There is no time for vision talk – we need to get on with what is happening today – lower the vision!
I think the goals are no longer where we had set them at the beginning of the year? I wonder if others have noticed them? Maybe if we all kept quiet, no body will notice that has happened?
Dec 31. New Year is here again. My resolution for the new year (from tomorrow) is to lose weight. Cheers!
Mar 31. Hmm … that cake was yummy. Don’t you agree?
June 14. Oh-oh! My weight has yo-yoed once again. Nothing works!
EVENT
WHAT THE STRUCTURE LOOKS LIKE AT A POINT IN TIME (AS AN EVENT)
When goals seem to have their own direction (goal) and are drifting away from us.
When managing performance becomes an imperative. Something that we cannot do without. We believe (strongly) only what gets measured (supervised) gets done!
So we set goals (milestones) for our goals.
But it is futile. Or if we achieve it, it happens at a huge cost to the organization. Why does it cost us so much to get there?
PATTERN
A MANAGEMENT STORY ILLUSTRATING THE BEHAVIOR OF THE STRUCTURE PLAYING OUT OVER TIME (BOT / VIDEO)
The Story of NASA, since the landing on the moon.
Attention to SARS in 2002 in Singapore after 9/11 in 2001. Lives lost to SARS on the island = 80. Terrorism = 0.
SARS: Key Events
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) was first discovered in Asia in February 2003. The outbreak lasted approximately six months as the disease spread to more than two dozen countries in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia before it was stopped in July 2003. See below a timeline of CDC’s key activities conducted during the outbreak and beyond.
2002
November 16: The first case of atypical pneumonia is reported in the Guangdong province in southern China.
2003
March 12: The World Health Organization (WHO) issues a global alert for a severe form of pneumonia of unknown origin in persons from China, Vietnam, and Hong Kong.
March 14: CDC activated its Emergency Operations Center (EOC).
March 15: CDC issues first health alert and hosts media telebriefing about an atypical pneumonia that has been named Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). CDC issues interim guidelines for state and local health departments on SARS.
CDC issues a “Health Alert Notice” for travelers to the United States from Hong Kong, Guangdong Province (China).
March 20: CDC issues infection control precautions for aerosol-generating procedures on patients who are suspected of having SARS.
March 22: CDC issues interim laboratory biosafety guidelines for handling and processing specimens associated with SARS.
March 24: CDC laboratory analysis suggests a new coronavirus may be the cause of SARS. In the United States, 39 suspect cases (to date) had been identified. Of those cases, 32 of 39 had traveled to countries were SARS was reported.
March 27: CDC issues interim domestic guidelines for management of exposures to SARS for healthcare and other institutional settings.
March 28: The SARs outbreak is more widespread. CDC begins utilizing pandemic planning for SARS.
March 29: CDC extended its travel advisory for SARS to include all of mainland China and added Singapore. CDC quarantine staff began meeting planes, cargo ships and cruise ships coming either directly or indirectly to the United States from China, Singapore and Vietnam and also begins distributing health alert cards to travelers.
April 4: The number of suspected U.S. SARS cases was 115; reported from 29 states. There were no deaths among these suspect cases of SARS in the United States.
April 5: CDC establishes community outreach team to address stigmatization associated with SARS.
April 10: CDC issued specific guidance for students exposed to SARS.
April 14: CDC publishes a sequence of the virus believed to be responsible for the global epidemic of SARS. Identifying the genetic sequence of a new virus is important to treatment and prevention efforts. The results came just 12 days after a team of scientists and technicians began working around the clock to grow cells taken from the throat culture of a SARS patient.
April 22: CDC issues a health alert for travelers to Toronto, Ontario (Canada)
May 6: In the United States, no new probable cases were reported in the last 24 hours, and there was no evidence of ongoing transmission beyond the initial case reports in travelers for more than 20 days. The containment in the United States has been successful.
May 20: CDC lifted the travel alert on Toronto because more than 30 days (or three SARS incubation periods) had elapsed since the date of onset of symptoms for the last reported case.
May 23: CDC reinstated travel alert for Toronto because on May 22, Canadian health officials reported a cluster of five new probable SARS cases.
June 4: CDC removed the travel alert for Singapore and downgraded the traveler notification for Hong Kong from a travel advisory to a travel alert.
July 3: CDC removed the travel alert for mainland China.
July 5: WHO announced that the global SARS outbreak was contained.
July 10: CDC removed the travel alert for Hong Kong and Toronto.
July 15: CDC removed the travel alert for Taiwan.
July 17: CDC updated the SARS case definition which reduced the number of U.S. cases by half. The change results from excluding cases in which blood specimens that were collected more than 21 days after the onset of illness test negative.
December 31: Globally, WHO received reports of SARS from 29 countries and regions; 8,096 persons with probable SARS resulting in 774 deaths. In the United States, eight SARS infections were documented by laboratory testing and an additional 19 probable SARS infections were reported.
2004
January 13: CDC issues “Notice of Embargo of Civets.” A SARS-like virus had been isolated from civets (captured in areas of China where the SARS outbreak originated). CDC banned the importation of civets. The civet is a mammal with a catlike body, long legs, a long tail, and a masked face resembling a raccoon or weasel. The ban is currently still in effect.
2012
October 5: The National Select Agent Registry Program declared SARS-coronavirus a select agent. A select agent is a bacterium, virus or toxin that has the potential to pose a severe threat to public health and safety.
BEHAVIOUR OF THE GRAPH (BOT) / PATTERN OVER TIME
STRUCTURE
DESCRIPTION OF THE ARCHETYPE
We have lowered our standards to close the gap between the actual and desired performance.
We notice there is a gap between the goal and the actual. There are two ways we might take to close the gap. One is we truly care for the goal and therefore we take corrective actions to bring our actual state closer to the goal. The other way is to allow pressures to lower the goal to take effect and over time we do not think there is any difference between the goal (since the goal itself may have eroded, over time) and the actual. As such no further action takes place.
MENTAL MODEL
OUTLOOK THAT CAUSES THE STRUCTURE TO PERSIST DESPITE OUR EFFORTS TO SOLVE THEM / RESISTS PROBLEM SOLVING:
“Our current level of activity is acceptable, even though it is below standard.”
FEAR OF FAILURE. LEARNING: TO LET IT GO SO AS NOT TO LET THE FEAR AFFECT THE WAY YOU SHAPE YOUR OUTLOOK, PERSPECTIVES AND DECISION-MAKING.
MAKING A SYSTEMIC INTERVENTION
TREATING THE STRUCTURE
STAYING FOCUSED ON VISION
Various pressures can often take our attention away from what we are trying to achieve. Used as a diagnostic tool, it can target drifting performance areas and help organisations obtain their visions.
Intervention:
- Look for drifting performance figures. This is a sign that the archetype was at work and that real corrective actions are not being taken
- Look for goals that conflict with the stated goal
- Identify what are the ways we are taking (standard procedures) to close the gap. Are these inadvertently contributing to the goal slippage
- Examine the past history of the goal. Have these been lowered over time?
- Anchor the goal to an external reference
- Clarify a compelling vision that will involve everyone
- Create a clear transition plan. Establish what it will take to achieve the vision and establish a realistic timeline.
What it looks like if the system was working well:
- “We know where we are going and what it will take to get there.”
- We monitor, evaluate and adjust performance standards in order to achieve our goals.
You must log in to post a comment.