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larry@psg.us
Traditional, bureaucratic organizations have been a constant source of frustration for me. Since I left the ethereal world of academia in the mid 70’s, I have been focused on making organizations in the real world work better. Strangely enough, most organizations I've worked in have found this focus on results for customers, front-line workers, and systems thinking anywhere from vaguely quaint and naïve, to downright threatening and dangerous. Does that describe your experience? (I thought it might.)
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Fortunately, over the years I have been able to
create friendships with several other strange people who had similar experiences. Oddly enough, we have been able to create a business where we actually get paid to provoke organizations into breaking down the traditions that get in the way of providing both great service for citizens, and helping citizens live up to their obligations. For me it's the equivalent of someone who has a passion for tennis getting paid to play in some of the most challenging tournaments on the tour.
Like most of my colleagues at PSG, I believe that the best approach to make organizations perform better is to get them focused on their customers. The application of this "customer metaphor" to public organizations is fundamental. It allows organizations to dramatically improve accountability as well as quality, and allows us to adapt many highly useful management concepts from the private sector. This does not mean I want government to be run like a business—far from it. What I do want is for government to produce results that citizens value.
I also believe that organizations, leaders, managers, and workers are in the middle of a fundamental shift in the basic assumptions that govern work and relationships among workers. Because we are in the middle of this significant shift in organizational form, it is impossible to be certain how the new world of organizations will work. However, I believe it is clear that along with the familiar resources of people, money, and materials, organizations must create new ways of applying information resources to the production of goods, services, and policies. Further, I believe that the role of management in this "information age" is changing in the most fundamental way - from command, control, and coordination of information, to ensuring that workers have the human, material, financial, and information resources they need to do their jobs. (And I love to talk about it!)
There are few things in life that don't engage my interest at some level - from art to quantum theory - but my main priority these days is raising my teenage daughter and watching my grown children raise my five grandchildren. Golf, tennis, cycling and travel are taking a back seat, for now.
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