Personal business value at the activity level.

It will be interesting to see what happens in the next few weeks as France's key public infrastructure systematically goes on strike. It's more concerning to see what is happening in the Middle East, as Pakistan looms on civil war, but this is not a political blog. It does show the importance of contingency planning and tying personal value to workers activities. Companies need to map job related activities to the importance and alignment to a companies mission and vision statements. I can't say it will prevent a country wide strike or civil war, it will create good will and increase worker productivity. It will go along way in building a stronger foundation if each activity is directly mapped to success.

In France, the waves that are planned on Nov. 13, 14, and 20th, are in the transport, energy and even the civil servants are planning a work stoppage.

The fundamental reason for this is worker angst, there is no personal value match to activities and worker discontent sits in. The affects could be as small as worker productivity for a few idle minutes, or it could be company or country widespread as in the case of France. The ability to measure, requires a plan at the activity level.

Bottom Line: Define at the activity level success factors. Articulate where and how that activity aligns to company mission and vision. Reward behavior that drives unproductive means out from every employee and activity they do.