|
Discovery_Procedures_for_Building_Effective_Management_Systems
| 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.
|
|
| |
| |
