Designing a High-Performance Organization, A Guide to the Whole-Systems Approach

The purpose of this book is to seve as a guide to the design of a high-performance organization for those individuals who have responsibility for reconfiguring their organization. It leads these designers through the procedure for designing the work processes and organization structure, and helps them develop a plan for implementing the new organization. This guide provides

* a clear description of the issues that must be addressed;
* examples that demonstrate principles, methods, and options
* questions to guide the analysis and design procedure
* formats for the collection and summary of necessary data

While there are many books available on how to improve organizations, this is one of the few that presents a practical guide or road map that leads designers through the steps of comprehensive design, start-to-finish. This guide does not provide a formul a but rather contains information that will focus and stimulate the thinking of those involved in organization design. Maps like this one help people determine where they are, where they want to go, and the best path to take them there.

A modern atlas contains not just one but several maps of any part of the world. One map shows the political divisions, another the physical features, another the natural resources, another the population distribution, ad so on. With the alignment of these overlays, the relationship among the various dimensions becomes clearer, for example, between resources and political division. As designers gain experience as organization cartographers, they will create multiple maps of their organization with each overlay adding additional features to the total picture. As they add more data and fill in the incomplete parts of the map, they will better understand the relationship among the parts of their organization.

Bill Lytle is the President of William O; Lytle & Associates of Lincoln, Massachusetts, a firm that assists organizations in developing the high-performance work systems so necessary for success in today's complex business environment. Working at all levels of the organization, he has consulted on issues of organization change with A. E. Staley, the Canadian Department of National Defence, ESSO Chemical Canada, First Union, Georgia-Pacific, Hong Kong Productivity Council, Monsanto, Polaroid, Rohm & Haas, Scott Paper, and others in the United States and Canada. He brings more than 30 years of experience to his organization development practice. In addition to his work with clients, Bill is a frequent speaker at workshops and conferences, and also develops organization simulations and books to guide those involved in change efforts.