Sustained Improvement of Functioning (SIF) Mechanism
There are varieties of OD Technique available in practice.
But major constraint for any Organizational Development comes with the trio of Learning, Solution and Responsibility by employees.
Any OD technique whatever in the practice, will be successful only if the employees fulfill three conditions:
– Learning tendency
– Solution Mind-set
– Responsibility implementation (rather than assured in words).
The collective principles of change techniques such as Education, Counselling, Training, Guidance, and Behaviour Modification, all become successful if only the recipients show these three elements of change, viz., Learning tendency, Solution Mind-set and Responsibility Implementation.
These are important for any change to sustain (in most organizations, changes do not sustain)
I developed the OD technique for sustained change built over these three elements and presented in my paper titled “Mechanism for Sustained Improvement of Functioning (SIF): Coalescence of applied psychology aspects and industrial experience”, on 29th March, 2012 at ICSSR Sponsored National Seminar on ‘Building Human Capital’ – A way forward to Nations‟ Prosperity held at Department of Business Administration, P.V.P. Siddhartha Institute of Technology Kanuru, Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh – 520 007.
The philosophies involved in SIF mechanism are that
(i) Current author (G.S.Ramesh kumar, 1999) views human being is motivated to progress, that and is motivated to do a task if it gives him a perspective of progress and
(ii) Accusation and advice for a mistake induces resistance as human is basically a logical being.
In these lines he has devised a mechanism of sustained improvement of functioning which comprises just three core sentences which would
(i) help learn (therefore relatively permanent change or Sustained Improvement of Functioning), – the mechanism ensures three important determinants of learning efficiency viz., attention,
application and sustained responsibility and pass through three stages.
In the first stage of Learning, the individual pays his attention towards the issue at hand as a whole – whether a neutral situation or a real problem required to be solved to move on further. The outcome of this first stage is at least any minimum but new understanding relevant to the context. The learning of the individual is, of course, depending on his individual variables such as perception, motivation, intelligence etc. However, it is only to ensure some minimum learning occurs, that he / she becomes more involved in the job, and all these occur to reduce wastages.
In the second stage of Solution, the individual uses his cognitive ability to process outcome (understanding) of the first stage (learning). The outcome of this stage is a solution – if it is of neutral situation, contemplating of how can be applied as a solution and for which problem; In case of a problem, the task is to think about how to be implemented. In the third stage of Responsibility, the individual assumes responsibility and suppressed ego.
The outcome of this stage is practicing a behaviour / work activity with the criteria that
(i) it should be recordable behaviour and can be practiced / trained, and
(ii) must have incorporated „control‟ such that the problem will not be repeated, if the outcome is given either the status of „part of daily work activity‟ and therefore integrated into the sequence of work activities or practiced as to make it a habit.
Accordingly, the trainer encourages the learner to say, in a neutral situation / a problem state, his
LISS – Learning In Single Sentence – what he / she learns from the particular situation / problem
SISS – Solution In Single Sentence – to which future problem the learning could be applied as a solution / solution to current problem situation and
RISS – Responsibility In Single Sentence – the responsibility one should claim for the solution that a given problem will never be repeated mostly.
When a motivational problem is perceived then it would be worked through by a minor mechanism of CISS – Consequence In Single Sentence. The supervisor would encourage the resisting employee only to contemplate the consequence if done right thing and consequence if done in wrong way, again concluding by asking „What is your LISS (what do you learn from this)? This motivates the individuals and makes their ego silent, thereby enhancing learning atmosphere. The single sentence is for easy.
SIF Mechanism is integrated and sequential:
The major mechanism (LISS, SISS and RISS) is a system and sequential. If LISS is not occurring, then SISS will also be affected for the particular situation /problem and therefore RISS will also be affected.
If RISS is obtained readily then this only indicates that sub-conscious mind worked fast on LISS and SISS, imperceptibly.
Benefits:
(i) Help realize sustained changes and
(ii) Make the psychological resistance silent
(iii) Role evolution (an employee over a period of time should not do a task with same objective, movements and efficiency)
(iv) A Culture Building Tool
(v) Arrests repetition of errors
(vi) Employees develop the trio mind-set of Learning, Solving and Responsibility
To implement this in your organization / clarifications contact us.
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