It’s interesting to figure out how to make use of this multi-level model. Especially since personal judgement and punishment/reward (both officially and socially) IS the egregore—holding people accountable for their actions is indistinguishable from changing their incentives, right?
In my role as Head of Operations at Monastic Academy, every person in the organization is on a personal improvement plan that addresses the personal responsibility level, and each team in the organization is responsible for process improvements that address the systemic level.
In the performance improvement weekly meetings, my goal is to constantly bring them back to the level of personal responsibility. Any time they start saying the reason they couldn’t meet their improvement goal was because of X event or Y person, I bring it back. What could THEY have done differently, what internal psychological patterns prevented them from doing that, and what can they do to shift those patterns this week.
Meanwhile, each team also chooses process improvements weekly. In those meetings, my role is to do the exact opposite, and bring it back to the level of process. Any time they’re examining a team failure and come to the conclusion “we just need to prioritize it more, or try harder, or the manager needs to hold us to something”, I bring it back to the level of process. How can we change the order or way we do things, or the incentives involved, such that it’s not dependent on any given person’s ability to work hard or remember or be good at a certain thing.
It’s interesting to figure out how to make use of this multi-level model. Especially since personal judgement and punishment/reward (both officially and socially) IS the egregore—holding people accountable for their actions is indistinguishable from changing their incentives, right?
In my role as Head of Operations at Monastic Academy, every person in the organization is on a personal improvement plan that addresses the personal responsibility level, and each team in the organization is responsible for process improvements that address the systemic level.
In the performance improvement weekly meetings, my goal is to constantly bring them back to the level of personal responsibility. Any time they start saying the reason they couldn’t meet their improvement goal was because of X event or Y person, I bring it back. What could THEY have done differently, what internal psychological patterns prevented them from doing that, and what can they do to shift those patterns this week.
Meanwhile, each team also chooses process improvements weekly. In those meetings, my role is to do the exact opposite, and bring it back to the level of process. Any time they’re examining a team failure and come to the conclusion “we just need to prioritize it more, or try harder, or the manager needs to hold us to something”, I bring it back to the level of process. How can we change the order or way we do things, or the incentives involved, such that it’s not dependent on any given person’s ability to work hard or remember or be good at a certain thing.