Perception and fact-finding surveys
Marcel JB Tardif, MBA
CEO - PerformInfo Inc. Auteur, Conférencier, Coach de dirigeants 26 553 abonnés + 3 900 post 560 articles
JACOB'S LADDER
Jacob's ladder refers to the dream Jacob had in Haran, on Mount Moriah (site of the future Temple of Jerusalem), after leaving Beer-Sheva, as recounted in the Bible's Book of Genesis and repeated in the Gospel of St. John. According to the Midrash (1), the scale represents the various exiles the Jewish people had to endure before the coming of the Messiah.
IMPROVEMENT MUST FOLLOW AN UPWARD TRAJECTORY
The idea is repeated here, to illustrate the different levels that separate failure from success in an organization. The organization's management modes, methods, and practices, often articulated through its written or verbal policies, must give rise to an expected implementation if they are to prove effective and efficient. This is the acid test (2), which will establish the extent to which the organization's overall performance is being taken care of by itself, and for itself. Over the long term, the current measurement of exercise results within the organization must provide proof that it is following an upward trajectory in improving its overall condition of customer-approved service (3). All this, of course, is in line with the organization's mission (4). And since the organization's mission must be fulfilled in practice, it must be able to measure progress in terms of operating results, demonstrating that its business management methods and practices are helping it to progress towards overall performance in its core business (5). This implies that the organization's measurement indicators, those making up its dashboard, will focus on dysfunctional elements in the time-space of its market management... so that these same dysfunctions can be rectified, to add to the organization's superior, ongoing performance (6).
KNOWING THE CURRENT STATE OF EMPLOYEE LOYALTY
Confirmation that we're taking charge of overall performance (7) also comes in the form of measuring the degree of staff loyalty to the organization and its tasks. And by staff, we mean all those involved in the organization's activities, from the top management to the front-line workers. Staff loyalty surveys must be carried out regularly (8). Whether we call them job satisfaction surveys or something else, the fact remains that the answers they produce should be indicative of a higher level of commitment on the part of staff to the organization and their tasks. It's not the name of the survey exercise that matters most, but its purpose (its actual usefulness). The questions must be honest (and judiciously sequenced) (9) to get to the bottom of staff loyalty to the organization and its work. This is more important, as the degree of staff loyalty, in these respects, will respond to the degree of customer loyalty (10) towards the organization and its services (11). We're talking here about perception surveys, which, in the case of both staff and customers, need to be followed by fact-finding surveys. Fact-finding is essential to ensure a correct reading of the situation in the organization (staff) and its market (customers) (12). Fact-finding, which comes second, is used to validate or invalidate the results obtained from perception surveys. Facts speak louder than perceptions, intentions, and words (13)!
AGREEMENTS STRENGTHEN THE ORGANIZATION
Any question that receives less than 50 percent (responses) of cumulative agreement and strong agreement should be regarded as illustrative of an area of serious risk, in terms of return on the resource and the organization's mission. Questions receiving between 50 and 80 percent should be considered indicative of areas without irremediable risk, although illustrative of a frankly soft area in the management of the organization's affairs. All questions receiving a score above 80 percent, both agree and strongly agree (14), should be taken as confirming areas of strength in the organization (15). Organizations that think they can break 92.4 percent on any work performance survey question are dreaming in color. And many of them, especially in the public sector, are deluding themselves!
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REFERENCES:
1) A method of hermeneutic exegesis. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midrash ?
2) Reichheld, F.F., (2001), Loyalty Rules! How Today's Leaders Build Lasting Relationships, Harvard Business School Press, p. 69. The “acid test” is the ratio that determines whether a company has sufficient liquidity to continue its current operations. It is the test par excellence of responsible management. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/acidtest.asp? ??
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4) The organization must satisfy its mission while pursuing its vision of the market. https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/donnes-aux-gens-une-cause-commune-et-noble-marcel-jb-tardif-mba?trk=hp-feed-article-title-publish ?
5) Once again, the bottom line is quantitative, whereas overall performance, over the entire life cycle of the organization, is qualitative. https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/communiquez-une-vision-claire-emballante-et-vous-de-tardif-mba?trk=hp-feed-article-title-publish
6) Performance can be expressed in terms of variance over a given year, in terms of operating results, or variance over the organization's lifecycle, in terms of overall business performance. Confusing everything, through the inappropriateness of the terms used, does nothing to ensure consistent management of the organization. The organization's mandate is not to respond to an expressed demand, but to satisfy the requestor's needs and expectations to the best of its ability. As a result, it must optimize its performance, and aim for the “first-in-class” position, the only one that allows it to situate the optimum performance on the activity carried out in its business sector.
7) Performance, which is assessed over the entire life cycle, is measured in terms of overall business improvement, based on the optimization of the organization's capabilities, potentialities, and opportunities.
8) Not too often to “disgust” the staff, and often enough to allow follow-up on areas of dysfunction in the organization. In general, we'll repeat these surveys every six months. In the meantime, we correct what needs to be corrected, and measure what has been modified, to ensure that the corrective measures have produced the expected results.
9) And not formulated, to obtain the answer... that the organization prefers. That's called “trapping the results” of the questionnaire!
11) The concordance of the results will confirm that the answers provided have given the true picture of the state of satisfaction of the parties involved in the organization's transactions in its market. Satisfied staff means satisfied customers. The opposite is a vision of the mind.
13) As 99 percent of perception surveys are not followed up by fact-finding, the data used to judge the answers given may lead to incorrect readings of the organization's actual situation, about what was initially measured. https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/cessez-de-mesurer-et-g%C3%A9rez-%C3%A0-mesure-marcel-jb-tardif-mba?trk=hp-feed-article-title-publish
14) Scores should be interpreted in net terms. Agree and strongly agree are added together, subtracted from disagree and strongly disagree, and we don't take the voiceless into account. The true measure of performance is therefore a net balance of what acts directly on the actual state of the situation.?
15) Normally, a score between 80 and 85 percent is within the range of the best possible results. As soon as the score reaches 90 percent, the organization must question the quality of the answers provided. And as soon as the score reaches or exceeds 92.4 percent, it's almost certain that the question has been either misinterpreted or deliberately answered incorrectly. This will invalidate the question and perhaps even the entire questionnaire.