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11 Great Ways to be Positive about Change
Change, as they say, is all around us. And if implemented badly, creates ill-will and a whole raft of negative beliefs about what it means to us. It can fill us with fear and worry. But there are positives you can get out of change. Here are eleven...
A Tricky Supervision Challenge
Many managers believe that treating their team members as responsible adults will assure excellent results. The truth is that while this usually is effective, some people need much firmer limits than others to perform their jobs. Ellen, the manager...
Five Strategies To Strengthen Your Company’s Financial Management
Too many businesses wait until a crisis occurs before they start to focus on improving their financial management. Often, by that time, it can be too late. By setting aside an hour now to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your...
Realistic Goals...How To Set Them and Why
So many people want to start a business today and be rich tomorrow. Sorry, people it doesn't happen that way. If it did, everyone would do it. There is no free lunch...it takes hard work, determination and realistic goal setting.
Think...
The Only Way to Get Even at Work
R.J. Rehwinkels said, "The only people you should try to get even with are those who have helped you." Sir Winston Churchill and Lady Astor would have done well to heed his advice. Those prominent British politicians experienced one of the most...
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Discovery Procedures for Building Effective Management Systems
You have permission to publish this article free of charge, as long as the resource box is included with the article. If you do run my article, a courtesy reply to sean@bizmanualz.com would be greatly appreciated. This article is 531 words long including the resource box. Thanks for your interest.
Part One in a Five Part Series
Imagine what a professional football team would be like without a regimen of practice drills? Now take away their playbook and player statistics. What you have in this extreme scenario are highly talented (and perhaps overpaid) individuals participating in organized chaos. They might actually win a game or two, but in the long run, this team is doomed.
Management Policy
I offer this illustration to drive home the point of why any organization needs to examine the existence and effectiveness of its management systems. If there are weaknesses or holes in your documented procedures (playbook), or benchmark measurements (stats), then you will want to take corrective action.
Process Phases
It is my experience that when a company attempts to establish its management systems for the first time, it takes longer than expected, involves more people than planned, and grows in complexity.
To control this trend, I advocate dividing the process into five (5) distinct phases, each with clear objectives:
1. Discovery
2. Planning
3. Development
4. Implementation
5. Rediscovery
In this series, we will take a look at each phase. So this week, let’s take a look at the Discovery phase.
Discovery Procedures
Think of this phase as all the things the coaching staff does up to and including the first pre-season team meeting. It is where the
overall missions and goals are set, with clear effectiveness criteria established. Certainly the team may set it sights on the championship, but what about the kicking team or linemen? Each part of your organization must have meaningful and measurable performance criteria mapped out in this phase.
Management Objectives
Establishing objectives and criteria requires close scrutiny by management of what really contributes to the overall company mission. Departmental goals must be aligned with company goals. To illustrate with our football analogy: running backs may propose a goal of 5,000 total yards rushing in a season. This may or may not be beneficial to the team goal, whereas an aligned goal might be to achieve an average of +5 yards per run. The latter may be more appropriate for a highly pass-oriented offense.
System Action Plan
In your discovery phase, once your objectives and effectiveness criteria are agreed upon, you can create your action plan. This step is simply the broad roadmap covering the remaining 4 phases of building your management system.
The Discovery Phase generally takes from 2-4 weeks, and represents approximately 12% of the total process.
Planning Procedures Phase
In part two of this series, we will take a look at one of the most critical and also most overlooked phase in building your quality management system – the Planning Phase.
About the Author
Chris Anderson is currently the managing director of Bizmanualz, Inc. and co-author of policies and procedures manuals, producing the layout, process design and implementation to increase performance.
To learn how to increase your business performance, visit: Bizmanualz, Inc.
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