Developing design guidelines.

At Ford Hermosillo, design team members were asked to talk about organizations they'd worked for in the past where they felt motivated, informed, involved and effective. They then described the organizational conditions that made this possible- how decisions were made, how they were rewarded, and how they interacted with others. This allowed them to create the following design guidelines based on their previous collective experience:

Jobs should have broad, clearly defined responsibilities and should provide opportunities for autonomy, variety, growth and feedback.

Informed decision making at the lowest possible level should be developed and encouraged.

Rewards should recognize demonstrated knowledge, skills, initiative, quality, performance and teamwork, and should be based on individual contributions as well as overall plant performance.

Career guidance and development opportunities should be created to encourage all employees to broaden their skills, to increase their knowledge of the business, and to develop to their fullest potential.

Working conditions in all areas of the plant should support safe, pleasant and efficient practices.

Artificial status distinctions should be minimized. Special treatment should reflect functional necessity only.

Open, direct two-way communication should be encouraged and facilitated between all levels and all areas in the organization.

Information should go first to people who need to act on it.

Every employee should understand how his job impacts on the total effort. Functional or departmental boundaries shouldn't separate people who depend on one another or need to work together to produce a quality product.

The primary responsibility of supervision is to help people define and plan to achieve personal and organizational goals, to make sure they have access to the resources they need, and to interface with other groups as required.