Requisite Weekend Transformation? How Are You Framing Your Organizational Issues?
By Michelle Malay Carter on November 12, 2008
Folklore has it that Elliott Jaques, the author of the meta model, Requisite Organization, used to say you could transform an organization over the weekend by restructuring an organization to align with the requisite model.
Requisite Organization Design Principles
That means, among other things,?re-aligning as necessary to meet the three requisite organization design criteria.
Conceptually this is true, but because one’s current cognitive capability is a moving target and because it’s not the only criteria for job matching, an organization simply could not make itself requisite over the weekend.? We have a client who has been steadfastly shifting toward this goal for three years and still isn’t there.
Transform One Employee
However, on a micro-level, reassigning one person from a non-requisite situation to a requisite one could make a dramatic difference over night.? It can transform an underutilized?attitude problem into a star performer.
Too Simple to Believe
Many people dismiss the Requisite Model because, when broken into its elements, it appears just too simple to believe.? How could we be so ignorant of something so paramount to organization design and employee engagement, i.e. work levels, that has been right under our noses but unarticulated and hence not exploited for our benefit for as long as hierarchies have existed?
Right Brain, Left Brain and Dysgraphia, ADD, ADHD, etc.
My 10 year old son has dysgraphia,meaning he struggles with spelling and the physical act of writing (although he can verbalize a story with an adult vocabulary).? He also fits the criteria for ADD.? There are all kinds of theories on dysgraphia’s cause, and almost no therapies, only accommodations.? Although well meaning, none of my son’s doctors, school teachers or special ed teachers have been able to help, and some of their grueling but useless?”therapies” (more practice in the same manner) have actually harmed his attitude toward learning.?
How often do we?submit employees to useless and grueling “therapies” (can you say training?)?due to faulty assumptions?
Overnight Spelling Transformation
When I began through my own internet research to suspect a right brain – left brain integration issue, and I framed his struggles in that manner, I discovered a promising writing therapy and a right brain spelling technique?that has transformed his ability to spell overnight.? Now, with one minute of “studying” a word with his eyes and converting it to an image?(NOT WRITING the word as a sequence of letters which is a left brain methodology), he can spell sesquipedalian, not only forward, but backwards as well.
Your Problem Statement Frames Your Solution – Care to Take the High Road?
We all know that how you frame a problem sets the course for your solution.? If you believe that people desire to work (within their giftings) and will do a competent job (if the system doesn’t get in their way).? If you believe people are not inherently greedy, but do desire fair pay for their role.? If you believe, I’m OK, You’re OK, let’s fix the system, the Requisite model is worth exploring.? It?aligns with the human nature?high road.? It’s a road I travel daily.
Your thoughts?
Filed Under Corporate Values, Employee Engagement, Executive Leadership, Felt Fair Compensation, Requisite Organization, Work Levels
Comments
6 Responses to “Requisite Weekend Transformation? How Are You Framing Your Organizational Issues?”
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What a great article. And so right. I love that some publishers (O’Reilly for example) are starting to ‘get’ that it’s not helpful to force people to try to bend their brains into submission. Right brain learning and limbic system learning is so powerful.
You might be interested in the studies that were done on Bostonians and Amazonian indians, which show that right-brain geometry is universal, where left-brain calculation and logic is a mutation which only a percentage of the population possess.
My 13-year-old stepson has a kind of dyslexia which sounds very much like what your son experiences. In addition he has problems with his working memory, which make the techniques his maths teachers drill into him pretty much useless. We’re trying to find ways to let his right brain do more of the work for him.
My best friend, who I live and work with, has Tourettes and ASD. We read through her old school reports a few days ago and it was amazing the contrast between teachers who recognised her (undiagnosed) difference as a potential which could be unlocked and those who simply chastised her for not responding to their rigid techniques.
Isn’t it odd that businesses find it so difficult to grasp the concept of allowing people to achieve their potential?
Lx
Hi Lindsey,
Thanks for the encouragement and the pointers.
I’ve found a gentleman in California who specializes in Right Brain math (http://www.rightbrainmath.com/) and I am currently looking for a grant to fund him to visit my children’s school and facilitate a day of teacher training in right brain math techniques.
Regards,
Michelle
I’m glad to hear that the new approach is working!
Hi Will,
Yes, we’ve been doing some brain integration exercises and stretches and we are seeing some progress as well.
We made it through 4th Grade and we are encouraged.
Michelle
A wonderful article, Michelle! I was classified as “cross-dominant” many years ago. Similar names include “mixed lateral” and “brain balanced”. Like your son I had some difficulty spelling and had to “photograph” the words on a page within my mind’s eye. It is the captured photo images I drew forth whenever I needed to write. Even though now I can do both, I prefer to think in pictures, more than to think in words/language. It’s what I call “shorthand” thinking as a picture often IS worth a thousand words!
The more your son “crosses back and forth” between the left and right hemispheres, the hoped for integration WILL take place. What at first appeared mis-fortunate, has proven to be one of my greatest assets in life – the ability to be equally creative or analytical! Take heart as you are moving in all the right directions with your son!
Hi Jacqueline,
Thank you for your comment and your encouragement. My son is continuing to find ways to use his way of learning to meet his school requirments.
Regards,
Michelle