Organisation Value

Value is what you get for the resources employed.

Organisation value is a measure of how effectively an organisation uses its resources, human, physical and financial, to deliver the purpose for which it exists. Its most vital resource is knowledge, in its broadest sense, and its most important attribute is its ability to innovate.

Organisation Purpose

Unless management is structured to ensure what must happen happens, the purpose, viability and value of the organisation are at constant risk.

An organisation exists to bring together resources to secure the functions that enable and ensure the delivery of the purpose and business or policy objectives of a market or public sector enterprise or the nation-state itself.

Organisation value depends on how the functions that enable and ensure the purpose of an organisation are delivered and how the intrinsic systems of interactive knowledge-resources combine to decide how a function is delivered most effectively.

Enabling Functions

An organisation, including the nation-state, depends for its viability on the functions that enable and ensure it delivers its purpose.

All organisations have functions that enable them to deliver their purpose, functions that are intrinsic to their viability. It is the duty of management to ensure that these enabling functions are recognised and that the systems that deliver them are in place and their performance audited to ensure that they are operating effectively.

Systemic failure of an enabling function endangers the existence of the organisation as a whole.

Systemic Order

An organisation combines interactive resources in an order intrinsic to the functions that enable it to deliver its purpose.

In the same way that the organs and tissue of the human body combine their interactive inputs in discrete systems that support human life, cardiovascular, digestive and so on, the resources of an organisation combine in discrete systems to secure the functions that enable it to deliver its purpose and remain viable.

The intrinsic systems of an organisation take two forms: obviously they deliver their functional delivery roles but also, because they bring together resources of interactive knowledge, they can combine actively to decide and recommend how the role is best delivered. In short they have the capacity to learn; they are in fact the 'learning systems' of the organisation.

Learning systems are intrinsic; they have the potential to be sources of innovation in how an organisation best delivers its purpose.

Systemic Learning

The term 'learning' is used here to refer to the 'learning' processes of the organisation as an organic entity.

Systemic learning is not an invention, it is intrinsic. It is the perfectly natural process by which an organisation responds and adapts to change.

Systemic learning as a controlled change methodology was proved using distance learning methods to facilitate self-generated productivity improvement. Productivity improvement, in its output-per-unit-of-input sense, is nothing more than an organisation 'learning' to be more effective at delivering its purpose; i.e., delivering better value.

The individuals involved may learn from their involvement in a value project but value improvement may come simply from a more effective interaction of knowledge resources in context of a common purpose. Systemic learning methodology actively facilitates this interaction; the current and accepted method of management and control, bureaucracy, not only fails to recognise this essential knowledge resource interaction it actively frustrates it.

Value Improvement

An organisation cannot change as a whole.

Regardless of how it is managed an organisation can improve its value, learn to deliver its purpose more effectively, only system-by-system. An improvement in how an enabling system delivers its discrete delivery role improves the whole; systemic learning improves the whole, systemic failure endangers the whole.

Because systemic learning is intrinsic we can use individual improvement projects to move from where we are to where we need to be in cost effective incremental steps without committing ourselves on how an organisation should be structured until we are ready to do so.

Installing Systemic Learning

Systemic learning is both pragmatic and empirical.

The first move is for the chief executive to pilot one or more systemic learning projects; to explore and observe first-hand the systemic learning methodology without commitment; free of outside pressures or influences. A multimedia value improvement distance systemic learning programme is available for use in-house to facilitate the evaluation process.

Provided the principle of systemic order is recognised, at least for the period of the pilot project, we can begin where we like without disturbing the existing formal management structure; in fact to do so would be counter productive. You make up your mind on its effectiveness only when you are ready to do so

If the systemic principle is accepted, that the resources of an organisation combine and interact in an order intrinsic to the delivery of its purpose, a practical step can be taken immediately to produce a procedures- or quality-manual based on the enabling functional structure; to ensure what must happen happens consistently. It is important however not to dictate exactly how it happens: scope must be left to encourage innovation by those directly involved. The responsibility of management is not compromised provided it is made clear to learning systems that they have the power only to recommend.

The Implications

Organisations are 'organic' in form; they exist to bring together interactive resources to deliver a purpose.

Because an organisation cannot change as a whole, when an organisation is subject to valid change pressure one or more of its enabling systems is required to respond and adapt on behalf of the whole. What form the adaptation takes will depend on identifying and resolving the equation of factors that impact the enabling and delivery system.

Once we agree the purpose of an organisation the enabling functions and most effective delivery method are known or knowable: provided, that is, the relevant systems of those uniquely qualified by their resource knowledge and involvement to investigate and evaluate alternatives are actively involved in recommending the delivery design process in context of the objectives of the organisation as a whole.

The methodology of systemic learning formalises the organisation learning process by actively facilitating learning systems through the change process to reach recommendations on what form the adaptation should take. The value of distance e-learning lie in not having a direct source of authority until a learning system has reached its recommendations.

Ideally the systemic learning methodology should involve a learning facilitator who acts on behalf of the chief executive to facilitate individual learning projects and to maintain a continuous improvement strategy.