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.

Role and Goal Clarity

The most important factor that ensures good team work is establishing the role and goal clarity, especially as the organisations go bigger. Bigger in this context would even mean just be more than 20-30 people. Let me use an analogy to explain this success factor.

Imagine an Orchestra where the individual musicians aren’t clear what their role and goal is. Role would be to play an instrument and the goal would be to strictly adhere to the music notes as well as to the conductor’s instructions, mostly visual in nature. Jazz on the contrary is impromptu music where the number of musicians involved is far lesser and thus apart from some overall understanding clarity is not really necessary.

When organisations are small I would refer them as a Jazz band, where not having role and goal clarity in itself is an advantage to allow everyone to perform to excellence only with an overall understanding. As organisations get bigger they move towards an Orchestra. Have you been to any Orchestra with around 50 musicians without music notes in front of them or without a conductor?

However when it comes to organisations, especially during the ramping up phase, very normally neither is the need for role and goal clarity appreciated nor do the employees are convinced in needing the role and goal clarity. The result obviously is a huge hit to both the top and bottom line as well as huge problems in any kind of healthy team work with everyone wondering why we aren’t able to deliver the same way as when we were smaller.

Role Clarity is established by thoughtfully (considering the necessary interfaces with the other functions and hierarchy levels) crafting the Job Descriptions that then must be approved by a cross functional leadership team. The Goal Clarity is established by defining the Goals of the organisation and then the individual functions in an interactive session involving the leadership team. The key here is to involve the entire leadership team so that the Goal conflicts, quite common in organisations, are addressed openly and the Goals appropriately modified. Once the roles and goals are thus established, the deployment can then be done to all the employees in a cascaded manner through the hierarchy.

My next blog will be on the next success factor of using structured reviews to meet the goals.

Delighted Stakeholders

Any business can only sustain if its stakeholders are satisfied and can flourish if its stakeholders are delighted. Stakeholders for any Business are Customers, Management (Shareholders), Employees, Business Partners and Society.

The key to delight is to meet the invisible but intrinsically desired needs over and above meeting the visible needs which are like hygiene factors if not met will lead to dissatisfaction. It is also very interesting to note that over time many invisible needs become visible needs. Excellence is all about sustainably meeting the visible needs as well as sustainable identifying and fulfilling the invisible needs of the stakeholders. The first step therefore is to regularly review the visible and invisible needs of all the stakeholders. I have listed some visible and invisible needs of the various stakeholders to get an idea of this concept of visible and invisible needs.

Customers consume the products and services that any business creates. Visible needs could be on time delivery, defect free products and services, etc. Invisible needs could be an added functionality like the intuitive operating systems of smart phones or forward integration of some sub-assemblies, etc.

Management (Shareholders) promote the business. Visible needs could be smooth running of operations, accurate and timely reporting, achievement of planned top and bottom line, etc. Invisible needs could be significant increases in top and bottom line, unexpected awards and recognitions, etc.

Employees are the most important asset of any business; the resource that runs the business. We can analogically compare all the cells in our body to employees. Visible needs could be status, remuneration, fairness, etc. Invisible needs could be the freedom of choice, unexpected praise, etc.

Business partners are all those external to business necessary to run the business. Visible needs could be demand forecasting, on time payments, etc. Invisible needs could be transparency and fairness in dealings, relationships, etc.

Society would be all those external to business which is impacted by the business. Visible needs could be compliance to legal regulations, acting with responsibility, etc. Invisible needs could be initiatives for inclusive growth, establishing of industry standards, etc.

 
As I have mentioned earlier it is necessary that the leadership team debates and identifies these visible and invisible needs and develops strategies to systematically meet them to delight the stakeholders.

Sustainable Success

The saying success breeds success is very true even for organizations. Precisely this is why sustainable success with recognitions and awards is very much essential for the psychological health of the organization.

That is why I have this success factor up in my listing even before looking into how and organisation can achieve this. I would like to use the analogy of geeting good grades in school or college to put forth my point of view.

How frequently have you come across students who haven't been doing well through out the year, but get esceptionally high grades and end up with recognitions and awards. I am sure you have found some. Have these been able to repeat similar success on a sustainable basis, year after year? Now I am quite sure that you would not find anyone!

Getting recognitions and awards on a consistent basis not only gives us a pat on the back but also reinforces our approaches and gives our brain a sense of security which in results in the increase of dopamine, a simple organic chemical in our body. Increased dopamine provides a positive feeling that is conducive for further learning and discovery.

Imagine what positive energy will be flowing around in organisations with high dopamine employees!!!

How are we going to get to this stage can be answered easily if we check out the stretch we have in our targets. Are the targets stretched enough to encourage the additional learning and discovery but easy enough to sense success, get recognized for the success and get awards. Many a times it may also be necessary to choose to participate in such events where competition is not that severe, especially at the early stage of an organization wanting to become world-class.

I will explain my  though process on target setting in the Goal and Role clarity blog.

For now I want to conclude by suggesting to create an environment and set targets that are achieveable so that success can breed success.

Leadership Team Voice

Let me start this blog by going straight to the point on leadership team having one voice.

In many organisations, especially from the SME sector generally it would be just one leader whose voice would have to be adapted and owned by the key managers for the unit to be successful, since a leadership team may not exit. This situation is really very effective when the organisation is relatively small, may be a couple of employees who know each other by the first name and are very close.

The moment the organisation size or the number of employees in an organisation crosses ~50 a hierarchy would become necessary to lead and manage the employees as any effective span of control of direct sub-ordinates is max 10. Once this condition is already a reality or the SME organisations want to grow then identifying and nurturing a leadership team is mandatory for sustenance and consistency in performance.

I remember a joke about the various parts of the body wanting to compete and demonstrate who the boss is. For those of you who haven't read this google to find out. What moral from this becomes relevant for my blog is the thought of our organs not working in synchrony with the others and the crisis that we get into very fast.

In organisations when the leadership team hasn't identified, discussed, debated and agreed upon in consesus that one voice one can see a lot of noise in organisations. When I say voice I mean the leadership team to have a common understanding on Goods & Services, Competencies, Passion and Conscience. When this is achieved and consistently communicated within the organisation music is achieved.

Have you given a thought if your organisation has a leadership team and if the leadership team has one voice?

The process of finding this voice needs investment with the leadership team meeting together, preferably with a neutral moderator as a group executive coach, over days firstly to get to know each other better and then to start identifying that single voice in consesus.

I am sure you can identify many companies who not only have realised phenomenal growth but also consistently delivered exceptional results. You may further want to check and confirm the existance of the single voice in the leadership team of these organisations.

I welcome you to go on the journey of discovering that single voice.