Creating the Spirit of a Start-Up Firm in a Large and Complex Enterprise

 

Jack Welch advice business quotes

The idea flow from the human spirit is absolutely unlimited. All you have to do is tap into that well.

25 Lessons from Jack Welch  Download PowerPoint presentation, pdf e-book

Jack Welch

GE

 

 

 

The Work-Out program was a way to reduce bureaucracy and give every employee, from managers to factory workers, an opportunity to influence and improve GE's day-to-day operations.

Ultimately, the goal of the Work-Out program was to "clean up" GE, to make workers more productive and processes simpler and more clear-cut. Work-Out was also designed to reduce, and ultimately eliminate all of the waste hours and energy that large organizations typically expend in performing day-to-day operations.

In Jack Welch's words, Work-Out is meant to help people stop "wrestling with the boundaries, the absurdities that grow in large organizations. We're all familiar with those absurdities: too many approvals, duplication, pomposity, waste."

 

 

4 Major Goals of the GE Work-Out

❶  Build Trust

Encouraging employees to speak out critically inside the company about GE and the way they perform their jobs without negative consequences to their careers.

❷  Empower Employees

Capitalizing on employees' knowledge and their unique perspective through granting them more power in exchange for expecting them to take more responsibility for their jobs.

 

 

❸  Eliminate Unnecessary Work

Getting employees work smarter, not harder.  >>  Examples

❹  Create a New Paradigm for GE

Letting GE employees define and create a boundaryless organization in which the entire workforce works toward common goals. Encouraging employees to identify problems and come up with solutions  Download PowerPoint presentation, pdf e-book.