Article
By Ben Fowler*
I have admired Jack Welch for the success that he has brought GE. Welch was the chairman and CEO of GE from 1981 to 2001, and has amassed a net worth of $720 million. Incidentally, GE has adopted Net Promoter which Jeff Immelt (Jack’s successor)praised Click Here to Learn the Role Net Promoter Plays in GE's Corporate Culture.
Jack Welch knew that his employees were a valuable resource for new and creative ideas, and he wanted to create an environment that pushed towards “a relentless, endless companywide search for a better way to do everything we do.” Welch developed the Work-Out program to reduce bureaucracy within organizations and give every employee, from managers to factory workers, an opportunity to influence and improve GE’s day-to-day operations.
The goal of the Work-Out program was to “clean up” GE. This outside-the-box brainstorming session was an innovative way for the organization to make workers more productive and processes simpler. Work-Out was designed to reduce, and ultimately eliminate, all of the wasted time and energy that organizations like GE typically expend.
In Welch’s words, Work-Out is meant to help people stop “wrestling with the boundaries, the absurdities that grow in large organizations. We’re all familiar with those absurdities: too many approvals, duplication, pomposity, waste.”
Welch found that employees wanted to discuss professional issues like their position, compensation and growth but they wouldn’t discuss it with their boss.
So Welch created Work-Out so that the independent facilitators are not the bosses of the employees involved in the Work-Out. With Work-Out Welch could “draw out their real opinions that they wouldn’t say in front of their boss. The boss then comes into the room and the staff members then have the courage to say what needs to be said so that the company improves processes to make the company more successful.
My Take: I think Work-Out is an outside-the-box leadership approach to organizations. It’s necessary for organizations to be able to step back and look at the big picture and reexamine the way that they run their business.
Many golf businesses are facing today’s challenges without a plan. Their direction is based on old strategies and tactics that were established at a time when the golf industry was a very different industry – before we added 4,000 new golf courses, and at a time when golfers were more loyal to the game and the place they where played it.
By having an independent facilitator who is an expert on the company’s business organize a Work-Out, organizations will tap into a massive resource of imagination and energy from its talented employees. This Work-Out will allow the organization to identify critical inefficiencies in their business and develop a current plan from their employees.
To view the full episode where Welch helps Hertz work out their new Connect brand, click here.
All contributors: BenFowler, LynnwoodBrown, MarleneStone,
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“Work Out” Your Company’s Challenges With Jack Welch’s Secret Formula
Jack Welch knew that his employees were a valuable resource for new and creative ideas, and he wanted to create an environment that pushed towards “a relentless, endless companywide search for a better way to do everything we do.” Welch developed the Work-Out program to reduce bureaucracy within organizations and give every employee, from managers to factory workers, an opportunity to influence and improve GE’s day-to-day operations.
I have admired Jack Welch for the success that he has brought GE. Welch was the chairman and CEO of GE from 1981 to 2001, and has amassed a net worth of $720 million. Incidentally, GE has adopted Net Promoter which Jeff Immelt (Jack’s successor)praised Click Here to Learn the Role Net Promoter Plays in GE's Corporate Culture.
Jack Welch knew that his employees were a valuable resource for new and creative ideas, and he wanted to create an environment that pushed towards “a relentless, endless companywide search for a better way to do everything we do.” Welch developed the Work-Out program to reduce bureaucracy within organizations and give every employee, from managers to factory workers, an opportunity to influence and improve GE’s day-to-day operations.
The goal of the Work-Out program was to “clean up” GE. This outside-the-box brainstorming session was an innovative way for the organization to make workers more productive and processes simpler. Work-Out was designed to reduce, and ultimately eliminate, all of the wasted time and energy that organizations like GE typically expend.
In Welch’s words, Work-Out is meant to help people stop “wrestling with the boundaries, the absurdities that grow in large organizations. We’re all familiar with those absurdities: too many approvals, duplication, pomposity, waste.”
Welch found that employees wanted to discuss professional issues like their position, compensation and growth but they wouldn’t discuss it with their boss.
So Welch created Work-Out so that the independent facilitators are not the bosses of the employees involved in the Work-Out. With Work-Out Welch could “draw out their real opinions that they wouldn’t say in front of their boss. The boss then comes into the room and the staff members then have the courage to say what needs to be said so that the company improves processes to make the company more successful.
My Take: I think Work-Out is an outside-the-box leadership approach to organizations. It’s necessary for organizations to be able to step back and look at the big picture and reexamine the way that they run their business.
Many golf businesses are facing today’s challenges without a plan. Their direction is based on old strategies and tactics that were established at a time when the golf industry was a very different industry – before we added 4,000 new golf courses, and at a time when golfers were more loyal to the game and the place they where played it.
By having an independent facilitator who is an expert on the company’s business organize a Work-Out, organizations will tap into a massive resource of imagination and energy from its talented employees. This Work-Out will allow the organization to identify critical inefficiencies in their business and develop a current plan from their employees.
To view the full episode where Welch helps Hertz work out their new Connect brand, click here.
Credits
Originally posted by BenFowler on 23 Feb 2010.All contributors: BenFowler, LynnwoodBrown, MarleneStone,
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