Lessons from Boeing for the Public Sector
It would be easy to label the recent problems at Boeing as "private sector problems" related to big corporate culture gone wrong. But as I've absorbed the coverage about the investigation into their quality issues, I've been struck by the relevance to government and nonprofit organizations. Here's what I think we all can learn from this moment:
Values don't matter unless they are actively integrated into your operations. Values are the part of the strategic plan that no one wants to spend time on - aren't these just words on a page that look the same for every organization? Yes - unless you make them more than that. High functioning organizations truly live the values they've identified. Every employee knows them, training and activities reinforce them, and performance systems manage to them. They are HOW the organization does its work. Boeing leadership has held up their commitment to safety, but it is undercut by examples about how safety was deprioritized inside the organization. Which leads to…
Employee voices are important. One opinion expressed about Boeing (or any corporation gone awry) is that shareholders' priorities have been prioritized over everything else. The public sector doesn't have shareholders who care about profits, but they do have stakeholders that are frequently centered in their work. For local government, it is often residents. For nonprofits, it is often funders. These stakeholders are important, but they shouldn't be allowed to crowd out employee voices. Organizations need to create systems to actively gather input from employees (hint: surveys are great if done well!), and then use that feedback (in tandem with other stakeholder information) to make decisions. This also requires that you accept that…
Failure exists in your organization. Organizations that center their values and actively listen to their employees are on the right path. But strong values and employee engagement won't make a difference if leadership cannot accept and seek to understand the problems and failures that occur. Ignoring (or worse, punishing) failure creates a corrosive cycle in which this information is repressed, pushed down, or hidden, and then small problems can become magnified (like a loose bolt leading to a door coming off mid-flight).
Boeing is not unique in its problems, and its story offers an opportunity to turn the lens inward. How can your organization make a different path for itself?