How many Greeks know fully well what they are voting for/against?

Greece is in crisis. And a referendum has just concluded, giving Greek citizens the option to either approve or disapprove the terms of a proposed international bailout.

Here is the question being put to voters - it is not be as simple as whether they want to stay in the euro or not. Instead it asks Greeks to approve or reject the specific terms laid out by Greece's creditors:

Should the agreement plan submitted by the European Commission, European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund to the June 25 eurogroup and consisting of two parts, which form their single proposal, be accepted?

The first document is titled 'Reforms for the completion of the Current Program and Beyond' and the second 'Preliminary Debt Sustainability Analysis'. "Not approved/NO "Approved/YES" - Reproduced from BBC News

The BBC News article goes on to add that we are not alone, if it does not make any sense to us.

This makes me wonder: Could deliberative polling have been used in this situation? Or was it not a feasible alternative?

What do you think?

For further reading:

1. http://participedia.net/en/methods/deliberative-polling
2. http://cdd.stanford.edu/what-is-deliberative-polling/

Let Ideas flow

"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these." - Jesus Christ (Gospel of St. Luke, 18:16).

In the same vein, leaders of all organizations need to say to their employees: Let your ideas come to us, and do not hinder them, for our future hinges on you and your ideas.

But alas! In many organizations, all too often, ideas don't flow freely, due to a variety of reasons. And the organization pays a huge cost for this.

An Idea Management System

One pathway for a smoother flow of ideas is an idea management system. 

An idea management system (IMS) is a systematic, formal mechanism for soliciting, generating, developing, evaluating, selecting, implementing, spreading and learning from large numbers of ideas from anyone and everyone in the organization. 

Idea Management System: A schematic representation

The below table identifies how an IMS can assist at each stage of the innovation process.

Innovation Phase	How an IMS assists
Idea generation – finding, adapting or creating the ideas	An IMS can encourage employees to put forward ideas. An IMS can help in the process of refining and iterating those ideas by allowing others to share their perspectives and inputs.
Idea selection – picking which ideas to use	By letting others be aware of suggested approaches, ideas can be tested early through sharing of experiences, limitations and impacting factors, and possible improvements to the idea.
Idea implementation – putting the ideas into practice	An IMS can assist implementation if it records lessons learnt, identifies options that have and have not worked, and codifies what made the implementation successful.
Sustaining ideas – keeping the ideas going	An IMS can assist the embedding of ideas by outlining the need for an idea and providing a reminder of the problems faced before it came about.
Idea diffusion – spreading the ideas and the insights about them	By recording the ideas and the resulting action other areas facing a similar or parallel issue may be better able to see potential solutions.

(Table Excerpted from the Public Sector Innovation Toolkit, of the Government of Australia)

Many organizations from diverse industries, across the globe, belonging to the for-profit, non-profit as well as government sectors have been using idea management systems very effectively, in order to manage their innovation activities and improve themselves continuously.

In a later post, we shall explore different processes and tools which can be employed in order to implement and operationalize an idea management system.

Inspiration: 

1. Ideas are Free – Alan Robinson, Dean M. Schroeder http://idea-driven.com
2. The Idea Driven Organization - Alan Robinson, Dean M. Schroeder http://idea-driven.com

Does your organization have a Why?

"Isn't that clear? Is it too difficult a thing to do?"

I was being pulled up. By the erstwhile CEO of an organization I have worked with. For some mistakes which she believed I committed.

She was right. It was not at all a difficult thing to do. But only IF one knew exactly what had to be done. I, for one, did not.

She was wrong too. It was not clear to me! Not until then, when she just said it.

Yes, she did say - while admonishing me, and before posing the above rhetorical questions - that "we are .... and we have to do ....".

It was a Eureka moment for me. I had spent around eight months in the organization, and was still searching for the answers to the following fundamental questions:

1. Who are we?
2. What it is that we do?

I had just received an answer - from the horse's mouth. The answer, though not completely convincing (since I did not get to ask clarifying questions), did bring some badly needed clarity. 

Isn't it unfortunate? And tragically comical? We seem to be very well aware of the purpose of mundane things like pencil, switch, tooth brush, car, etc., but often unaware of the core purpose of our work. Not only that, we are often not even conscious of our ignorance of the same.

I firmly believe that every organization needs to have a clear, well-articulated mission. That defines and guides everyone. Besides, the leadership should ensure that everyone is i) well aware of it, ii) understands it well, iii) identifies with it and is iv) inspired and guided by it in the discharge of their duties and responsibilities. For which the mission should be communicated frequently.

As the late leadership expert Warren Bennis said, the first task of a leader is to define the mission.

So, have your leadership defined it for your organization? If not, can you help him/her do it? 

Please do share your thoughts. Thank you for your attention.

(In a later post, we shall explore why an organization needs a mission).

Postscript:

1. To be fair to my CEO, she is a thorough professional, well-respected. And by me too. :) 
2. To be fair to myself, the CEO discovered during the conversation that the mistakes in question were committed by someone else (who happened to be senior to me). But yes, given my ignorance of the organizational mission, I too could have very well committed them. It was just not my day! :)
3. Last time I checked, I still worked for the same organization!