Diagnose Your Organization Like a Marketer

You can do a first-class diagnostic on your organization--regardless of size--by acting like the Marketing department.

Companies spend millions of dollars each year on internal surveys; Their marketing groups do the same with customer feedback. Rarely have I seen both efforts coordinated with broader organizational development strategies. When I've been able to make that happen (and I've been shot down more often than not), the path forward turns out looking a lot different than it would have with the traditional internal focus.

Most organizations acknowledge the validity of internal and external "customers".

Is your diagnostic making the connection between the two?

Comments

[Mile High Pixie]

Apologies, Steve, I've been busy at home and freaked out at work since our latest round of layoffs (I'm still employed but surprised). Because of that layoff, this post really strikes a chord with me. Does a company or organization really know what their employees are thinking on certain topics? The firm at which I work has tuned its employees out for so long because it had received some feedback about what employees want and has made them comfortable, but we on the lower rungs are clueless about big picture things and are in turn surprised when suddenly, our company gets a new logo, or 20 fellow employees are laid off, or we're asked to do a drawing or rendering and it suddenly ends up on a billboard on the highway. Had we but known, perhaps we could have done things differently to make a better product or save some jobs or...something.

[Steve Roesler]

MHP,

Happy for the ongoing employment; freaked about the freakiness.

For sure, there are many companies who know what the employees are thinking and make an ongoing effort to stay on top of things. It's something that I'm involved with frequently. The smaller the organization, the easier it is to be in touch with the pulse of the workforce.

If they want to.

1. Some places don't care. They simply don't.

2. Others "care", but when they find out that feelings are running pretty deep, they aren't sure how to deal with it. So they bring in someone like myself to help with the conversation, get the situation "unstuck", and development a healthy atmosphere. That doesn't mean that "bad" things disappear. It means they are seen in their truthful light by all concerned.

3. Yet others are the recipient of the Jack Nicholson "You want the truth? You can't handle the truth" award. They know exactly what is happening, can't handle it, and don't want to handle it--alone or with help.

A diagnostic question to ask yourself: "Where is my company?"