Showing posts with label Ambition. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ambition. Show all posts

Tuesday, 26 May 2009

Text Book Example!

Glasgow's Govan High School, led by Head Teacher Iain White, is a fine example of a public sector organisation that is incorporating what we would call FSW thinking into their way of working. Their 7th Newsletter describes a number of FSW characteristics of Excellence.

Right upfront, they signal clearly their bold Ambition, which is of "all leavers going into positive destinations in jobs, training, college or university."

One of the ways that they do this is through establishing links with employers, colleges, universities and other providers. They do this by initiatives such as hosting breakfast meetings for local employers and training providers at which topics like employability skills and what employers look for at interview are discussed. We would position effort of this kind under the Architecture element of FSW.

A strong connection is made between the School's Ambition and its Performance Measures; in their article entitled "We are still making a difference" they list many success stories of pupils, but most telling statistic is that Govan High School has continued to reduce the number of leavers who are unemployed and has the highest percentage of pupils going into employment of all Glasgow schools. This focus on the legacy impact of the organisation's work is typical of the Performance Element of FSW.

Finally, in FSW, one of the critical success factors is to ensure that your Talent feel connected with what the organisation is trying to achieve. The Govan High School Student Council has been set up to encourage students to make connections with others schools and relevant organisations such as the Chamber of Commerce. What better way to ensure ownership of the Ambition than to encourage the students to promote that Ambition to others?






Tuesday, 28 April 2009

Zappos is so Ambitious!

Zappos, the zany internet shoe company that has created a bit of a stir in the press lately, takes seriously the challenge of engaging their Talent with their Ambition (a prime FSW characteristic, by the way!). To achieve their ambition of providing world-beating customer service, they realise that they need to create a distinctive culture.  

Despite a careful, and rather unconventional recruitment process, they realise that the Zappos way is not for everyone, so after a few weeks they offer new recruits a $2000 payoff to leave the company. This way, they believe that they will weed out those new recruits that are not committed to the Zapos 'cause'. By the way, in 2008 just three people took the cash. 

Talk about putting your money where your mouth is! 

Have you got any examples of companies that are REALLY serious about attracting only those people who share their ambition? Do tell us......!

Read more about the Zappos story in a recent Economist article.