These are meetings which bring together the parties (stakeholders) to a subject to provide answers to particular questions (called search conferences, future search, etc.).
The subject may be revealing the mission, and identifying the vision of a commercial firm, foundation or a governmental organization, or search for reconciliation regarding the fundamentals of the policy on an issue as well as reconciling the parties to a national conflict (search conference).
The desire of such institutions to foresee the future regarding a specific topic can also be satisfied through search conferences (future search).
Our references on such conferences that we have moderated up to now are given in the last pages.
What can we do? The crucial point of a search conference is correct planning of the questions to be directed to the participants. Searching answers to incorrect question might make a search conference a pleasant but expensive weekend. We ensure that a conference achieves its objective by devising the correct questions or by contributing to the planning of the participants, pertaining the topic reconciliation is sought.
The second important feature distinguishing a reconciliation conference and other meetings of the same appearance is to ensure full participation of the participants and to prevent unnecessary dominance due to commercial, academic, bureaucratic or political titles held.
The last important point is interpreting the results of the conference. This is not reporting or summarizing what has been said, but is reaching a synthesis of what is said and the accumulations of the moderator.
What percentage of our life do we spend in meetings? For senior executive posts, almost the entire days and sometimes even the off hours are filled with meetings. But to what extent do such meetings, which eat away our life, produce the desired results?
It may be hard to accept but the efficiency of a meeting designed haphazardly is around 20%. There are many factors that render meetings such inefficient; for example:
Difficulty in expressing ideas and feelings;
Insufficient preparation before the meeting (not doing the homework);
Absence of a common conceptual base among the participants of the meeting, or even if this fact is known, inability to ensure coordination at the required points throughout the meeting;
Bad chairmanship in the meetings (interfering others speech, allowing personal criticism, inability to prevent those who want to dominate the meeting,), etc.
However, the most important factor is something else: meeting design or, in other words, meeting architecture. Just as it is with a building, the following items should be given attention to design a meeting:
A meeting is only a step of a process. Design should consider this fact and it must be clear after which process steps the meeting is held and which process steps shall be taken following the meeting (ironically, when fulfilment of this item is sought, one may never be able to hold a meeting!)
The design of a meeting may it involve the management of a block of flats or the assessment of a risk, may it be long or short term, widely participated or not, must be based on query of the following 4 questions:
QUESTION 1 What are the deliverables expected of the meeting?
QUESTION 2 Why are these deliverables expected?
QUESTION 3 What kind of a process is being anticipated to acquire these deliverables?
QUESTION 4 Since a common intelligence among the participants will not develop intrinsically, what kind of a method is being considered to establish this? In other words, how will the participants pass beyond advocating their own ideas, make use of each others ideas and produce ideas of higher value (this is what common intelligence is)?
Meetings which are held without searching the answers to these 4 questions may of course produce some beneficial results, such as getting acquainted, chatting, communication, and the like, but will not produce the expected results.
What can we do? We can work with the personnel of your organization to identify the basics of meeting design. In addition, we design your more important meetings seminars, workshops, panels, search conferences, etc.
Mission, vision and core-values are the indispensable elements of an organization. In practice, whichever organization you ask, a mission, a vision and core-values will be mentioned, this certainly exists. Well then, what is the problem?
Organizations all have a mission, a vision and core-values but in general these have not been brought down to an implementation level from the mind(s) of the establisher(s). On the other hand, the professionals again in general prefer to adopt commercial targets and objectives as mission and vision instead of revealing the real guidelines that are in the minds of the establisher(s).
Our experiences with many organizations show us that profiting is adopted as a mission. However, within the core-values of internationally reputable and profiting companies, profitability is not an objective but is a tool in achieving and sustaining the real rationale of existence of the organization.
One of the best ways to identify the mission of an organization is to ask the following question:
If you knew that you might retire tomorrow with a good salary, would you still want to continue working in this organization? If the answer is Yes, what is the cause (mission) lying deep inside that motivates you to work?
On the other hand, to identify the core-values, the following questions may be asked:
Personally, which of your core-values do you carry over to your work?
What are your core-values that you advise to your children wanting them to bear these?
If you retired tomorrow, which work core-values would you maintain?
Which of your core-values will go on being valid for 100 more years?
If a core-value of you begins to cause a comparative disadvantage instead of an advantage, would you keep sticking to it?
If you started working in a different company tomorrow, which core-values would you keep?
What can we do? We can work together with the professionals and establishers/shareholders of your organization to implement appropriate methods to reveal and to reformat the mission, vision and core-values that might be embedded in their minds.
On the brink of a new millennium, the fundamental factor of traditional education institutions, teaching, is substituted by the learning concept.
Humans, because they are vulnerable to conditioning (the weakest point of humans) and because of the life long doctrine saying you can not learn unless someone teaches you, after sometime can not actually learn without an intermediary person.
But in fact, the common feature of humans and all other organisms capable of surviving is their extraordinary learning ability. They can learn the information, skills and behaviour, with an unbelievable creativity and in the meantime can use all the facilities around them with great skill.
The concept of Learning Medium aims at reminding young and adult individuals, who are waiting to awaken this natural ability, their learning capacity.
In a learning Medium, no one teaches, no one tells what to learn. The only thing done is preparing a suitable medium and except minor helps no one gives teaching assistant. In a learning medium in an organization, everyone determines his/her learning needs and learn by themselves.
Sometimes, this self-learning is without help, sometimes is through participation in activities such as courses, seminars and conferences, which are under the individuals control. The difference between a teaching training programme and a learning focused training programme is who controls the programme. The efficiency of a teaching training programme is low; on the other hand, the efficiency of a learning focused training programme is incomparably high.
A learning programme consists of the following abstract and concrete pieces:
A physical space: A place where there are learning materials which can be examined by those who want to use them and where there is a Learning Medium manager.
Equipment: Equipments such as computer, Internet connection, cassette player, overhead projector, data-projector, flip chart, meeting tables, etc.
Utilization Agreements concerning Learning Resources: There might be learning materials which do not exist physically in the Learning Medium, but are allowed to be used. Individuals who have various learning materials and agree to provide those materials which might serve to achieve the objectives of the target groups make agreements with the organization management.
Utilization Agreements concerning Learning Facilities: First aid training in a hospital, fire defence training with a fire extinguisher team, benefiting from target directed programmes of various governmental organizations or participation quota for various training and/or common intelligence studies that might be arranged by a commercial company for its own personnel might be the topics of Utilization Agreements.
Mentor Pool: This is the pool consisting of individuals who agree to guide those who want to benefit from the Learning Medium on specific or general subjects.
Participatory Studies: These are participatory studies, which may be organized periodically or when a specific number of people gather, for those who want to benefit from the Learning Medium. There are 11 such studies and cover the following subjects:
Module No 1 General introduction of the Learning Medium;
Module No 2 What is gained as a result?
Module No 3 You have the control! (aims at building self-trust in the participant);
Module No 4 Positiveness is power! (aims at diminishing widespread negative trends);
Module No 5 Life is learning! (aims at emphasizing the fact that almost all the problems confronted in various fragments of life originate from lack of learning);
Module No 6 Everything is elective! (aims at emphasizing that getting frustrated with fate is wrong and that most of the problems are our selection);
Module No 7 Unchain your mind! (aims at reaching self-awareness in order to be able to think creatively);
Module No 8 Questions are answers! (aims at building the awareness that asking the correct questions is an important part in getting the answer);
Module No 9 You are in a sea of learning possibilities! (aims at building the awareness that an individual who wants to learn is surrounded by learning possibilities that will help him)
Module No 10 Tests that help knowing oneself (such as Entrepreneurs Test, Time Usage Test);
Module No 11 The final participatory study that is organized at the end of all the above participatory studies, so that the individuals identify groups (learning circles) and a learning target.
Moderator Seminar : A seminar aiming at training moderator persons that will work in the Learning Medium.
What can we do? We can establish this medium which is necessary to transform the human resources of your organization into a real intellectual capital. Your gain will be enhanced learning efficiency and saving the resources that you have spent for teaching focused training programmes and that you are doubtful whether you will regain or not.
In general, creation of new jobs is considered as the duty of the government. Jobs may be created by new investments or employing personnel in official positions with the purpose of combating unemployment.
However, jobs created through such ways are not healthy because:
New investments should be made only when there is need. Since employment targeted investments are generally not made in comparative superiority areas, products and services with low competitive power are produced. This in turn, in the long-run, gives just the reverse results -unemployment-.
In the past, investments used to create labour-intensive jobs; but nowadays, technology-intensive jobs are prevalent. Even businesses that have been considered as the source of labour-intensive jobs such as construction, agriculture have been mechanized largely. Robotics has entered into almost all areas of the industry, with the need for small numbers of well trained manpower as a conclusion.
Creating employment by employing people in public positions is a method that gives negative results even in the short run. The quality of public services that might be considered as the infrastructure of the economic and social life of the public depends on the quality of public officials. Cadres boosted up aiming employment will not produce quality work, and this will, in turn, shall affect back the economic and social life negatively.
In short, direct attempts to create jobs by the government are destined to be unsuccessful.
In reality, people can create jobs only by themselves or by getting organized. The role of the central or local authorities, professional organizations, voluntary institutions or commercial institutions, which all desire creation of jobs, is to establish and maintain the climate legal, economic, technical and the infrastructure in order to facilitate the attempts concerning jobs. This climate might be small scale at the level of tens or might be greater scale. Whatever this size is, the medium established can be called an employment climate.
Who Will Benefit How from Establishing an Employment Climate? In the past, to create directly employment or an employment climate was considered to the work of the government. Today, all organizations and institutions including the commercial establishments that know the direct or indirect consequences of unemployment have also realized that creating an employment climate means to pursue their own interests. The most important of these interests is protection from the negative impacts of social desertification caused by unemployment. In a society where unemployed persons are high in number, a social desert emerges which can pulverize even a profitable commercial enterprise.
Establishments which have succeeded to build up a rational and happy work environment within are effected by the negativities of the social desert around them. Thus, establishing or helping to be established climates where new jobs can be created has now become an indispensable management function
Can an Establishment Desiring to Create an Employment Climate Do This by Itself? Yes, and No! If the establishment is a small scale one, it may not be able to do this alone. In such a case, a number of establishments must come together to create an employment climate. But if the establishment is a large scale one, it may achieve this alone by itself. Alone or together, creating employment is an expertise and it is only natural that most establishments do not involve such expertise. Therefore, some mediator organizations are required.
A Mediator Institution: Advertisement and Public Relations Firms Advertisement and public relations firms are the leading institutions among mediator institutions. The field in which the funds allocated by the firms the PR of which they are responsible can best be used is creating new jobs in order to combat the social desertification in the environment of these firms.
Another mediator institution is consultancy firms related with strategic planning. These institutions conduct planning; in doing so they must consider the firms they give consultancy service together with their entire environment and must take into account social desert environments.
Voluntary Institutions: Good Mediator Organizations Voluntary institutions that desire to give service to the entire public or only a part of it are another type of mediator institution.
Who Will Create the Employment? Mediator institutions that will create climate will introduce combat against social desertification into the functional areas of establishments, conducting the necessary orientation. But ultimately some people will work actively to create this climate. Who are these people?
At the first place are the local authorities. Servicing people in the social desert area is difficult and collecting the charge of these services is difficult as well. Therefore, one of the important functions of a local authority is combating against social desertification; and thus, establishing the climates in which new jobs can be created. Above all, they have all the necessary means.
Organizations such as commercial establishments, voluntary institutions, the Turkish Armed Forces, various governmental offices have functionality partly as climate creators and partly as mediators.
And finally, the central authority is the most important organization in combating social desertification and because of this, holds an indispensable mediator function in creation and maintenance of employment climate.
All is well up to Now, But Who Will Design the Employment Climate? People will create the jobs. Mediator institutions will direct the creation and maintenance of employment climate. Local and central authorities and various institutions will create the climate.
But a very important link in the chain is missing: the design of the employment climate! Each design means finding the answers to a series of questions. In climate design too, there are questions to be answered. For example:
What are the borders of the social desert with respect to geography, income distribution, and average income and in other respects?
How is the population profile age, sex, literacy, etc. to be the subject of the jobs that might be created within these borders?
What are the necessities that constitute the source of the jobs?
What is the state of the infrastructure communication, education, etc.?
To what extent are the administrators of the public offices open to innovations especially in relation to establishing the employment climate?
Within the borders, what is the number of organizations that will support climate creation programmes; what are levels of their assets and the level of their awareness of the subject?
Which of the various job creation techniques can be used within these borders?
Other items that should be known in relation to other factors that might effect climate creation
Climate design is just like the architectural design of a building. All demands, all limit conditions, all possibilities are brought together and a design that will answer all these is planned. Following the design, creation of the climate is only a question of implementing an action plan.
What can we do? We can plan the design and provide the related action plan.
As globalization heightens and new actors producing service and products enter world markets, enhancing the competitive power of our establishments is gaining more and more importance.
The criteria used in determining the competitive power can be analyzed under the following 8 headings:
National economy macroeconomic evaluation of the national economy,
The state of being international participation level of the country in foreign trade and investment,
Government openness of the government policies to competitiveness,
Financing performance of the capital market and quality of financial services,
Infrastructure suitability of natural, technical and communication resources to the basic necessities of the business world,
Management the state of the companies in being managed in an innovative, profitable and responsible manner,
Science and technology scientific and technological sophistication,
Human resources availability and quality of human resources.
Among these headings, we can say that the importance with respect to competitive power of the capacity in science-technology and research-development (R&D), which is its main implementation tool, is higher than the others.
A widespread trend even a belief in this context is that R&D in establishments is the duty of the related department to some extent, and to a greater extent the duty of the government.
On the other hand, in societies and firms, which are assertive in global competition, the trend is completely different and R&D is a part of the work of personnel at every level. One of the absolute duties in fact the most important one of a security officer, accountant, unit director, general director or chairman of the executive board is to investigate into how to perform his/her job better and at lower cost. No doubt, the competitive power of such a firm shall be in a continuous ascent.
What can we do? We can do the necessary planning in the firm to develop a widespread awareness environment and help its implementation.
If we directed the question How well do you know your organization? to the managers of an establishment, most probably, there will not be many individuals to take this seriously, but when we clarify what we mean by the term knowing the institution, it will be obvious that the question is not inappropriate.
At least the followings must be known in order to know the institution:
Human capital and/or load: This means to know who might be considered as capital and who might be considered as load. Actually a better definition would be to know the attitudes and behaviour, which may be assessed as a capital or load, of the individuals comprising the human resources of the company. Each person may it be deemed ultimately as capital or load may have both capital and load attitudes and behaviour.
Individuals who appear very bright might in reality be a load, and among those who appear as valueless there might be those who should be considered as a human capital.
Social capital and/or load: The institution may have its own internal cultural values, which can be assessed to be capital or load, just as with human resources.
Fiscal capital and/or load: This means self-resources or debts.
Financial capital and/or load: These are the financial tools which are used by the establishments and which may be considered as capital or load.
Real-estate capital and/or load: These are the immovable, which are a positive contribution to the establishment or on the contrary are a burden.
Other capital and/or load: Capital or load other than the above.
These are the transformers of an establishment. Planned or not, accidental or with good or ill intention, they transform the local or global scaled, positive or negative inputs into outputs negative or positive for the concerned company.
In cases where these transformers are not sufficient known, it is clear that the decisions taken might be unhealthy and unexpected consequences should be expected anytime.
What can we do? We can arrange seminars on this subject, aiming the development of transformer identification, or we may take part in a team to contribute to this identification.
As well as creating a special sensitivity, the horizon on what might possibly be conducted may be expanded by internal conferences and seminars organized on subjects mentioned up to now. One of the interesting seminars within this context is the following:
Company clock
One twenty-fourth of the time needed for the Earth to turn around itself is 1 hour. The objective time measurement does not change depending on the place or individual, as long as you stay within speeds smaller than the speed of light.
In addition, time has a subjective feature that may be called value. 1 hour during the rescue of a person under the wreckage of a building does not have the same value as the 1 hour during a stroll. The value of a time period is the difference between the gains realized when all the required actions are performed during this period and the loss realized when these required actions are not done.
Then, what does 1 hour in the office mean? With respect to the measure of the time period, there is no difference between 1 hour of a person working in the office and the 1 hour of a person strolling or watching TV.
But the values of these two time periods are very different. In an office, every minute there are specific activities that must be performed. When these are performed, you have gain; when they are not performed, you have loss.
We measure both time periods with the same means; but different tools are needed. This means that will allow us to measure the value of the time period may be called organization hour. To distinguish, we can call the traditional hour as the normal hour or simply hour.
Organization hour is just a clock which operates at a faster pace in comparison to normal hours. How fast it works will change depending upon the organization using it.
Lets do a simple calculation: for those working in a commercial firm, 16 normal hours of the 24 pass outside the firm. We have 8 normal hours left for the office. Half an hour of this is used for lunch, two times 15 minutes pass (in the morning and in the afternoon) for starting and ending business, in between approximately one hour passes is used for non-business works. Thus, 6 hours are left for the organization. These 6 hours are organization hours. Thus, the ratio between the normal hours and the organization hours is 1:4. In other words, the organization clock in the office ticks away 4 times faster.
All the works, meetings, negotiations must be performed according to this faster clock. Then, lack of time, which the managers complain all the time, will be reduced significantly.
Perhaps, each organization will calculate its own organization hour and use wall clocks that work at this speed.
What can we do? We can help to establish the concept of the organizational hour among the personnel, firstly among executive staff and to implement this in practice to various activities, such as meetings, telephone calls etc.
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