How to Simplify the Process of Work

Mark Crawford
July 14, 2008 | COMMENTS

In 1992 The Jensen Group, a change management consultancy group in New Jersey, and the Northern Illinois University College of Business's Entrepreneurship Program, launched an in-depth, ongoing study on Corporate America's ability to design work as it enters the Age of Information. A free report entitled “ The Search for a Simpler Way ” summarizes the study.

To date the study has included over 1,500 companies and 500,000 individuals. “With all that has changed in how we work,” asks Jensen, “have we really attacked the organization of knowledge? What do we discover when we examine our systems for getting work done—performance management, implementation of strategies and change, work efficiency, etc.—for their sources of complexity? How do successful business results hold up to scrutiny of how we got there? What are the hidden Info Age costs behind how we get work done today?”

The research shows that work is far more complex, frustrating, and inefficient than it needs to be. In fact, work complexity is disabling 60% to 80% of the workforce in their efforts to meet shareholder, customer, business, and employee needs.

Jensen indicates the four top drivers of work complexity are:

1. Lack of integration of change.
2. Unclear goals and objectives.
3. How people communicate.
4. Knowledge management, or how people organize information.

The report provides:

• A new way of looking at Corporate America's ability to design, organize, and deliver work in the Info Age
• Enough details to formulate your own conclusions about your company's work processes
• Various tools and methods (including a companion website, www.simplerwork.com) for navigating and understanding the data presented in the report

A few parting thoughts:

Training: One-quarter of last year's training programs are out of date or useless.

Change: The half-life of any change effort is just over 18 months.

Brand: Within two financial quarters, over 10% of your loyal customers will be confused as to what your brand stands for—simply due to information overload's impact on your brand positioning.

Capabilities and skills: Every 1,100 days, your workforce's ability to transform information into work becomes twice as important. Every three years, the amount of information you need to capture, organize, communicate, understand, and build into solutions will double.

Materials for work: If you haven't completely purged, replaced, or updated 100% of your organizational knowledge in a 36-month cycle, you can't compete effectively.

To read the free 27-page executive summary to “The Search for a Simpler Way,” please click here. Contact the Jensen Group through www.simplerwork.com or call 973-539-5070.