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The organization of the eighties was one of glitz and glamour. The successful organization of the 90s will be one of symbols and substance.
Symbols are representations of what is valued. They convey both our dreams and our deeds. They embody our history and signify our future. They connote our accomplishments and challenge our performance. The substance underlying our symbols must be achievement, measured not only in terms of meeting certain goals and objectives, but also in affirming the constant striving for fulfillment, actualization and satisfaction.
Substance must be what we are all about. We must accept our responsibility for creating and nurturing organizations of character and integrity. We do this by exhibiting these qualities and by recognizing that organizations derive their character and integrity from the character and integrity manifested by their members.
The consuming public has expressed its desire for quality, value and excellence and made known its desire for leaders to show greater statesmanship and craftsmanship. Leaders must now respond to this challenge, working to define and attain new and loftier standards of performance. Sadly, our leaders are seemingly ill-equipped to meet and grasp this challenge.
As human creations, the organization is the only instrument through which future goals are defined, pursued and accomplished. It is the means by which quality determined, value is produced, and excellence is pursued. Its character and its integrity defined and determine the character and integrity of its products and services. The organization has no meaning, no substance, no direction, no future other than that which individuals give to it.
The quality of the enterprise must be equal to the goals it seeks. All too many organizations extol the merits of quality but lack the commitment to take the difficult steps that make quality the transcending standard and symbol of their existence.
Leading by Covenants
Creating and sustaining organizations of symbols and substance can't be achieved through contracts, procedural manuals and edicts. Nor can they be mandated. They can only be fashioned out of the values, beliefs and convictions that define and compel the human spirit.
Thus, we need to create human relationships which are bound together by covenants, not contracts. We need to fashion organizations out of shared values, shared ideals, shared ideas, shared goals, shared...