in breaking down each job into simple, repetitive tasks defined as a narrow range of activities, isolated unto that job title. The duty of each worker assigned to a given job title was to perform those tasks unerringly and unendingly – and nothing else.>/

Sound familiar? It should, because Taylor’s principles are still the method of management applied to the employees of most companies. But times have changed. Scientific Management was published at around the time the Wright Brothers flew the first airplane. The Wright Brothers’ early designs have long been relegated to museums and history books. But unfortunately for modern business, the same cannot be said for the principles of Scientific Management.

Taylor’s principles may have been suited to the bygone industrial era but they’re no more viable in today’s information era than the Wright Flyer would be at Portland International Airport.

Mine the Gold

If your company is seized in the grasp of the dusty old theories of Scientific Management, the alternative is quite simple: allow your people to be PEOPLE, not automatons!

Machines now perform many of the jobs that were performed by people in Taylor’s time. You don’t have machines on your payroll; you have people. And by asking no more of people than you would of machines, you’re leaving gold un-mined. You’re wasting a vast wealth of untapped potential.

High Performance: The New Paradigm

People aren’t machines. Each employee offers a wealth of creativity, energy and talent that is ignored and squandered under the old paradigm.

The new paradigm fosters respect and trust in people. It frees employees from their narrow lock-boxes of repetitive responsibility and engages them on an enterprise-wide level. The new paradigm moves much of the decision-making responsibility to people who are on the front line of operations. It changes the focus of each employee from “my job” to “my company.” If you think that the new high performance paradigm is just “touchy-feely” new age nonsense then think again. Huge companies – companies that have been around for generations, like Sherwin-Williams, Tektronix and Corning – are converting to research-based high performance principles.

For daring to be different and for courageously casting off tradition, these companies are reaping massive benefits in improved employee productivity and reduced costs.

- Douglas A. Lundrigan, MBA

Doug Lundrigan is president of Lighthouse Business Solutions. Lighthouse Business Solutions is committed to providing each and every client with the highest level of service. Our core values help us achieve this standard of excellence and exceed expectations each and every day.

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