Win-Win Capitalism: Leading Organizations to Improvement
An Interactive Web Site and Weekly Television Report On Successful Management Practices For Businesses, Schools, Government Agencies, Communities, Healthcare Agencies and Families
In the context of continual changes wrought by the global economy and the need for continual performance improvement, Win-Win Capitalism will publicize what works and the underlying strengths of American organizations. Win-Win Capitalism will emphasize the role of leadership and the necessary connection between sound management and ethical practices. Viewers/visitors/subscribers will learn about better management practices based on the principles of systems thinking and continual improvement. Editors will compile, synthesize and report stories illustrating methods that highly successful organizations in all economic sectors have employed to improve their products, services and quality of life. Contributing teachers, healthcare providers, corporate leaders, government executives, and other experts will facilitate discussions of management practices in all economic sectors. Win-Win Capitalism will offer for sale instructional videos and on-line educational services.
Proposal CC-M Productions in association with the CTC Foundation of Washington, DC, is producing a series of three one-hour reports for PBS broadcast in the fall of 2003. The working title for this series is Systems Intelligence: The New Management Revolution. This not-for-profit educational project aims to demonstrate that principles of systems thinking and management for continual improvement have developed from the quality movement of the 1980’s and 90’s. The series will devote one hour to healthcare improvement quality issues, a second hour to education, and the third to business and public service.
Although unreported by the media, these principles have been applied successfully in every sector of the economy, including business, education, healthcare, and government by some organizations. Answers to the question of why only a few succeed while so many others fail are complex and difficult to explain. They get lost in reports of mergers, stock prices, cheating on standardized tests, blame, corporate corruption and CEOs’ compensation. A systems thinking approach is needed to explain organizational success and failure.
The overall educational aim of the series, therefore, is to show by examples that these ideas are applicable to any enterprise from a family to a global corporation and that sustained success in any field now depends on understanding and applying this new thinking.
Win-Win Capitalism, an interactive, web-based educational extension service, will develop and sustain a relationship with a large, desirable audience/membership, alerted to the issues by the documentary series. Like the Department of Agriculture extension service, which made America the leading producer of food and fiber in the world by supplying best farming practices to farmers, this site and a weekly television report, featuring both produced material and videos contributed by the audience, will publicize best management practices, show how to turn mistakes into opportunities, and provide a supportive community for executives, managers, and teachers who want to get better results with less effort.
Analogies Win-Win Capitalism combines several models of communication and organizational transformation into an interactive web site and weekly television report.
• A Global Extension Service. The Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Extension Service, which put an agent in every county, originated as a service of the Sears Roebuck Catalog for American farmers.
Similarly, Win-Win Capitalism is designed as a virtual extension service for managers, educators, and medical practitioners to learn and to customize better methods for improvement of quality of product and service, profitability, and quality of life. For the first time, a popular audience will access and view stories that illustrate the new principles needed to live and work together effectively in a complex, changing world.
The market for Win-Win Capitalism services--including success stories, new ideas and dialogue exchanges--is global.
• A News Magazine Format Cable TV Series Viewers of Win-Win Capitalism will find the news and information needed to understand management issues, so they can make better decisions and informed choices. They will hear, in plain English, clear reporting of stories, discussions, and debates, from every area of the economy, that pertain to the ultimate success and failure of organizations.
• A Management Weather Channel Like an on-line Weather Channel, this educational, news, and entertaining web site and TV series will attract millions of viewers as people discover the drama, value, and fascination in the week-to-week reporting on workable approaches and answers to working together more effectively in a family or a large organization.
The attention of Win-Win Capitalism’s editors and reporters will be focused constantly on what elements are "universal" and "relevant" in the problems and solutions they are illustrating and communicating. Vital lessons are learned about how common principles relate to the problems that workers, managers, professionals, or business owners experience everywhere. There is a much more useful and compelling drama to be viewed in these reality stories than in the fantasy scenarios of surviving on a desert island during which one colleague is expelled each week.
• A Global Clearinghouse and Reference Library Win-Win Capitalism will be an idea exchange, a virtual clearinghouse for better management practices, a hot line for real-time consultation with peers and swapping of stories. Through its reports, panel discussions, interviews, and referrals, Win-Win Capitalism will be a practical learning center. Presently there is no available reference library for this subject.
• Answers to Dilbert’s Questions With a sense of humor and irreverence, Win-Win Capitalism will address Dilbert’s concerns, answer his questions and improve his world. Win-Win Capitalism’s point of view is that the quality of life at work influences quality of life at home. Quality of life can be improved through practices that make businesses more profitable and work more satisfactory.
• America’s Most Useful Management Videos/CD's We expect to receive many contributed stories in video/CD from businesses, schools, foundations, and government agencies describing their attempts to improve. This will be important material for review and discussion. As in the popular TV series, America’s Funniest Home Videos, organizations and people will be eager to share their experiences.
Sources of Raw Material for Win-Win Capitalism There are thousands of scattered experiences with new management thinking. Many enterprises--Fortune 500 corporations, "mom and pop" operations, as well as government agencies, public schools, non-profits and community groups --manage to survive and even improve their operations. They use successful, cutting-edge business methods to manage themselves as complex social systems. Their experience is not widely understood.
Winners of the Baldrige National Quality Award in business, education, and healthcare provide excellent material for periodic reporting. There are also quality awards in most states. Runners-up and organizations which do not qualify for awards will also provide useful stories.
Getting effective advice, answers and solutions for problems and questions—many of which managers can’t formulate—is almost impossible in the confusing marketplace of management nostrums, varieties of consultants with differing premises, tinkering, quick fixes, tradition-bound business schools and inadequate or misleading media coverage. Win-Win Capitalism will directly address this situation, with a head-on approach.
Editorial Point of View The principle that an enterprise’s long-term survival depends on management’s systems view, continual improvement of products and services, as well as development of its people, will guide the content of Win-Win Capitalism. The role of leadership and ethical conduct are vital to organizational success; the necessary connection between sound management practice and ethical practices will be examined.
Win-Win Capitalism will not be hobbled by jargon. Each story will be tied to illustrating—in an entertaining way—how systems work and how everyone benefits from learning to look simultaneously at the big picture, the parts and the interactions of the parts of an organization. The stories of organizations and people who survive the inevitable mistakes, risks and disasters of this new way of working and living are compelling and inspirational forces for change. The site will publicize across all economic sectors what works and the underlying strengths of American organizations.
Most viewers are not aware of their underlying beliefs and assumptions about how organizations work, nor where their beliefs originated. Stories will help viewers and readers become aware of unstated assumptions and attitudes that no longer serve them in the workplace or in their communities. The failure of the Mars probes, because Imperial units were not translated to metric and a line or two of code was omitted, would be an excellent example. How did that happen? Was the new NASA policy of "faster, cheaper, quicker" or an individual error the cause?
All enterprises and communities have a “learning problem;” how to learn rapidly and effectively as a group is vital to survival. This learning consists of establishing improved working relationships and thinking about organizations as complex social systems, undergoing rapid change.
Finally, experience suggests that, given a choice, people will be more interested in improving their workplace, schools and communities than they are in most topics offered by other talk and news shows. Win-Win Capitalism will also tell stories that demonstrate how management practices can help improve personal life, at home, by featuring relevant input from viewers.
In the context of continual changes wrought by the global economy and the need for continual performance improvement, Win-Win Capitalism will publicize what works and the underlying strengths of American organizations. Win-Win Capitalism will emphasize the role of leadership and the necessary connection between sound management and ethical practices. Viewers/visitors/subscribers will learn about better management practices based on the principles of systems thinking and continual improvement. Editors will compile, synthesize and report stories illustrating methods that highly successful organizations in all economic sectors have employed to improve their products, services and quality of life. Contributing teachers, healthcare providers, corporate leaders, government executives, and other experts will facilitate discussions of management practices in all economic sectors. Win-Win Capitalism will offer for sale instructional videos and on-line educational services.
Proposal CC-M Productions in association with the CTC Foundation of Washington, DC, is producing a series of three one-hour reports for PBS broadcast in the fall of 2003. The working title for this series is Systems Intelligence: The New Management Revolution. This not-for-profit educational project aims to demonstrate that principles of systems thinking and management for continual improvement have developed from the quality movement of the 1980’s and 90’s. The series will devote one hour to healthcare improvement quality issues, a second hour to education, and the third to business and public service.
Although unreported by the media, these principles have been applied successfully in every sector of the economy, including business, education, healthcare, and government by some organizations. Answers to the question of why only a few succeed while so many others fail are complex and difficult to explain. They get lost in reports of mergers, stock prices, cheating on standardized tests, blame, corporate corruption and CEOs’ compensation. A systems thinking approach is needed to explain organizational success and failure.
The overall educational aim of the series, therefore, is to show by examples that these ideas are applicable to any enterprise from a family to a global corporation and that sustained success in any field now depends on understanding and applying this new thinking.
Win-Win Capitalism, an interactive, web-based educational extension service, will develop and sustain a relationship with a large, desirable audience/membership, alerted to the issues by the documentary series. Like the Department of Agriculture extension service, which made America the leading producer of food and fiber in the world by supplying best farming practices to farmers, this site and a weekly television report, featuring both produced material and videos contributed by the audience, will publicize best management practices, show how to turn mistakes into opportunities, and provide a supportive community for executives, managers, and teachers who want to get better results with less effort.
Analogies Win-Win Capitalism combines several models of communication and organizational transformation into an interactive web site and weekly television report.
• A Global Extension Service. The Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Extension Service, which put an agent in every county, originated as a service of the Sears Roebuck Catalog for American farmers.
Similarly, Win-Win Capitalism is designed as a virtual extension service for managers, educators, and medical practitioners to learn and to customize better methods for improvement of quality of product and service, profitability, and quality of life. For the first time, a popular audience will access and view stories that illustrate the new principles needed to live and work together effectively in a complex, changing world.
The market for Win-Win Capitalism services--including success stories, new ideas and dialogue exchanges--is global.
• A News Magazine Format Cable TV Series Viewers of Win-Win Capitalism will find the news and information needed to understand management issues, so they can make better decisions and informed choices. They will hear, in plain English, clear reporting of stories, discussions, and debates, from every area of the economy, that pertain to the ultimate success and failure of organizations.
• A Management Weather Channel Like an on-line Weather Channel, this educational, news, and entertaining web site and TV series will attract millions of viewers as people discover the drama, value, and fascination in the week-to-week reporting on workable approaches and answers to working together more effectively in a family or a large organization.
The attention of Win-Win Capitalism’s editors and reporters will be focused constantly on what elements are "universal" and "relevant" in the problems and solutions they are illustrating and communicating. Vital lessons are learned about how common principles relate to the problems that workers, managers, professionals, or business owners experience everywhere. There is a much more useful and compelling drama to be viewed in these reality stories than in the fantasy scenarios of surviving on a desert island during which one colleague is expelled each week.
• A Global Clearinghouse and Reference Library Win-Win Capitalism will be an idea exchange, a virtual clearinghouse for better management practices, a hot line for real-time consultation with peers and swapping of stories. Through its reports, panel discussions, interviews, and referrals, Win-Win Capitalism will be a practical learning center. Presently there is no available reference library for this subject.
• Answers to Dilbert’s Questions With a sense of humor and irreverence, Win-Win Capitalism will address Dilbert’s concerns, answer his questions and improve his world. Win-Win Capitalism’s point of view is that the quality of life at work influences quality of life at home. Quality of life can be improved through practices that make businesses more profitable and work more satisfactory.
• America’s Most Useful Management Videos/CD's We expect to receive many contributed stories in video/CD from businesses, schools, foundations, and government agencies describing their attempts to improve. This will be important material for review and discussion. As in the popular TV series, America’s Funniest Home Videos, organizations and people will be eager to share their experiences.
Sources of Raw Material for Win-Win Capitalism There are thousands of scattered experiences with new management thinking. Many enterprises--Fortune 500 corporations, "mom and pop" operations, as well as government agencies, public schools, non-profits and community groups --manage to survive and even improve their operations. They use successful, cutting-edge business methods to manage themselves as complex social systems. Their experience is not widely understood.
Winners of the Baldrige National Quality Award in business, education, and healthcare provide excellent material for periodic reporting. There are also quality awards in most states. Runners-up and organizations which do not qualify for awards will also provide useful stories.
Getting effective advice, answers and solutions for problems and questions—many of which managers can’t formulate—is almost impossible in the confusing marketplace of management nostrums, varieties of consultants with differing premises, tinkering, quick fixes, tradition-bound business schools and inadequate or misleading media coverage. Win-Win Capitalism will directly address this situation, with a head-on approach.
Editorial Point of View The principle that an enterprise’s long-term survival depends on management’s systems view, continual improvement of products and services, as well as development of its people, will guide the content of Win-Win Capitalism. The role of leadership and ethical conduct are vital to organizational success; the necessary connection between sound management practice and ethical practices will be examined.
Win-Win Capitalism will not be hobbled by jargon. Each story will be tied to illustrating—in an entertaining way—how systems work and how everyone benefits from learning to look simultaneously at the big picture, the parts and the interactions of the parts of an organization. The stories of organizations and people who survive the inevitable mistakes, risks and disasters of this new way of working and living are compelling and inspirational forces for change. The site will publicize across all economic sectors what works and the underlying strengths of American organizations.
Most viewers are not aware of their underlying beliefs and assumptions about how organizations work, nor where their beliefs originated. Stories will help viewers and readers become aware of unstated assumptions and attitudes that no longer serve them in the workplace or in their communities. The failure of the Mars probes, because Imperial units were not translated to metric and a line or two of code was omitted, would be an excellent example. How did that happen? Was the new NASA policy of "faster, cheaper, quicker" or an individual error the cause?
All enterprises and communities have a “learning problem;” how to learn rapidly and effectively as a group is vital to survival. This learning consists of establishing improved working relationships and thinking about organizations as complex social systems, undergoing rapid change.
Finally, experience suggests that, given a choice, people will be more interested in improving their workplace, schools and communities than they are in most topics offered by other talk and news shows. Win-Win Capitalism will also tell stories that demonstrate how management practices can help improve personal life, at home, by featuring relevant input from viewers.