A Believeable & Trusting Culture......
The old Cliche "You can talk the talk, but can you walk the walk"...
There is more wisdom, truth and depth in this one cliche than new times will ever be able to match.
So easy are the promises that come from our mouths with an anticipation to sell. Getting people in the door is one thing, but keeping them in and buying the product is another. To me there is only one way to become a world class organazation. And that is to BE world class individuals throughout the organization. That's right a "Culture" of individuals who completely believe in what they do. When all are working in the same direction with the same (humanitarian) goal, it becomes a powerful & attractive source of energy of which almost all people want to be a part!!!
Amen. Culture sets the tone for how problems are handled and whether people feel empowered to be proactive.
Mr. Kroch,
I believe one barrier to remove would be to have the entire instituition understand the definition of culture. Culture is not the mission, vision or the strategy that is printed on a sheet of paper mounted on a wall. Culture is how people acutally behave and treat each other on a consistent day in and day out basis. Culture is seen, felt and heard.(The Leader in Me, by Stephen R Covey)
Who and what is being observed, proclaimed and demonstrated in the school's enviroment.Is the faculty appreciated, supported and listened too. If not their unhappiness will be felt and seen by the students. The culture will be one of discontent.
WOW!! Right on. How true it is that all have to be part of the solution.
Obviously, this is an important issue to you - and I suspect your colleagues. Have you sought help from the Administration or business department in handling the purchasing process? Typically, faculty aren't asked/expected to get so deeply involved in the sourcing. What happens if you buy the cabinet and submit the receipt for reimbursement?
Barriers? Repeatedly getting blocked by budget constraints.
Such as, we now need a third massage classroom. We've taken over a room with no storage cabinets and we need a place to put away the build-your-own-muscle-man kits at the end of class so students in other classes aren't tempted to mess them up.
You would think it's a simple matter of getting a storage cabinet from Staples. I had picked one out from their catalog. A phone call would have solved the problem in 24 hours with no further effort on my part or anyone else's. But we're supposed to go through official channels so we can get the same cabinet from Staples at a 20% discount. Except that if we go through channels that same cabinet costs 50% more than if we just buy it as private customers. So then we're supposed to shop around with other vendors to get a better price. Meanwhile, since all of us are working 12-hour days on our other 5-jobs-in-1, no one has time to get a good deal on the cabinet, and we do without.
Now, really. Is our mission statement to get the best possible deal on office furniture, or to change futures, change lives?
What can we do to move those barriers? The best we have come up with so far is to spend our own money on capital items. (I have brought my own personal medical skeleton to the classroom while we're battling to get approval to buy one.) Obviously that's a lose-win scenario which is not a good long-term barrier-moving strategy.
Maybe you can suggest a different strategy?
Powerful statement, Tony. What are the barriers to becoming a world class organization? What can you do to move those barriers?
