Closing the perceptual gap in the organisation

As part of the struggle to communicate, what benefits a company will get if they engage us, we offer a
sample session. The hazard of this session – Business Facilitation- is in the initial phases of our engagement. The people in the organization tend to scrutinize / evaluate us to death. After every sessions of two hours the client has a sub-conscious tendency to look for’ what did we gain today?’ Or ‘did we get what we have paid for?’ ‘Did we get anything new?’ Etc.etc.

What we have observed is that always people crave for new knowledge, new ideas, new paradigms, new models. And the attempts for these cognitive acquisitions actually neither solve the issues at hand nor place the company in a better business position. If the participants do not get something new, they get disappointed and the halo about our services also gets affected. Actually our programs are not meant to teach or enlighten about new knowledge but to bring perceptual changes and shared understanding, which unfortunately is not observable, articulable but have significant effect on the collective efforts of the company.

Different groups within an organization can have sharply contrasting perceptions of organizational aspects. For example, while senior executives are twice as likely as any other group to view their company as “resilient,” nearly 60% of line managers, mid-level managers, and business-unit staff describe the same organization as unhealthy in some respect. And though senior managers tend to feel positive about their involvement in operating decisions, many junior managers in the same company feel that senior managers “micromanage” or “domineer.”

Such perception gaps pose a serious organizational climate. Yes, we all want confident, optimistic organizational citizens. But if people within a company can’t agree on the state of its affairs, they can’t accurately diagnose problems or design and execute solutions for them. In our initial phase of our engagement, we dig out the dirt in the organization and try to close the perception gap.

 We make them acknowledge that different people have different perspectives on the organization’s matters. We allow the participants from different groups / departments to share their views—and the reasoning behind them. Sharing their views with others, backing them up with the data they have used to form those conclusions etc.. Our goal is….to compile a more complete picture of the organization. Also encourage honesty and acceptance in the group. We help them describe what’s actually happening in their organization. This process brings into light the real naked issues of the organization. This makes them realize the wrong ride they are taking. We are sure that mere awareness about the prevalent conditions can help managers and staff form a more objective impression of the organization’s health and help them build readiness for change. This feeling is the most important to bring about changes in strategy and organizational development. But alas! The immediate effortless change in perception is not considered to be a gain and the human mind craves for more knowledge…

Contributed by Sasikanth Prabhu