humanize worksheet: open

8/4/2019 Humanize Worksheet: Open

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Humanize: How People-Centric Organizations Succeed in a Social World I www.humanizebook.com I Open Worksheet

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Overview of Humanize Chapter 6:

How to Be Open

This worksheet assumes youve read the book, and it is probably a good

idea to reread Chapter 6: How to Be Open, beore you begin.

Open organizations have more decentralized cultures.

More people are empowered to make decisions, more people have a voice, and more people are able to

solve problems and act.

Core values are clearly dened and spelled out and shared with everyone in the organization.

Better solutions can be ound by engaging multiple people across departments.

Those in positions o power are there to protect the ability o their people to get their jobs done. The deault is

action, not approval (proceed until apprehended).

Leadership is recognized throughout the organization as the ability or anyone to adequately respond and

move orward.

Open organizations embrace systems thinking in their internal structure

and processes.

For example, they introduce thematic, time-bound rallying cries that help everyone ocus on a goal,

regardless o which department they are in.

They share data internally in a centralized way so everyone sees the same inormation and can access what

they need when they need it, without creating little islands o outdated or incomplete data.

They allow new voices (customers, or example) to be part o decision making.

In open organizations, individual behavior is marked by ownership.

Ownership is not about controlling your piece o the pie; its about each person being able to take action

when needed.

Its about having enough inormation about the workings o the whole organization to know what eects their

decisions will have in other areas. Its about being able to manage confict, and having communication skills in dierent media (matching

responses to the circumstances in which situations appear).
http://www.humanizebook.com/http://www.humanizebook.com/


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Humanize Worksheet

How to Be Open

InstructionsBy Focusing on these concepts in the three areas o organizational culture, internal structure and process, and

individual behavior, this worksheet allows you to assess your organizations capacity or openness and come up

with action items that will help you to move toward more openness.

The purpose o this worksheet is ultimately to get you to do something. Reading our book is awesome (thank

you, by the way), but nothing changes by reading a book. Change happens when people start behaving

dierently, when people start working dierently. Our mantra: I you do what you always did, youll get what you

always got.

We eel strongly that our organizations need to be more human. Thats where you come in.

The worksheet is divided into three sections that should be completed in order. They build upon each other tocomplete a nal plan.

1 Your AssessmentStart by answering questions about you and your organization. Complete a quick quiz in which you

give 30 numerical ratings on openness in terms o culture, process, and behavior. Then there are our

open-ended questions or you to answer to ll in the gaps.

2 Conversations and DataThis section helps you have targeted conversations with others so you can collect necessary data

and brainstorm ideas or taking action. We help you set up individual meetings, group meetings, and

produce summary reports.

3 Action PlanThis section helps you design an action plan for the next steps to make your organization more open.

We help you prioritize potential actions, both big and small, and map out what you are going to do next.


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1 Your Assessment

Assessment Goals

a. To evaluate your organizations ability to be open rom your perspective.

b. To identiy possible ideas or your action plan.

On a scale o 1 (completely not true) to 10 (absolutely its that way around here), rate the ollowing

statements in the context o you or your organization:

Quiz A: CultureTo Be Open at the level o Organizational Culture:

Goal = DecentralizationSCORE

(110)

A1 People at lower levels have a decent amount o autonomy.

A2 Command and control is a thing o the past.

A3 Employees can participate in social media.

A4 The senior level gets out o the way so more can get done.

A5 Our policies are clear and easy to ollow.

A6 We get a lot o participation (at all levels) in our internal meetings.

A7 People closest to the problem have the authority to solve the problem.

A8 I know what our core values are as an organization.

A9There are containers or boundaries within which I have the reedom to

experiment or make decisions.

A10 I am able to call and lead a meeting.

QUIZ A SUBTOTAL (out o 100)


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1 Your Assessment continued

Quiz B: Process

To Be Open at the level o Internal Structure and Process:

Goal = Systems ThinkingSCORE

(110)

B1 Departments cooperate with each other outside specic projects.

B2 Customers/stakeholders signicantly infuence what we do.

B3 We can course-correct in the middle o a process with relative ease.

B4People not only have access to the inormation they need but can also eed data back into

the system.

B5 We understand how what any o us does impacts others in the organization.

B6 There are processes in place to invite external ideas or eedback.

B7 One department will invite people rom other departments to help design their processes.

B8 Changes are supported because everyone understands the reasons or them.

B9 We have cross-departmental task orces or nding creative solutions to problems.

B10 Employees at dierent levels are involved in planning, whether strategic or departmental.

QUIZ B SUBTOTAL (out o 100)

Quiz C: Behavior

To Be Open at the level o Individual Behavior

Goal = OwnershipSCORE

(110)

C1 New employees get a good honest sense o the organization when we orient them.

C2We all have a good understanding o what our customers/stakeholders experience when

they interact with our organization.

C3People at all levels understand our strategy well enough to use it as a guide in their ongoing

decision making.

C4 I am able to do what I need to do in my job.

C5 We handle confict well enough that it doesnt bog people down.

C6

Our people can handle themselves in all types o electronic communication media, so we

can respond when and where we need to.

C7 Results matter more than ego around here.

C8 We have a lot o open ormal and inormal conversations about how to improve things.

C9 Our customer interactions are not rigid and scripted.

C10We share inormation reely to help others out even when its not specically part o our job

to do so.

QUIZ C SUBTOTAL (out o 100)


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Compile your point scores

This assessment will give you a snapshot o how open your organization is rom your own point o view. Add up

the points or each section, then add up your total point score.

Add up your three subtotal scores.

A QUIZ A SUBTOTAL (out o 100)

B QUIZ B SUBTOTAL (out o 100)

C QUIZ C SUBTOTAL (out o 100)

TOTAL (out o 300)

226300 pointsI you have more than about 240 points, please call us, because we want to eature you

on the blog as an example o a open organization. Nice job.

151225 points Your organization is well on the way to being open! You can reely concentrate on theareas that scored lower than others.

76150 points

Not a bad start. Pay close attention to which o the three areas (or particular questions)

scored highest and lowest. Can you do more o the bright spots? Can you scrap some

things that are completely not open?

075 points

This score assumes that you probably have lack o openness issues in all three areas o

culture, process, and behavior. Youll need to pick your battles and gure out where you

can concentrate your eorts at rst.

What scored highest? What scored lowest? What are some areas you might be able to eect some

change? Are there high scoring areas you can do more o? Are there low-scoring areas where you canstart small but still have some impact? Focus on those as you complete the qualitative sel-assessment

in the next section.

Your notes:


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Qualitative Sel-assessment

Multiple choice quizzes are relatively easy. Your score should give you a little bit o quantitative insight into how

open your organization is, and will become more interesting as you start to compare it with others scores (see

Section 2). But this exercise is incomplete without more qualitative thinking about why you rated the questions

above in the way that you did. Look back at your answers and write down your thoughts about the ollowingquestions:

Wherever you are on the openness scale, why is it that way? I youre horrible, why are you horrible? I

youre awesome, why are you awesome? What made you as open (or closed) as you are today?

What is the most important area to work on in your organization when it comes to being more open?

Why is that important? How will it impact perormance?


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What are you doing personally to contribute to a more open organization?

What are you doing that gets in the way?

Insights and Potential Actions

Take the answers to your essay questions and your own analysis o the mini survey and make a bulleted list o

observations about where your organization stands in terms o openness, including your initial thoughts aboutwhat can be done to make the organization more open. You dont need to orm conclusions yet, but you should

be able to put some ideas down on paper. I you were going to start today, what could you do?

Youre done with Section 1. In Section 2, youll compare notes with others.


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2 Conversations and Data

Conversation Goalsa. To collect qualitative and quantitative data rom others in the organization evaluating your

organizations openness.

b. To collectively identiy possible ideas or your action plan.

You are now ready to have conversations with others about openness.

Step 1: Identiy who you want to meet with individually in your organization.

Exactly how many conversations you have and with whom will vary tremendously depending on your context.What works or a six-person nonprot will not be the best plan or a large corporation. More inormation to help

guide you on this is at the end o this section.

List their names here.

Step 2: Schedule INDIVIDUAL meetings.List the dates and times or each meeting with those you identied in step 1.

Name Date Time


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2 Conversations and Data continued

Step 3: Invite the individuals you have listed in Step 2 to complete Section

1 o this worksheet as pre-work or a discussion about openness.

Their answers, compared with yours, will be the conversation starter.

Suggested agenda:

a. Quiz resultsCulture. Compare notes.

b. Quiz resultsProcess. Compare notes.

c. Quiz resultsBehavior. Compare notes.

d. Action Plan brainstorm. Compare and compile ideas.

Step 4: Record key ideas from your individual meetings.

Step 5: Schedule GROUP meetings.

Be sure to review the group meetings guidance in pages13-14 beore you schedule your meeting.

List dates and times or each meeting. Remember to invite participants to complete Section 1 o this worksheet

as pre-work or a discussion about openness.

Name Date Time


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Step 6: List observations that you had rom your group meetings.Create a brie meeting report ater each group conversation. Here is a sample:

Meeting with (list names)

Date / Time / Location

Goals or this meeting

1. To assess, as a group, our organizations ability to be open

2. To brainstorm possibilities or improvement

Culture (decentralization)

what are the bright spots?

what needs work?

Process (systems thinking)


what needs work?


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Step 6: List observations Continued

Behavior (ownership)


what needs work?

Specic areas that need urther exploration

Ideas or actions to be taken

Any and all ideas are welcome here.


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Guidance on individual and group meetings

Your goal or this section is to gather data rom other people in your organization, and to brainstorm ideas or

becoming more open. Every business is dierent, and only you will be able to judge how best to conduct these

conversations.

- You could plan one or a series o meetings with individuals.

- You could ask every department to have its own meeting and share results.

- You could plan a hal-day workshop or the whole company.

- You could use online tools to have an ongoing conversation.

Depending on the existing culture, you may need to have a series o one-on-one conversations to start. Its

possible youll come across as the person who just got seminared and is trying to push an agenda on them.

Maintain a tone o curiosity in the conversation and be open to the possibility that others wont see things the

way you do.

When you move to group conversations, we recommend you invite anyone who has an interest in the topic

o openness in your organization to participate in these conversations. This is crucial to becoming more open

- being able to invite whomever is interested to participate in things, regardless o rank, title, or job description.

That being said, in many organizations you will also want to have conversations within certain subgroups.

Both types o conversations are ne. Here are some things to think about as you plan these conversations,

depending on your level in the hierarchy.

Executives. This is a good opportunity to explore how open you are as a senior team. Without anyone else

in the room, you might get some more openness in the conversation. So have some courage to hold your

collective eet to the re or a bit and ocus on you (not the others who are out there and are the source

o the problem). You need to be clear on the ground rules, particularly condentiality. You need to come to

agreement about what sort o reporting out to people outside the room there will be.

But its also critical that people at other levels see you having conversations about openness, so you cant

keep it all behind closed doors. Talk about these issues with middle managers and line sta. Dont dominate

the conversation, and dont worry i your people arent 100% open with you in the room (you knew that would

be the case, right?). Have the conversations anyway, and try to balance your questions and curiosity with

your own open expression o your opinions (too many questions and not enough statements and your people

will eel like they are being interrogated or tested; too many statements and not enough questions and it willeel like a mandatory lecture).

Middle managers. The challenge at this level is having too many dierent people and groups to talk to

about being decentralized, embracing systems thinking, and supporting ownership. One approach would

be to have conversations with people at the exchange points between and among departments. Middle

levels can oten be bottlenecks that prevent decentralization, and that would be a good topic or a group o

middle managers. But you may also want to engage groups o direct reports and really ocus on the issue

o ownership and acilitating right action. Or you could work with senior olks on clariying the business case


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or being more open. Dont get paralyzed by your options. Pick some conversations to start and see where it

leads you. Remember that you dont have to solve all these problems yoursel. You need to connect the right

people together and let them help solve the problem.

Front line employees.As a ront line employee, you may eel you dont have much (i any) say in takingaction to make your organization more open. But you wouldnt have read this book or started this worksheet

i you didnt think you could do something. What areas do you have responsibility or that you can examine?

Who at higher levels might support you in this endeavor? What kind o data can you present (say, or

example, social media conversations) to make your case or more openness? As a ront line employee, we

are assuming you are the closest to your organizations customers. Gather data rom them, as well as rom

what similar organizations are doing, to help you make small breakthroughs. You dont have to convene

ormal meetings and conerences on this topicjust keep gathering data and sharing it with people that can

use it with an eye on how to change behavior and processes in ways that matter.

The ultimate goal o these conversations is to brainstorm actionable ideas, small and large.

I you eel you need customized consulting help to manage these conversations, contact the authors. Were

here to help.

Youll be done with Section 2 when you eel you have enough participation (buy-in) and enough ideas to want

to take action in large or small ways. In the fnal Section 3, youll prioritize those ideas, and decide how you

can start.

Notes:



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3 Action Plan

Action Plan Goals:a. To prioritize actionable ideas

b. To identiy what YOU can do to get star ted.

Looking at all o the ideas that have come out o these conversations, we now need to gure out whats do-able

or YOU. What are you, personally, going to do? You can also take this action plan and complete one as a team,

or as a group. But ultimately, everyone who reads our book and wants to take action to help their organization

become more open will start with the question, What can I do?

Based on the assessments and ideas youve collected, there are at least three ways to decide on a plan of action.

a) Figure out what is working, and do more o those things. Think FRY (Frequency, Reach, Yield)can

you be openmore often? Getmore people to be open in particular circumstances? Expand the areas youre

already open? List the ideas here, rom the results o your group and individual brainstorming, that all under

this category.

b) Change small things that are not working. Find small victories and keep moving up rom there. Document

everything and use data to help you move the needle. List the ideas that all under this category here.


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3 Action Plan continued

c) Make big changes, as long as you have a good percentage o people invested. Involve everyone in the

process o choosing what changes to make. List the ideas that all under this category here.

d) Think about priority, and degree o difculty. O all the ideas youve brainstormed, are some more

important than others? What kind o resources need to be mobilized?

e) Think about sequence. Do some o your ideas need to be completed beore others can happen?

More Important

Less Important

Fewer

Resources /Easy

More

Resources /Hard


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Action Plan Outline

Ultimately, however, helping to make your organization more open starts with YOU. List the ideas YOU can do.

Idea How easy/hard? Timerame

Can I do this mysel?

Who else do I need

to involve to make

this happen?

Culture [sample]

Implement a versionof Googles 20% timein my department.

[sample]

Will be popular, butchallenges wit h t imereporting.

[sample]

Need a few mont hs toplan it before it goeslive.

[sample]

Need buy-in fromleadership; HR mightresist.

Remember: an open culture is about decentralization.


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Who else do I need

to involve to make

this happen?

Process [sample]

Move key datasets that differentdepartments need tothe cloud to enablecollaboration.

[sample]

Easy technologically,but might need workon standardizingsome reporting.

[sample]

Standards done inthree months. Livein four.

[sample]

Need IT on this onefrom the beginning.

Remember: open processes enable systems thinking.



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Who else do I need

to involve to make

this happen?

Behavior [sample]

Let my direct reports domore without get t ingmy approval frst.

[sample]

Easy

[sample]

Immediately

[sample]

If t his turns out to behard, may need somecoaching.

Remember: open behavior is marked by ownership.

Thank you or taking the time and eort to complete this worksheet and start the ball rolling towardsbecoming a more open organization.

There are three other similar worksheets accompanying Humanize: How People-Centric Organizations

Succeed in a Social World: a worksheet on How to Be Trustworthy, one on How to Be Generative, and one

on How to be Courageous.

Good luck!


humanize worksheet: open

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