Cascaded Reviews

Imagine how it would have been if our bodies needed our conscious attention for the basic delivery process and now think how much of your conscious attention is being given to the basic delivery process in your organisation. Cascaded reviews when implemented properly can lead to the same situation as in our bodies. However wrongly done leads to Micromanagement this is what that goes on with our bodies in the ICU’s!

In my earlier blog I had explained how the closed loop control can be introduced in the organisations. A key success factor is the intelligence that goes in through the review process. I very briefly want to reiterate what would be reviewed: Target, Accurate and traceable Actual Situation, Current Forecast, Measures for all KPIs/KRAs are what that needs to be reviewed at a frequency appropriate to the clock speed.

In life all of us want to succeed. Success not only meets the targets but also breeds further success. How can success be made systematic in nature? This is when the cascaded review comes into play. When I mean cascaded review, I mean that the lower hierarchy level must have reviewed at least twice before the respective hierarchy level reviews. Again the review is very simply done always for the Target, Accurate and traceable Actual Situation, Current Forecast, Measures for all KPIs/KRAs at an appropriate frequency with all the involved functions, so that upward value added reporting is done and not the upward delegation. Thus I believe this is the starting point to give the higher hierarchy level the confidence and thus refrain from Micromanagement. However I must caution that a certain amount of transformation, especially concerning the true capabilities in people, must take place in the entire organisation before such a cascaded review with reducing frequency can take place. Otherwise the cascaded reviews can become another wording for Micromanagement.

When correctly executed cascaded reviews frees enormous amount of management bandwidth to think and implement strategies for profitable growth, which is the most essential oxygen for any business. This can be achieved, since through the cascaded reviews the entire organisation performs delivery of products and services on its own – as if this were sub-consciously done. This is nothing different from nature where everything is cyclic and rhythmic. The other hidden benefit of cascaded review is the continuous learning in an organisation as well as empowerment with information.

I welcome you to reflect by comparing your organisation to the human body analogically and checking if all the routine tasks are being performed without conscious effort. Should this be the case the entire organisation is truly world class and would certainly boast of sustainable profitable growth over the last few years. Should this not be the case, then working on freeing the bandwidth of the top management for concentrating on strategies to achieve profitable inclusive growth can be the first step. I personally used to get very enthused whenever I reflected thus.

The last success factor is to communicate, communicate and communicate. Communicating the right ant the relevant topics is of course extremely important and should the cascaded reviews take place, the contents of the communication automatically become the most important and relevant. Apart from this just the review itself serves as a good communication medium, especially for the various functions to see the big picture and align their actions to what is important and relevant.

Happy Reflecting!!!

Targets and Metrics

Closed loop control is what that creates magical precision be it video recording of the trajectory of the ball in cricket, football, volleyball, etc., striking a target with a Tomahawk missile, grinding components in mass production to sub-micron tolerances, blood pressure in our bodies or position of the sunflowers against the sun.

Target fulfilment is the best with a closed loop control and this is precisely what we can do in organisations with people for achieving the targets consistently. However the process is far more complex that a video recording of a ball and at the same time is far simpler than the control of blood pressure. In the case of the video recording software can identify the ball and the track it by automatically moving the video camera.

On the other hand in the case of the human blood pressure control, there are multiple decentralised closed loop control happening in all our blood vessels and with the nerves giving this feedback constantly to the brain for any additional emergency measure that may be necessary. Of course the heart muscles are the most important to regulate based on the body’s need. The closed loop control is so good here that we come to know of any problems through symptoms like pain, gasping for breath, etc. at times too late. We therefore have a system to check the condition through the annual health check-up, for example.

In organisations with people and quite a volatile environment the challenge for a closed loop control is not as simple as the video recording. However is easily doable.

Firstly the targets have to be clearly defined. When I mean target, it not necessarily need be an increase, like sales, profit, etc. or a reduction, like scrap, write-offs, etc. It can also be just to sustain the achieved levels of delivery, quality and cost. Having defined the targets there must be a system to measure these continuously appropriate to the clock speed. Clock speed is the speed at which the situation changes on its own without any intervention.

Now that we have the target and the actual situation, we can then with our experience and wisdom forecast actuals against the targets should we not change anything but proceed the way we are doing till now. Forecasted Actuals or Current Forecast will identify the gap to the target. Now comes out experience and wisdom once again to define and execute measures to bridge this gap. All these must be happening appropriate to the clock speed. As an example in the case of mass manufacturing all these must happen at least twice a shift of 8h. Whereas in a project industry with the duration is more than a year, all these must happen at least once a week.

Now comes the hierarchy as in the case of our bodies. Target, Accurate and traceable Actual Situation, Current Forecast, Measures for all KPIs/KRAs being checked at a frequency appropriate to the clock speed must then be reported to the higher hierarchy level in a cascaded manner with the frequency getting reduced as the hierarchy increases. I will explain this in my next blog. Similar to our annual health check-up, even in organisations, it is necessary to check and confirm that the closed loop control is happening at a frequency appropriate to the clock speed. In this case though, the confirmation must also be based on the clock speed.

Organisations with close loop control therefore perform with the same magical precision as the others depicted earlier do. All it takes is to understand the cause and effect and JUST DO IT.