EXTRACT FROM OPEN LETTER TO IBM EMPLOYEES FROM THE THEN CHAIRMAN, T. V. LEARSON

• today we still have
• too many organizational procedures,
• too many safeguards to keep people out of trouble,
• still too much refusal to delegate,
• still too much group thinking (the kind that almost never produces brilliant insight or decisive action)

 

• tighten up the organization
• getting people at the top of the business to focus more on long-term goals, less on day to day monitoring
• encouraging people to take on accountability for a job, leaving them the details of how they do it
• pushing decisions down the ladder where they belong, giving more people a chance to exercise responsibility

 

• advice to the people on the ground
• Question every procedure
• If the procedure doesn't make sense, break your back to replace it with one that does
• don't take yesterday's prescription as an answer tomorrow
• don't go by the rule book and use the system as an excuse for senseless action or no action at all
• move the ball forward by doing the little things:

·   picking up the phone,

• making a quick call and getting the job done yourself:

·   getting out of your office chair and walking to where the answer is;

• following through on something without bringing in an international conference to help you;
• scribbling a note instead of having it typed with 20 copies;
• trying to keep your organization small and your responsibilities increasing

SHARED FROM:

Lyndon Jones, (1980), "Organisational support for effective time management", Education + Training, Vol. 22 Iss: 3 pp. 95 - 96