Neil McElroy, a former CEO of P&G and who also served as Secretary of Defense for President Eisenhower, once described the two basic tests of the rightness of any organization design this way: to what extent does it 1) advance the growth of leadership brands and 2) provide an environment where women and men can grow in their abilities and satisfaction from the work they do.
John Gardner in his magisterial book, "Self-Renewal" captures the timeless essence of the second test.
"We shall discover that what counts is not the size of the organization but the patterns of organizations. It is possible to continue achieving economies of scale and still give attention to human needs. Too often in the past we have designed systems to meet all kinds of exacting requirements except the most important requirement of all—that they contribute to the fulfillment and growth of the participants. We must discover how to design organizations and technological systems in such a way that individual talents are used to the maximum and human satisfaction and dignity are preserved. We must learn to make technology serve man not only in the end product but in the doing".
These comments from Neil McElroy build upon the actions of William Cooper Procter in the late 1800's when he unilaterally reduced the manufacturing work week from 6 days to 5 for the benefit of workers and their families. He believed productivity in the remaining 5 days would equal or exceed that of the 6 day week. Imagine a CEO taking such unilateral action today. He also instituted sharing profits with EVERY employee. Imagine the benefit to our industries and all employed workers if all companies shared profits with ALL employees, not just executives, by re-allocating some of the billions of dollars now put into stock buy backs. There's no company without ALL the employees who must work together to advance the company's growth, as we should have learned in the pandemic. P&G, its shareholders, its employees and their families, its suppliers and retail customers, its consumers, and the communities where they live and work, have all benefitted from the amazing insights of these historic leaders.
ReplyDeleteHeartily agree! These comments reflect the groundbreaking work we undertook as P&G created "Technician Systems" in our manufacturing plants starting in the 70's. I'll always remember a technician (called a "worker" in older plants) excitedly saying he got excited when his team was able to put a case of product on a competitor's shipping dock cheaper than they could!
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