I’m a bit late on this one but I decided to write something quick anyway.
Our group was a bit sleepy in class so Perry Klebahn led our discussion. He asked us a series of seemingly innocent questions about our business and we eventually had our values, strategies and processes.
Obviously you want the values, strategies, and processes of a company to align and reinforce one another. But Perry’s key insight how to actually make this happen. We discussed key variables within the company in terms of silos like benefits, space, org structure, outside activities…etc. These silos were the vertical supports that hold the company together at every level.
So when it comes time to develop a new policy – say the vacation policy – we make sure the policy aligns with our key values of flexibility and accountability, we make sure our first mover and unique profit plan aren’t affected by the vacation policy. So feel free to take your vacation any time you want except during our big releases or when your other team mates are out on vacation.