Steven Covey in his book The 8th Habit quoted the results of a Harris Poll of 23,000 U.S. residents employed full time within key industries and in key functional areas as follows:
Only 37 percent said that they have a clear understanding of what their organisation is trying to achieve and why only one in five was enthusiastic about their team's and their organisation's goals. Only one in five said they had a clear line of sight between their tasks and their team's and organisation's goals. Only 15 percent felt that their organisation fully enables them to execute key goals
Only 20 percent fully trusted the organisation they work for.
‘If, say a football team had these same scores, only 4 of the 11 players on the field would know which goal is theirs. Only 2 of the 11 would care. Only 2 of the 11 would know what position they play and know exactly what they are supposed to do. And all but 2 players would, in some way, be competing against their own team members rather than the opponent.’
There aren’t many companies who we talk to who don’t agree with the above.
And then you wonder why Enterprise 2.0 hasn’t taken off in organisations liked we’d hoped? Probably because people aren’t motivated to do use the technology.
Makes you wonder if it had taken off, would people be collaborating on the right thing anyway?
So how can technology help here? Key performance indicators.
Lets your people know what their individual goals are, how they impact on their teams goals and how they impact on their organisations goals.
And with Microsoft PerformancePoint services being rolled into SharePoint 2010 it’s going to be even easier to push KPI’s out to all your employees.
KPI’s when done properly can really align people and get the company moving in the right direction.