Building Up Skill in Organizations

Motivation is a key factor in management. How to motivate employees is generally a hot topic, but in reality is a very rarely utilized skill. Daily motivation is up to the employee themselves.



An artisan is a skilled employee who is inspired by the nature of their own work. To achieve this, a person must be permitted to elevate themselves by the utility of their skill. Therefore, the problem of motivation is organizational.



The unique nature of the artisan gives them a passion about the work that they do that exceeds the ambitions of the organization. This means that an artisan knows best how to do their own job, giving themselves direction daily. An organization must partner with the artisan in order to be effective. They must allow some of the artisan's creative direction to prevail in the business itself.



An artisan's reward is in their work, and the acknowledgement of their achievement. To simply make an effective employee a manager is not a proper course for this aim. Each and every artisan must establish themselves by an environment that promotes artisan level quality. They must all have some influence in the decision making process.



The easiest route for this is for management to listen very carefully to what each employee has to say. This can be tricky for many members of management. I personally have dealt with many managers who act as if they have no time for the common employee, and yet when upper management comes around, they have all the time in the world to listen to them.



Decisions must be informed by the process, rather than the process unduly influenced by factors in other portions of the company, such as overly ambitious sales team members. Sales must be based on trust, instead of maverick instincts and a strong desire to win. Growth will be slower, but will be guaranteed.



Quality is a factor that is created by the people at the floor level of the process. Management can choose to emphasize quality, or force production levels to increase unnaturally, while employees have to accept poor working conditions and quality issues. In a production emphasis environment, quality often suffers. Machines used to do work often fall into a poor state of maintenance as they run continuously with no preventive maintenance.



Artisan level work is not necessarily slow. Sometimes it is fast-paced, depending on the nature of the work. Artisans often have awareness of the every level of a process. This makes their decisions about their own work very well informed.



In a startup operation, artisan level skill can be particularly valuable. Vested membership for these employees may be set up to recognize the merit of these valuable employees. Vested membership Limited Liability Corporations are often set up to prevent a startup from being dissolved and sold by any single member.



This setup can also be used to give highly skilled employees membership in the organization, so that they can be part of the highest level decisions in the company. The practice of vesting delays membership, and is a reward on some level for the skill of the employee in helping to build up and establish the organization through their work. This is one benefit that a startup can offer that is rarely able to be offered by larger corporations that offer higher pay and better insurance.