Reflections on VITALITY™: Information Oriented and Competent

A little less than 50 years ago while a Fellow at the Harvard University Department of Psychiatry I worked on a project with Dr. Harry Levinson at the Levinson Institute in Cambridge.  Harry was considered by many as one of the founders of the field of Industrial and Organizational Psychology.  Over the years he and I maintained a professional friendship.

The project entailed what Harry labeled an “organizational diagnosis” of a Boston printing and bulk mail distributing operation.  Guided by Harry’s recently published book, Organizational Diagnosis, we learned and practiced an organizational assessment methodology that has been applauded by many over the ensuing years.  Thirty years later, Harry published a sequel, Organizational Assessment that, among other things incorporated the rapidly emerging role of information processing in comprehending the rhythms of organizational existing and communicating them to that organization’s participants, beneficiaries and the general public.

What Harry realized over the decades of his organizational assessment and consulting work that: “the organization, not business, hospital, school, church, or some other institution, was the subject” of his inquiry.  In other words, there are core and common operational needs, patterns and outcomes that guide and define organizational life.  The key to comprehending these signals is communication, the successful collection of reciprocal information about that organization and the contexts in which it operates.

In short, the vital organization operates in an open system of relationships with its outside environment and within itself.  It is available for input from all sources, both internal and external.  

If an organization's vision guides its actions, then information fuels them.  Information gathered from all sources is routinely utilized by the vital organization in its decision-making activities.  In this organization, information is valued as a means of securing feedback about the organization and its performance.  It is receptive to suggestions, criticism and data from all sources.

The vital enterprise can distinguish facts from opinions, and can weigh the importance of each.  Information carries with it not only content, but meaning, and this organization seeks to understand the relevance and impact of both.  Because it can comfortably combine the content and meaning of facts and opinions about the organization and its relevant environments, its information is robust.  

In the vital organization, the concerns of its members are of special interest, and are regularly solicited.  Because it captures data and views of a broad spectrum of persons inside and outside of the organization, its information is representative.  

The vital organization communicates effectively.  It minimizes the distorting effects of individual communication skills and styles.  It reliably receives and processes information, and accurately communicates it to its members and all other relevant persons. 

The more robust, representative and reliable the information, the more competent the organization's decision making, coping, and performance activities.