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Avoid Square Peg in Round Hole to Achieve |
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Square Peg in Round Hole “Let’s set up a creative thinking program.” “OK, this should be in HR.” When an organization-wide (cutting across functional groups) initiative is housed (structured) in a business unit without first working through the full aspects of the effort, one often finds the proverbial square peg in round hole problem. The resources are not well matched, personnel do not have the appropriate skill sets, the unit leadership does not have the ideal passion, etc. One then wonders why the initiative does not work out well. The need to quickly identify a place to house an initiative is very strong because new things are disruptive and known entities more comforting. When there is an owner, someone becomes responsible to manage the new effort and there is a sense of ‘containing’ the newness. Yet, this should not be the first step taken. Why would one choose one home over another before the effort is clearly defined? When working on cross cutting initiatives like establishing a creative thinking initiative, the choice of a home may seem clear. “Let’s place it in Human Resources.” Until one has defined the nature of the initiative, know how to implement it, and who or what might be needed to make it work, providing a structure should be the last thing done, not the first. Improving the Process Here is a four stage process that avoids the urge to house a project before its definition. The progression of stages -- Goal, Process, Resource, and Structure -- is particularly important because each provides answers to a logical, sequential set of questions. What do you want to do? How are you going to do it? Who or What do you need to get it done? How are you going to assure consistency, reproducibility and performance measurement of the efforts? Descriptions of each stage are provided in chart form.
©1999-2007. The Baldwin Group, Inc. Benefit of Process The first steps taken with this four stage approach allow free thinking that energizes participants because constraints are not called into play until after different options for getting the work done are presented under process. When limited funds and other resources constrain the plans under resource, efforts to find ways to overcome the limitations are greater when there is passion and ownership of the efforts. In contrast, if constraints are brought into play early in the planning that inhibit expansive thinking, there will be less invested emotional energy to seek ways to find needed resources. |
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