Management Questions

1. My supervisor keeps my interests in mind when making decisions?
2. I would be willing to let my supervisor have complete control over my future in this company.
3. If my supervisor asked why a problem occurred, I would speak freely even if I were partly to blame.
4. I feel comfortable being creative because my supervisor understands that sometimes creative solutions do not work.
5. It is important for me to have a good way to keep an eye on my supervisor
6. Increasing my vulnerability to criticism by my supervisor would be a mistake.
7. If I had my way, I wouldn’t let my supervisor have any influence over decisions that are important to me.

260No Comments »http://www.mgmtquestions.com/2010/07/09/measuring-trust-in-an-organization/Measuring+Trust+in+an+Organization2010-07-09+18%3A29%3A42Administrator Posted by Administrator / Management Questions and Organization Questions

• Do we pay attention to each stakeholder as an individual?
• Do we respect each person’s views and interests?
• Are we honest?
• Do we keep promises?
• Do we seek to “do good while doing well?”
• Do we create innovative solutions to important, unmet human needs?
• Do we look for validation of ideas in customer and end-user acceptance?
• Do we put the interests of all stakeholders on a par with each other?
• Do we take pride in our work?
• Do we serve others in continually improving ways?
• Are we reliable in looking out for others?

Source:
Establishing a Continuing Business Model Innovation Process
by Donald Mitchell
CEO Refresher, January 2004

189No Comments »http://www.mgmtquestions.com/2007/10/11/values-questions/Values+Questions2007-10-11+18%3A15%3A00Administrator Posted by Administrator / Organization Questions

1. How do your customers view your organization?
2. How do your suppliers view your organization?
3. How do your employees view your organization?
4. Has your organization’s strategy been articulated and communicated?
5. Does this strategy make sense given the current and anticipated external threats and opportunities?
6. Where are the gaps in terms of internal strengths and capabilities?
7. Have the desired outputs of the firm and the level of performance expected been determined and communicated?
8. Are all necessary functions in place?
9. Are there currently functions that are unnecessary or that could or should be outsourced?
10. Does the formal organization structure support the strategy?
11. Where does the formal structure inhibit efficiency of executing the strategy?
12. Have all relevant functional goals been established?
13. Is all relevant performance measured?
14. Are resources properly allocated?
15. Are the interfaces between departments being managed?

Source:
Performance Improvement – A Classic Checklist
by Rick Sidorowicz
The CEO Refresher

188No Comments »http://www.mgmtquestions.com/2007/10/10/organization-performance/Organization+Performance2007-10-10+18%3A15%3A00Administrator Posted by Administrator / Organization Questions

• To what extent is the organization thinking about its future and about the larger implications of its behavior?
• What are people rewarded, recognized, fired and/or promoted for?

Source:
The decisiondriven organization
by Paul Rogers
Bain & Company

184No Comments »http://www.mgmtquestions.com/2007/10/06/miscellaneous-organization-questions/Miscellaneous+Organization+Questions2007-10-06+18%3A15%3A00Administrator Posted by Administrator / Organization Questions

• What are our unifying values? What have we stood for over time? The ability to provide context and meaning for the work people do is key.
• How do you organize your time? Is it spent on what you say is important? If you want to know if you’re really adding value, look at your calendar.
• Whom do you depend on? Your real work team is those people you count on to do your job — including support staff, suppliers, customers, direct reports, even regulators. Your performance depends on the quality of those relationships.
• What are you being paid for? All leaders must understand what results they’re accountable for.
• How well do you practice teamwork, empowerment, service, or whatever values you espouse? Credibility is the No. 1 issue for leaders. By taking an honest look at your own practices — and asking others to look at them — you’ll know where you stand.
• How do you convey difficult issues? Learning requires an acceptance, by definition, that one doesn’t have all the answers. Your ability to discuss complex problems and develop solutions without making others defensive is a key to learning.

Source:
The Ecology of Leadership
by Peter M. Senge
Leader to Leader, No. 2 Fall 1996

183No Comments »http://www.mgmtquestions.com/2007/10/04/diagnosing-the-strengths-and-weaknesses-of-your-organization/Diagnosing+the+Strengths+and+Weaknesses+of+Your+Organization2007-10-04+18%3A15%3A00Administrator Posted by Administrator / Organization Questions

• What about the current structure helps or hinders the organization in achieving its strategy?
• What roles and responsibilities are clear or not clear?
• Are the organizational goals clear or is there confusion?
• Which customer needs are being satisfied or not met?
• Which people skills exist or are missing?
• Which work flows are efficient and effective? Or not?
• Which informal processes support organizational goals? Or work against them?
• What aspects of the organization, structure, culture, and power sharing are ineffective?
• What are the traditional bottlenecks in the current work processes?
• What areas are focal points for recurring negative customer feedback?
• What aspects of individual competence, people skills, and mindset are inadequate to get the work done?

Source:
TAOS Thinking About Organization Structure
by Roger T Sobkowiak
HR effects

180No Comments »http://www.mgmtquestions.com/2007/10/01/assessing-what-is-and-is-not-working/Assessing+What+Is+and+Is+Not+Working2007-10-01+18%3A15%3A00Administrator Posted by Administrator / Organization Questions

Dave Anderson, author of “No-Nonsense Leadership: Real World Strategies to Maximize Personal & Corporate Potential” (Learn to Lead Press, 2001), offers an eight-point reality check to help you determine whether entitlement is still alive and well in your organization:

1. You base promotions and job retention on tenure, not performance.
2. You give bonuses, whether or not people have earned them.
3. Employees get raises regardless of performance.
4. You dump money into incentive programs that enrich everyone rather than rewarding only the top performers.
5. Your employee reviews and evaluations are overly positive and shy away from telling people they’re failing.
6. You set no-brainer performance standards designed to make people feel comfortable rather than making them stretch to reach a higher level.
7. You spend equal amounts of time, energy and resources on all employees instead of focusing on the top performers.
8. You’d rather be well-liked and popular than confront poor performance and hold others accountable for results.

Source:
Upfront: Death of the Entitlement Culture
by Laurie Brannen
Business Finance, December 2002

179No Comments »http://www.mgmtquestions.com/2007/09/30/a-culture-of-entitlement/A+Culture+of+Entitlement2007-09-30+18%3A15%3A00Administrator Posted by Administrator / Organization Questions

1. Mind-engaging work
   When was the last time you got so caught up in interesting work that you lost track of time? What were you doing? What was it — about the work itself, how you were going about it, its connection to a greater good — that made this such a wonderfully consuming activity?
2. Seeing the fruits of your labor
   When you want to see the results of your work, what do you look at? How do you know that your effort is having a positive impact? If you could wave a wand and instantly create a more meaningful system for tracking results, what would it look like?
3. Positive problems
   John W. Gardner observed, “We are continually faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems.” What is your biggest insoluble problem? What makes it so tough to tackle, and what is the great opportunity that lies within? How would you go about pursuing this opportunity if you divided the challenge into manageable steps?
4. Meetings, meetings, and more meetings
   How many hours do you spend each week in meetings? How many of these hours are well spent, and how many are wasted? If you could redirect that unproductive time to worthwhile activity, what would you do?
5. The voice of the customer
   When your customers talk about your organization behind your back, what do you think they say? Who has the highest praise, who is most critical, and why? Now think about your own immediate customers: When they talk about you personally (and you know they do!), what do they likely say?
6. The community-individuality balance
   What gets greater emphasis in your workplace: teamwork and togetherness, or individuality and diversity? If it’s teamwork and togetherness, does the pursuit of unity prompt people to downplay their differences? If individuality and diversity are the main focus, does the workplace ever feel like a loose collection of conflicting styles and agendas? What can be done to maintain a good balance between unity and uniqueness?
7. From passive complaints to positive action
   What is your biggest complaint about the workplace? Now, rephrase it in the form of a positive goal. Here’s an example: “I’m tired of busywork. I spend half my day crunching numbers that no one looks at.” Here’s the corresponding positive goal: “I’d like to spend my time on work that relates to our mission and affects our customers. If my number-crunching has real value, I’d like to know exactly how.” After defining the goal, think action: What can you and others do to make it happen?
8. Giving and getting respect
   Johann von Goethe said, “The way you see people is the way you treat them, and the way you treat them is what they become.” What did Goethe mean, and how does this play itself out in your workplace? What could be done right now to make respect one of the workplace’s greatest strengths?
9. Can we talk?
   Is there an elephant in your workplace — a big problem or concern that no one ever talks about? Something that’s well-known to all and in desperate need of dialogue? If so, why is the elephant so unacknowledged? What are the risks of talking about it? What are the potential benefits?
10. Empowering yourself
    “If I had just a bit more authority at work, I would _____.” Fill in the blank with several actions you’d like to take right now to be more effective in your job. Then explore why you can’t. What’s holding you back? What is the one action you can get started on right now?

Source:
Ten Conversations That Can Transform Your Workplace
by Tom Terez
The CEO Refresher

178No Comments »http://www.mgmtquestions.com/2007/09/29/10-conversations-that-can-transform-your-workplace/10+Conversations+That+Can+Transform+Your+Workplace2007-09-29+18%3A15%3A00Administrator Posted by Administrator / Organization Questions

• Where are you going? (preferred future)
• What do you believe in? (principles)
• Why do you exist? (purpose)

Source:
Who Are You and What Do You Want?
by Jim Clemmer
The CEO Refresher

177No Comments »http://www.mgmtquestions.com/2007/09/28/3-organizational-ps/3+Organizational+Ps2007-09-28+18%3A15%3A00Administrator Posted by Administrator / Organization Questions

1. Mind-engaging work
   When was the last time you got so caught up in interesting work that you lost track of time? What were you doing? What was it — about the work itself, how you were going about it, its connection to a greater good — that made this such a wonderfully consuming activity?
2. Seeing the fruits of your labor
   When you want to see the results of your work, what do you look at? How do you know that your effort is having a positive impact? If you could wave a wand and instantly create a more meaningful system for tracking results, what would it look like?
3. Positive problems
   John W. Gardner observed, “We are continually faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems.” What is your biggest insoluble problem? What makes it so tough to tackle, and what is the great opportunity that lies within? How would you go about pursuing this opportunity if you divided the challenge into manageable steps?
4. Meetings, meetings, and more meetings
   How many hours do you spend each week in meetings? How many of these hours are well spent, and how many are wasted? If you could redirect that unproductive time to worthwhile activity, what would you do?
5. The voice of the customer
   When your customers talk about your organization behind your back, what do you think they say? Who has the highest praise, who is most critical, and why? Now think about your own immediate customers: When they talk about you personally (and you know they do!), what do they likely say?
6. The community-individuality balance
   What gets greater emphasis in your workplace: teamwork and togetherness, or individuality and diversity? If it’s teamwork and togetherness, does the pursuit of unity prompt people to downplay their differences? If individuality and diversity are the main focus, does the workplace ever feel like a loose collection of conflicting styles and agendas? What can be done to maintain a good balance between unity and uniqueness?
7. From passive complaints to positive action
   What is your biggest complaint about the workplace? Now, rephrase it in the form of a positive goal. Here’s an example: “I’m tired of busywork. I spend half my day crunching numbers that no one looks at.” Here’s the corresponding positive goal: “I’d like to spend my time on work that relates to our mission and affects our customers. If my number-crunching has real value, I’d like to know exactly how.” After defining the goal, think action: What can you and others do to make it happen?
8. Giving and getting respect
   Johann von Goethe said, “The way you see people is the way you treat them, and the way you treat them is what they become.” What did Goethe mean, and how does this play itself out in your workplace? What could be done right now to make respect one of the workplace’s greatest strengths?
9. Can we talk?
   Is there an elephant in your workplace — a big problem or concern that no one ever talks about? Something that’s well-known to all and in desperate need of dialogue? If so, why is the elephant so unacknowledged? What are the risks of talking about it? What are the potential benefits?
10. Empowering yourself
    “If I had just a bit more authority at work, I would _____.” Fill in the blank with several actions you’d like to take right now to be more effective in your job. Then explore why you can’t. What’s holding you back? What is the one action you can get started on right now?

Source: Ten Conversations That Can Transform Your Workplace / Tom Terez / CEO Refresher

30No Comments »http://www.mgmtquestions.com/2006/07/10/ten-conversations-that-can-transform-your-workplace/Ten+Conversations+That+Can+Transform+Your+Workplace2006-07-10+15%3A00%3A10Administrator Posted by Administrator / Organization Questions