Building Effective Management Systems: Phase I
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.
I offer this illustration to drive home a point -- any organization needs to examine the existence and effectiveness of its management systems. If there are weaknesses -- holes -- in your documented procedures (playbook) or benchmark measurements (stats), you need to take corrective action.
It's 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 suggest you divide the process into five smaller, more workable phases, each with its own clear objectives:
1. Discovery;
2. Planning;
3. Development;
4. Implementation; and
5. Rediscovery.
Think of this phase as all the things the coaching staff does up to, and including, the first preseason team meeting. It is where the overall missions and goals are set, with clear effectiveness criteria established. Certainly, the team sets its sights on the championship, but that's an overall goal, way at the end of the process. What about the individual and unit goals that help get you to the championship? What are the kickers' objectives? How about the receiving corps? The OL and DL? Each part of your organization must have meaningful and measurable performance criteria mapped out in this phase.
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. Using the football analogy again, your running backs may propose a goal of 1,000 yards rushing each in the coming season. This may or may not mesh with the team goal of 400 yards total offense per game; possibly the coaching staff perceives its passing game to be its greater strength.
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.
