Current Purpose and Norms

Healey Healey
Mon Dec 1 10:38:00 PST 1997


About a month ago I sent out a draft purpose and a list of norms for WISENET.  At that time I asked for input to improve my draft.  I have received some improvements, which are included.  I also received several comments that people agreed with the list as written.

Attached below is the improved purpose and norms.  I will be sending this document out to any  people that sign on to our list in the future and hope we can all use this purpose and norms to assist us in gaining value from the use of WISENET.

Take care, Tim

The current purpose (as our needs change the purpose may change) for WISENET is:

WISENET is an integral tool of our change work, it is a method for us to dialogue and increase our capability to help our organizations be more competitive.

We do this by:

 - Staying in touch with people interested in work system improvement
 - Requesting and providing specific help (resources, contacts, etc)
 - Engaging in a “virtual” dialogue on issues pertinent to Work System Improvement
 - Requesting and providing feedback on work-in-progress
 - Sharing successful practices that may be helpful to others on the list
 - Helping each other be more effective in improving work systems
 - Establishing an ongoing network between people with common challenges/issues
 - Notifying people of what’s new on the TQWS home page

Some NORMS to help guide the use of our list are:

 - If you have a reply that would only be beneficial to the originator of the message, press reply.  If you think it would benefit the whole group press reply all

 - If there is ever a doubt in the meaning behind a message, seek to understand first, before reacting.  Do not be afraid to  pick up the phone and call the person direct.  Email does not adequately substitute for real time interactions.

 - If you send a message to the WISENET for input on a topic that would be of general interest to the whole group, please send a compilation of the input back out to the list for their use.  For example if some asks; Does anyone know any good books on Feedback?
If you get several suggestions for books, put the list of books in one message and send them back out as a resource for the list.

 - Find the time to read and respond to the messages generated from WISENET.  You may think your response is already known or won’t help, but you should let the requester make that choice.

 - These messages are most often a request for help from a fellow employee.  We must be motivated to help each other to make our company better.

 - If in the course of our work on this list we create or identify something that will be valuable to keep we will add it to the TQWS home page.




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