Step Five: Creating a Chartering Document
At this point, our team had collected and assembled all the statements regarding the mission, vision, values and purposes of the New England Standard Corporation. As per our agreement with Gary and the senior administrative team, members of our team prepared a draft of the charter that contained all of the statements as well as a brief preamble that was prepared by Gary indicating the reasons for the charter. In this preamble, Gary reiterated his commitment to an organization that is aligned with a set of “fundamental directions as described in the statements of mission, vision, values and purposes.” We also prepared a brief three-page description of the steps taken in formulating the charter. Copies of the charter were distributed to all employees and four luncheon meetings were held for employees. Gary and one of us attended each of these meetings and answered questions regarding the charter.
Employees were informed that they would be expected to fully understand and support this charter at these luncheons and through a memorandum sent out by Gary. Specifically, Gary announced that a charter dinner was to be held in two months. At this dinner each employee was to commit himself or herself to working “on behalf of the company’s mission, vision and purposes and commit to working in a manner that is consistent with the company’s values.” Most of the employees were enthusiastic about the prospect of finally having a document that clearly lays out priorities and commitments. Several employees did express some reservations about the chartering process, hinting at what they called its “coercive” or “brainwashing” character.
Many of the employees indicated that they would like the charter to generate a series of guidelines for their own department that would list measurable goals and objectives. Furthermore, they indicated that they would like these guidelines to be tied directly to budgets, program priorities and the criteria being used to assess their own individual job performance. Gary indicated that he would strongly support the movement toward more concrete, department-based guidelines.
The Vice President for Human Resources also reported in each meeting on how the charter was to be integrated into the performance appraisal system at New England Standard, while the Vice President for Operations reported on the integration of the charter and strategic planning processes of the company. Employees were pleased to hear of these action steps and appreciated my team’s appreciative use of existing documents in the organization. Several employees noted that the chartering process breaks a long-term pattern in the organization of always starting over again and never following up on the work that has already been done.
