CELEBRATING ACHIEVEMENT AT WJS
How do we measure achievement? And why are we so ready to chastise ourselves for what we haven’t accomplished, and so reluctant to congratulate ourselves on what we have accomplished? Achievement is even more difficult to measure in a work setting, where everyone has different ideas about what constitutes success. Measurement also depends very much on where one sits in the corporate hierarchy.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately as I review in my mind what our company has achieved in the past year. Twelve months ago we were in a major upheaval, with a new CEO coming on board, a couple of senior management vacancies, and a community placement issue that was causing us grief. We had a choice: we could roll over, play dead, and hope that the issues would resolve themselves OR we could take the bull by the horns and be proactive. Fortunately, all the type A personalities on our management team chose the second course, and we are starting to measure and quantify our goals and our achievements.
Our dynamic new CEO immediately began imprinting the company with her vision, beginning with a “grand tour” that gave her the opportunity to meet many of our 600+ employees. Just as importantly, those employees had the opportunity to meet her, and hear directly from her that she welcomed their ideas and opinions. We then embarked on a journey that included restructuring the company’s management, tweaking the corporate image, crafting a new strategic plan, hiring new senior staff, and opening new lines of communication both internally and externally. While this wasn’t always an easy or comfortable process for the “old guard”, the excitement in the air helped keep us all on track.
About 9 months into the process we sent out a staff satisfaction survey that produced very interesting results. Although the base data (agree-no opinion-disagree) was somewhat non-committal, the comments indicated new anticipation, hope and a willingness to trust.
Granted we haven’t resolved all our issues, but we’re well on our way. Were making our senior management team accessible to the rank and file; we’re putting our new managers to work reviewing and testing systems; we’re figuring out ways to pay for all the neat ideas generated in our strategic plan; we’re being as open and transparent as possible about how the actions we take will affect the people we serve and our staff; we’re implementing new methods of communication; and we’ll always welcome feedback. Personally, I think those are magnificent accomplishments and I applaud everyone who worked so hard to make them happen. I celebrate us for coming from a place where it was tempting to simply crawl into a hole to a place of optimism where the future looks bright.
I read somewhere that life is like a book, with our accomplishments and experiences written on the pages—the days, weeks and months. It’s up to us to make those “pages” count. It’s also up to us to recognize and celebrate our achievements.
My final words on the matter—HOORAY FOR OUR SIDE!
Lyn Policha, Policy Analyst for WJS Canada