What is Requisite Organization? The Elevator Speech
By Michelle Malay Carter on October 13, 2009
I work for PeopleFit, a management consulting firm that specializes in:
Organizational engineering, talent assessment,?and designing managerial leadership systems rooted in Elliott Jaques’ meta-model, Requisite Organization.
What a marketing nightmare – creating demand for services that most executives have never conceived of!
Let’s Learn from Other Professions!
While most professions and industries have standards of practice which weave a common thread throughout the work done, managerial leadership is lacking the adoption of universal rules of engagement.
- Can you imagine the chaos if your bookkeeper decided to “shake it up” and put debits on the right and credits on the left? Bounce
- Have you ever visited a house where the plumber put hot on the right and cold on the left?? Ouch!
The Plumbers Figured It Out
Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about what the plumbers were facing in 1926 (Does it sound like the state of management today?)
In 1926, a group of Los Angeles plumbing inspectors recognized that there were no uniform requirements for the installation and maintenance of plumbing systems, and at that point in time disease was rampant, a lot of it spread through improper sanitation. Disorder in the industry was the result of widely divergent plumbing practices and the use of many different, often conflicting, plumbing codes by local jurisdictions. It was these plumbing inspectors that understood the necessity of developing a model code that could be uniformly applied across jurisdictions.
So what is Requisite Organization??
Requisite is a meta-model that combines science-based theory regarding levels of work and human capability and the two universal values of trust and fairness and endeavors to:
- Create organizational conditions within which most people can be successful.
- Enable productive work.
- Eliminate the wasted energy used to compensate for three structural flaws – 1. Organizational layering errors 2. Mismatching people to roles ?3. Mismatching people to managers.
- Design explicit “rules of engagement” across functions.
- Create explicit, uniform, and universal minimum accountabilities and authorities for three sets of organizational players – 1. Employees 2. Managers 3. Managers-once-removed.
- Create a science-based methodology for matching people to roles.
Trust and Fairness – Core Values
I believe in Requisite Organization because you can always trace the principles and policies within it back to a desire for trust and fairness – two precursors to employee engagement.?
Human Dignity
The other thing that stands out is respect for human dignity.? Requisite organization purports that nearly all organizational dysfunction can be traced to poor structure and systems, not deficient employees.?? (BTW – I pasted that last sentence from Wikipedia.? A fun fact for you to know is that?I was the one who wrote most of Wikipedia post regarding Requisite Organization.)
Results
Finally, it works!? After over 10 years of working with the model, I am convinced it is valid and reliable, and managers appreciate it.? Sure, it takes courage, discipline and practice to convert an organization to a fully requisite organization, but managers ultimately see that it is worth the effort.
I’m OK.? You’re OK.? Let’s fix the system.
What has your experience been?
Filed Under Accountability, Employee Engagement, Organization Design, Requisite Organization, Talent Management, Work Levels
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