The most common performance measurements in organizations are traditional financial reports, yet these numbers reflect decisions made months, if not years, before. While it is important to track financials, they only keep score of how well decisions were made in the past. A pro-active leader focuses on measuring strategic items that will create positive results months and years in the future. For example, continuous development and sales of new products may be a crucial strategy of a high-tech company. An appropriate measure might be the percentage of sales generated by products developed in the last 12 months.
Effective organizations have strategic plans with specific strategies that help accomplish their missions. Those who understand the Continuous Improvement process realize that "you can't control what you don't measure," and according to CEO Neal Keefer, "you probably won't improve what you don't measure." 'This implies that successfully implementing a strategic plan requires measurable strategies with frequent reviews. Yet strategies are often broad and difficult to measure. In addition, our efforts to accomplish them may not bear fruit for several months or more. How do we put meaningful short-term measures on long-term strategic activities? Almost any strategy can have an effective measurement associated with it if the suggestions below are followed.
1. Form a strategy team to implement the strategy, determine the measure, and drive the improvement process. This team should consist of the people who are affected by the strategy, who can impact the implementation, and who have a strong desire to see the strategy implemented.
2. Keep it simple and easy to capture the data and track the results — one company wanted an indicator of employee morale, so they did a "rate my day," asking employees to rate their day from one to five on a slip of paper. Obviously you should always measure this one on the same day of the week
3. Use measures that will respond fairly quickly to actions intended to improve them — to improve sales in a new market might require activities that do not produce results for several months. Rather than tracking actual sales, you might measure the percentage of activities in the marketing plan that is on schedule.
4. Measure the desired end result (the output), rather than a step (the process) that leads to the end result. If your strategy is to take advantage of employee suggestions, measure the number of employee suggestions implemented rather than the number submitted. This guideline can conflict with number 3 above; the team will have to find an appropriate balance, possibly by using more than one measure.
5. Watch for the quality-quantity conflict — in the example in number 4 above, it would be tempting to use the dollar savings from suggestions as a more results-oriented measure, but this could deter suggestions that would have dramatic, but unquantifiable, effects on morale. Here again, the team may need more than one measure to maintain a balance.
6. Use measures that are minimally impacted by issues outside the strategy team's control. Using the employee suggestions example again, if your workforce varies seasonally, the number of suggestions implemented per employee on the payroll would be a better measure than the total number of suggestions implemented. A company that sells products to truck manufacturers, a very cyclic market, could measure sales in terms of products per one thousand trucks manufactured. This indicates their market penetration regardless of the overall level of activity in the market.
7. Support your organizational values — measuring the number of suggestions per employee might promote suggestions from individual employees, but it might not encourage people to work together to create better suggestions. If you want to promote teamwork, count only suggestions from two or more employees, or give greater weight in the measure to suggestions from teams.
8. Avoid conflict with other strategies and activities — A strategy team promoting employee training might consider measuring the number of hours spent in training each month. This, however, may conflict with the time needed to get production work done. A better measure might be the percentage of employees who have completed training in certain key competencies; this measure emphasizes the most important training without promoting excessive time in training at the expense of other activities.
9. Use measures that are not influenced by weekly, monthly, or seasonal causes. One company has a four-day workweek, Monday through Thursday, but their biggest customer has a five-day workweek, making Thursdays extra busy for the supplier. Any measure they use should average an entire week as opposed to measuring the results of one day of the week.
10. Use "positive" measures that increase, rather than decrease, with improvement. For example, measure the ratio of customer compliments to complaints, instead of just complaints. (Using a ratio of good to bad also eliminates the impact of any periodic variation in overall response rate from customers.)
11. Do not set numeric goals or objectives; instead focus on continuous improvement of the measure. Numeric objectives are rarely realistic because no one can anticipate all the obstacles or breakthroughs that a team will encounter. Goals that are too easily accomplished trivialize the importance of the team's work. Goals that are set too high demoralize them. As leader of a volunteer organization, I took responsibility for measuring the number of acknowledgments given for supporting our objectives. I never would have believed that an organization that held only two regular monthly meetings could give over 50 acknowledgments in a month, but, after a few months of tracking, this happened regularly. If a goal is truly needed, the team will set it, and will usually set it higher than any manager would. Given the necessary training, resources, information, authority, and support, teams will produce amazing results.
12. Team representatives must meet with the leadership of the organization regularly, usually monthly, to report on their measures. When positive trends occur, acknowledgment and congratulations are in order. When measures go down, attack the problem, not the person (or team). What problem-solving techniques can the team use to address the situation? Are additional training, resources, information, authority, or support needed? Is management somehow hindering progress?
The checklist below can help teams review a proposed measure against these criteria. But even well thought-out measures sometimes aren't adequate. Don't be concerned if a team's measure goes down because of some unexpected factor, or if it causes problems in other areas — remember Continuous Improvement is a journey, not a destination. Change either the measure or the system being measured, and learn from the experience.
A final suggestion — be creative! One organization has a strategy to make their workplace less stressful. My associate, Chip Phelps, had a great suggestion — regularly measure the blood pressure of the employees.
-Gabe Fasolino owns Spirited Venture
thriving leaders, thriving people, thriving enterprises
Our Promise - Reinvigorate your staff and your results in 30 days
503-919-1333
Gabe@SpiritedVenture.com
www.SpiritedVenture.com
Showing posts with label Leadership. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Leadership. Show all posts
Monday
Friday
Create Opportunities From Failures
Many times, regardless of how well we plan, some things just fail. Maybe it’s a webinar or meeting presentation that was well prepared, but suffered technical difficulty. Or a disciplined savings plan lost nearly half of its value in today’s recession. These challenging situations define our days, but our response to them determines our future success.
While some curse and yell, others see failures as opportunities. Poet Maya Angelou writes, “I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he or she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.” Failures can either destroy or advance our goals; but it’s our response to them that really determines the outcome.
Thomas Edison experienced repeated failures. His true success was not his invention of the light bulb, but rather his tenacity to use failures as a means to gain new information and new perspectives. Our most successful employees are the ones who have the persistence and optimism to learn from difficulty and use what they learn to re-imagine, recreate and re-experiment. They are the ones who have learned to be positive and to constantly hunt for opportunities. As the economy struggles to recover, successful organizations will reinvent their futures by focusing on these opportunities.
Here are some tips on getting things right, when things start off wrong:
1. Create and support a workplace culture that encourages employees to look for the opportunity in every event.While organizations value effort, innovation and intent, they should also celebrate non-conventional and non-conformist perspectives. Occasional failures show that employees are pushing performance to the edge. As management consultant Tom Peters states, “A day without a screw up is a day without enough reach.” After failures, managers should encourage employees to focus on the positive; this creates a culture that is open, free thinking, and believes that “Yes, we can.”
2. Focus on exponential, not incremental, opportunities. Direct your discussions of opportunities toward significant, not average, results. Performance “lite” is unacceptable. Consider opportunities that have the potential to be “game changers.” Successful organizations know nothing lasts forever, and they must continually reinvent themselves.
3. Commit time and effort to help employees learn their strengths and use them to develop opportunity-thinking.Each of your employees has the potential to be great at certain things. Encourage them to use their intrinsic talents and strengths to deliberatively hunt for opportunities in areas in which they have the greatest insight.
4. Actively solicit input from employees. Leaders who ask “big” questions and take the time to listen to responses can discover new perspectives, facts, ideas and dreams from customers, employees and vendors. Try asking questions that begin with: “How about …?” “What if …?” or “Tell me about …” Assess what you hear and then share it with your team to expand the hunt for opportunities.
5. Share success with everyone. While it’s easy to openly share and celebrate successes, companies should also communicate failures in a way that inspires employees to rethink, redefine and reinvent. The more successes are shared with everyone, and failures are seen as a way to improve, the more idea-risks employees will take.
In an intellectual workplace, innovation, inventing and opportunity hunting must be core expectations of all employees.
Some people are discouraged or angered by failure and change. Others see it as an opportunity for greater success. Not only can the hunt for opportunities increase your success, but it may help you invent the next product that makes people’s lives better.
Jay Forte is a speaker, consultant and nationally ranked thought leader. He applies years of research, along with his training as a CPA, working with organizations that want to successfully activate and inspire exceptional employee performance. Jay is author of the forthcoming book “Fire Up Your Employees and Smoke Your Competition.” For information on keynotes, speaking, consulting or to see the daily "BLOGucation," visit: www.humanetricsllc.com or call: 401-338-3505.
Three Technology Leadership Dangers to Avoid During a Recession
Why do some technology management teams survive recessions and others don’t, even while using the same methods?
According to Don Schmincke, author of High Altitude Leadership “ Mountain climbing teams in the “death zone”--that altitude above 26,000 feet where lack of oxygen makes long-term survival impossible--bear a striking resemblance to management teams. These teams live passionately while confronting challenging odds. Some are deeply humble; others are psychotic narcissists. They come with all levels of competence, from naive wannabes to elite athletes. And when put to the test, they react like all of us: sometimes like heroes, other times self-destructively.
At these extreme altitudes, success or failure is easily measured, and mistakes can kill people. In these elements, we’ve discovered that leaders who survive in the face of extreme challenges do something uniquely different than the rest. They succeed by recognizing and surviving specific dangers. Eight clear dangers emerge when an organization moves to higher levels of performance. Here’s an analysis of three of those dangers.
The Danger of Selfishness
At high altitude, selfishness kills people when teamwork is critically needed to handle injuries, equipment malfunction, limited resources, and weather threats. Similarly, selfishness can kill the change initiatives a business needs to survive recessionary times. Selfishness infects cultures when managers and staff:
• Let their career or personal agendas supersede the organization’s mission.
• Think that being right is more important than collaboration and dialogue.
• Take individual credit for achievements, while blaming others for failures.
• Are unwilling to compromise or seek consensus during conflict.
The damage escalates as new projects take too long to implement and staff talk about real issues outside of meetings instead of inside the meetings. Politicking, or maneuvering for personal gain, can bring down the best of companies. It’s often the driver of denial, avoidance, blindness, or cover-ups all of which are unacceptable in recessionary times.
High altitude leaders are driven not by selfishness, but by a zeal for achieving results. These leaders drive needed changes by inspiring others with a passion for what’s needed.
Is your culture driven by a passionate saga for the strategic changes ahead or do these missions end up as empty words on posters and coffee cups?
The Danger of “Tool Seduction”
In mountaineering, tool seduction endangers climbers every time they dress in the latest gear but apply the wrong techniques to the challenge. In their overconfidence (or naiveté) they can end up stranded on a storm-ravaged slope while experienced climbers relax at base camp and have a beer while watching the storm pass.
Similarly, the danger from a parade of expert consultants packing the latest tools can distract leaders from focusing on vital issues. Such tools can include methods for organizational change, leadership development, process improvement, teambuilding, CRM, ERM, TQM, Re-engineering, and other management methods.
Leaders fail to survive recessions when tools become “safe” answers, or worse, weapons to use against other tools. In critical moments, even the best tools break or fail, resources are lost, or circumstances change. The problem isn’t with what tools you need, but how organizations relate to the tools.
Are your leaders using the tools, or are the tools using your leaders?
Tool seduction can suck productivity and morale out of a corporate culture. It’s wiser to focus on changing the actions and decisions which truly drive high-performance results. During times of economic uncertainty, do your tools allow your company to change decisively, or just clog everyone’s shelves with interesting, but irrelevant, information? Do your tools fuel passion for change, or derail it with useless meetings, lingo, and processes?
The Danger of Cowardice
Cowardice stops both mountaineering and corporate teams from challenging the status quo, holding others accountable and exposing weaknesses. This danger happens as soon as your organization fears taking necessary risks or relinquishes core values during times of trouble. And it hinders decisive action by stopping the essential act necessary to survive a recession--telling the truth. Cowardice eats truth and lack of truth eats profit.
Telling the truth can upset people and cause discomfort, but ultimately it drives accountability to new levels. Keeping the truth at unspeakable levels only produces collateral damage, such as:
• Accumulating dead-weight of marginally performing employees
• Avoiding the real issues and thwarting meaningful change
• Sticking with doomed projects far too long
Selflessness, actions that drive performance and bravery are but a few of the survival tips for dealing with the leadership dangers encountered when taking your organization to a higher altitude. They can be especially important during times of economic uncertainty.”
Don Schmincke, Founder of The SAGA Institute, is a dynamic keynote speaker and co-author of High Altitude Leadership with Chris Warner. Visit www.HighAltitudeLeadership.com for a free team assessment exercise, and to view their remarkable strategic, leadership, and organizational change programs
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
