and Joel Yudken, authors of an article, Time to Get Serious About Workplace Change, from Science and Technology magazine, feel that a high-performance work system will seek to enhance organizational performance by combining innovative work and management practices with reorganized work flows, advanced information systems, and new technologies. Most important, it builds on and develops the skills and abilities of frontline workers to achieve gains in speed, flexibility, productivity, and customer satisfaction. Keeping top performers happy can be a full-time job, but in this economy with 1-2% unemployment rate, it's worth the effort. Just ask Walter Noot, who is head of production for Viewpoint DataLabs International, a company in Salt Lake City that makes 3-D models and textures for film production houses, video game companies, and car manufacturers. He compares the modelers and digitizers on his team to sports stars: high performers who sulk if they suspect they're getting less than they deserve. Noot decided to do something radical. Now no one in his group gets a salary. They're still full-time Viewpoint employees, with benefits, but they're paid as if they were contract workers. Every project's team splits 26% of the money Viewpoint expects to receive from a client. Almost overnight salaries have jumped 60% to 70%. But productivity has almost doubled. Where the group used to have set hours, they now work when they please. One fellow works 24-36- hour marathons, keeping a pillow and blanket under his desk for catnaps. Some people work only at night. Whatever. "Now life is bliss,: says Noot. "It has totally changed attitudes, I never hear complaints. (Munk 62-6+-)" Noot has learned, as other managers are learning, we need to give the employees control over their destiny and then the changes that go into effect will come from them and they will accept them and even sometimes embrace them. ...
