Hard Times Offer Chance To Improve

The headline reads "Hard times offer chance to improve through IT". The article is well written and I agree with most of it, but I have to disagree on a couple of key points. This article is in the Sunday (December 6, 2009) edition of the Honolulu Star Bulletin, written my John Agsalud.

The article starts off with a very important, and very true, point, "...it's that this is a good time for organizations to innovate and improve their business processes,..." John is right, this is the best time for organizations to make improvements. It's not only the best time, it is absolutely vital for many organizations if they are going to continue to survive. In good times, waste inevitably creeps into every organization. You're doing well, things are moving fast, you don't have time to worry about the little things. But all those little things add up over time, and even in the best of times it is important for organizations to continuously improve their Operations and drive the waste out of the system. In these tough economic times you can't afford to wait to make the improvements, you have to do it now.

The end of the above quoted sentence is where I have my disagreement; "...improve their business processes, usually through the use of technology."

The proper use of technology is very important to the Operations of an organization, and Mr. Agsalud points out many of the benefits in his article. My disagreement is that you do not always need technology, and oftentimes shouldn't use it, to make improvements to your Operations and your business processes.

There are many improvements that can be made without investing in technology. Many times simply examining the flow or steps of a process can reveal surprising insights that lead to simple changes that result in great improvements. Too many organizations (and I've seen some of them personally) immediately jump to a technology "fix" to their problems without ever even analyzing the causes of the problems in the first place. Find out what is causing you to be less than excellent, or what is causing you to perform lower than you want or expect, then craft a solution. You can decide at this point whether the solution includes the use of technology or not.

Technology has a high cost, in time, money, and other resources. You have to make sure you approach a technology implementation as an investment, and you have to be very clear on what the return on that investment will be. You also have to be very clear on what the actual and total investment is before you begin.

Use technology when appropriate. Use it to improve your organization. Just don't use it as a crutch and expect technology to help you when it's not the lack of technology that is causing your problems now.

Sharing

Another theme that is emerging from the interviews that I'm conducting for my upcoming book is that the best organizations share information. Lot's of it. They share things that other organizations would cringe at, such as budgets, financial performance, and performance measures.

What this means is that the best organizations have a well informed workforce who understand what the organization is doing, how well it is performing, and where they fit in.

Share. Share the good and the bad. Keep everyone informed. If you don't tell your people what's going on they'll make up their own answers, and those answers will be based on fear and misunderstanding, not facts.

Performing

I just read an article in Inc. magazine (December 2008 issue, yes I’m behind in my reading) that ties into a conversation I had yesterday. The article is titled How to: Conduct Annual Employee Reviews. My conversation included why annual reviews are mostly useless and how a proper Performance Measurement system should work.

I’m doing some work with a small non-profit arts organization. The art is great. The business side needs a little work. Part of my discussion revolved around measuring the performance of the administration; Executive Director, Artistic Director, and the Board. Many non-profit arts organizations struggle financially and administratively. It almost goes with the territory. In that kind of environment, an annual review is irrelevant. Performance needs to be monitored constantly, as part of everyone’s daily work. To do that, it has to relate to something. Performance has to relate to progress towards defined goals.

The Goal Attainment System includes the Goal Attainment Plan, where the goals of the organization as a whole are defined, the Action Plan, where the map of how the goals will be achieved is developed, and the Performance Measurement System, where the performance and actions of everyone are tied to the defined goals and work towards achieving them.

With this arts organization, everyone should know where they stand at all times. The Executive and Artistic Directors will know almost daily how they’re progressing and how they’re moving the organization towards its goals. The Board meets monthly and should know prior to each meeting how the organization is progressing, and how both the Executive and Artistic Directors are doing in progressing the organization towards the goals. Any other paid staff and volunteers must be included in the system too.

When looking at performance and performance measurements for your organization, look at one industry where measuring performance is critical to success – the sports industry. I was thinking of an example while reading some of Wendy’s blogs at Your Scrumhalf Connection. Wendy is a top athlete, but she’s had a couple of injuries lately that have temporarily hindered her progress. Think about what kind of impact an annual performance review would have on her and her rugby club, rather than a dynamic and ongoing measurement system. A year ago Wendy might have been in peak condition and at the top of her game. A performance review then would be very high. But if you relied on that review to assign her work and give her rewards for the entire next year, that would be a mistake.

In rugby, whether at the local club level or at the international level, players are selected each week or just prior to each game. You can’t wait for an annual performance review or rely on last year’s to select players for the next game. You have to rate their performance right now, how they’ve been performing the past few weeks or months and how their fitness is right now. The club or team has defined goals for where they want to be. Each individual, whether player, coach, or administrator, must help to get them there. They must know at all time how they are performing and how they are helping the organization to progress towards the goals.

So chuck the annual reviews and start developing your Goal Attainment System and Performance Measurement System. And Go Wendy!

How do you hire?

Do you hire people who fit a narrow range of experience to fill a specific position, or do hire people who have great skills in a variety of areas but that might not match the specific experience or training you’re looking for in a particular position? I’d lean towards the latter. Sure, for some highly technical positions you need people with very specific experience and training. But most of the time the technical skills are secondary to attitude and work ethic. You can train someone to do a job, but you can’t easily change someone’s attitude and work ethic.

I’ve hired both ways, but I find it’s better to hire someone with people skills, who’s willing to learn, and who will work to make the organization successful. Someone who will not only fit in with the organization, but will act as an influence on others. In one of my interviews with the former president of a successful high-tech company, I was told how they hired many people who were either not technically qualified for a position they were filling, or who were very overqualified. But all the employees possessed a desire to learn, grow, and help the organization succeed. They trained the unqualified people, and kept the overqualified people engaged and interested in the job.

In his book Good to Great, Jim Collins makes the same point. Hire talented people, then let them make the organization great in their own way. Too bad not every organization thinks this way. I’ve recently spoken with a couple of people who are fixated on finding someone who meets a strict and narrow set of work experience. If you don’t fit exactly, you’re not considered. I bet they’re missing out on some very talented people who could help them move their organizations forward and upward. If they would only open their eyes to the possibilities.

The same thing can be seen in rugby. With many teams, if you don’t have experience playing in a particular position, you’ll never get a chance to play in that position. A good athlete can learn the specific skills required in a particular position. It’s not as easy to take someone who happens to have experience playing in one position and turn them into an all-around athlete who might provide a much needed spark.

My Radio Experience

Sometimes I’m easy. I loved my experience of being on the radio yesterday, on ThinkTech Hawaii on Hawaii Public Radio (here’s the link to the online mp3 file, I start at about 15 minutes). For one, it was just plain cool. I’ve never been on the radio before, never been in “the studio”. I just love to see how things work and to experience new things. I especially love touring manufacturing plants to see how different companies do things, but seeing how a radio show that I listen to every week works was fun.

I also love to see things that work well. Besides just the joy of seeing things that work well, I learn from it and try to help other organizations get to that point of performance. The folks at HPR know how to do things well, at least from my brief experience. Cheers to ThinkTech host Jay Fidell, who is an excellent host. Besides being a bundle of energy and an exceptional host and moderator, he makes you feel welcome and comfortable. Producer Kayla Rosenfeld keeps everything on track. Everything from being prepared and welcoming the guests, to explaining the process and how things work to the guests, to telling Jay to “watch your P’s” when he’s speaking, she makes the whole thing work seamlessly. Also involved is Lillian Tsang. Besides reading the introduction, I wasn’t quite sure what she was doing, but it looked important. She sat outside the studio booth at a sound board (or something), and kept an eye on what was going on inside. Sorry I didn’t pay more attention. This group made the whole thing seem effortless, which I know it is not.

Many businesses and other organizations can learn a thing or two about how to manage their operations by watching how the HPR and ThinkTech crew produce their shows. Everyone is prepared, they know what they’re doing and when they’re doing it. When things are supposed to happen, they happen. Guests are made to feel welcome and comfortable. They live what I preach – Plan, plan, plan, execute. Have everything planned and prepared, ensure everyone is trained and know what they’re supposed to do, then do it. Excellent!

So how was I on the show? Well, I imagine that it’s just a matter of time until they invite me to host my own show. Yeah, I give good radio. As I mentioned to Jay, I’ll be famous after my appearance on his show. The millions and millions of listeners will read my blog, and next thing you know, I’ll be on Oprah. I won’t forget you little people.

Building your brand

Following up on my previous post here, where at the end I mentioned developing your brand image.

Branding, or developing your brand, is generally regarded as a marketing activity. But I’m an Operations guy, so what am I doing talking about developing your brand. Well, I’ll tell you. Marketing plays an important role in developing your brand, but their role is primarily in advertising the brand. The real work in branding is done by operations. Your brand image is a promise; meaning, this is what you’re going to get and what you should expect. Operations delivers on that promise. Operations does the work that gives you what you want and what you expect. Operations does the planning, gathers the resources, manages and utilizes those resources, and delivers the product or service. You won’t have a brand if you can’t deliver. You can advertise and tell people about your products and services all you want, but if your customers can’t get what they want, when they want it, at a price that’s acceptable, you don’t have a brand, you just have a name.

A strong brand commands a premium price. Think Starbucks. You can get a cup of coffee many places, but people are willing to pay a premium for the Starbucks brand. In my previous post I was talking about membership in organizations. An organization with a strong brand means people want to belong. The price of membership can be set at a premium price, not at a lower price where you’re competing with other organizations based on price. And more people will want to become members just to be associated with that brand. But to be a strong brand, you have to deliver. Whatever it is your organization provides, you have to be the best at providing it. If you’re a service provider of some sort, like a non-profit that helps people who need help, you have to be able to provide that service better than anyone else. That means gathering resources, whether it’s money or donations, processing any paperwork, recognizing donors, putting those resources to work, and then providing the goods or services to your intended recipients. If your brand is recognized for being the best at what you do, people will want to join you, will want to take part. If you’re a networking organization, you have to be the best at providing networking opportunities to your members. Being the best builds your brand, and people will want to be a part of your organization. Being the best happens through excellence in operations.

If you’re a rugby club, or other rugby organization, like USA Rugby, you have to be the best rugby organization. That doesn’t necessarily mean just winning all your games. You can have a strong brand and not be the best team in the world (or your local area). Winning games is only part of what makes up your brand image. The organization behind the team, and the people behind the organization, are the real heart of your brand. Is your club the one that people want to be part of? Are you the best run organization? If you’re not, you should be, and can be. What makes a good organization? It’s being good at everything it takes to field a team and take care of them. Start at the beginning. You have to be able to provide information for prospective club members, whether they’re players or supporters. Provide all the information they want, and keep the lines of communication open. Nothing turns people off faster than not being able to find out things they want to know. Then you have to process new members. Whether they’re players or volunteers, you need to gather and store all the information you need about them. You need to assign them the proper role in the organization. New players need to know when and where practice is held, what equipment is needed, and what is expected of them. Volunteers need to know what duties they’re assigned, where they need to be, and what is expected of them. Fans want to be pampered, not just given a seat they paid for. That means making them fell welcome and taking care of their needs (clean bathrooms?).

The players and team, being the core of a rugby club, are the core of the brand. Winning games is great, but being part of a great organization is even better. Are practices structured and controlled? Are they planned in advance, with the player’s abilities and fitness levels taken into account? Are travel plans arranged in advance? Are selections made and communicated in advance of games? Is player’s health and fitness monitored? Is everyone made to feel welcomed, even new players and not as talented players? And is everyone having fun?? A great organization will build a strong brand. Winning games will help, but the real reason people will want to join your club is the strength of the organization behind the team, and the strength of the brand that goes with it.



Don't forget to Adopt-A-Rugger and Hug-A-Rugger, the fund is growing.