A Quantum Voyage

7 Principles of Organizational Longevity and Integrity

RSL Consulting Group, LLC & Quantum Voyage, Inc.,  introduce the 7 Principles of Organizational Longevity and Integrity, a proven process for ensuring the viability of your enterprise.

 

A client of ours attended a workshop at an industry meeting recently, in which the presenter asked all those who had a written system of goals for their organization to stand up. Of the 400+ attendees, 37% stood. Of that 37%, about half took their seats when the presenter further asked, “How many of you have shared those goals with your people?”

 

By my rough calculation, about 150 organization leaders out of 400 had written goals, and 75 shared those goals with those in their organizations that “make it happen” every day.  And then the remiss leaders want to know why they're not making the progress that they would like to make. Sad commentary on the state of organizational planning and communication.

 

7 Principles of Organizational Longevity and Integrity.

 

Our formula is simple because its based on a set of generalized principles with universal application:

1. Articulate a Vision that is a “paint by the numbers” picture of what you want your organization to look like at some reasonable future point in time. (3 to 5 years works well).
2. Formulate a multi-dimensional strategy that can effectively support realization of that Vision. (Strategic commitments can be made regarding products, markets, technology, financial returns, etc.)
3. Create an organizationally pervasive system of clearly defined, executable goals which are aligned so that the achievement of each leads to or contributes to the achievement of its parent, or higher level goal.
4. Build an organizational structure that removes organizational performance roadblocks, facilitates goal directed communication, managerial support for those most closely connected to the customer/client, and allows for rapid modification of job responsibilities that takes into account the impact of actual results.
5. Exhaustively clarify performance expectations for each position within the organization; and implement an objective system of appraising this performance so that people always know how they are doing in comparison to their agreed to outcomes.
6. Fill each position in your organizational structure with the most qualified performers, replacing incumbents with candidates from the outside, where appropriate.
7. Initiate a program of continuous professional and personal development for your people at all levels in the organization.

The details of implementation within each of these seven principles address the varying needs of disparate organizations across industry lines. This is the beauty of generalized principles with universal application.

-RSL

Don't Waste Your Money on Training!

So said the MD of a 100 plus company in the south east.

His view was that he employed people with relevant supporting skills and with the exception of meeting the legal niceties the rest was down to the line manager and learning on the job. He had previously spent money on training, but had not noticed any real difference in the performance of his staff, with or without off the job training.

The company survived, but not without an injection of new blood and a root and branch review of the way the company operated. There was not just a lack of people development, all the company’s initiatives were top down, change was always prescriptive and employees were expected to cope come what may. Not only were employees unhappy but they were a vastly underused resource, they never volunteered and their potential for creativity was lost.
 
Of course training and development is never an optional extra, well directed, they serve both, the on-going effectiveness and wellbeing of organisations; and they help future managers to arrive in post oven ready.

The key phrase is well directed, sadly a lot of training is not well directed, the expected results are not clearly specified and post training impact is not objectively measured.

The Benefit of Training is to make a gain or, to avoid a loss and the company and the employee should both benefit.

A few sad facts:

• 22% of skills are below standard.
• Typically, this costs a business of 50 employees, £165,000 per year
• UK productivity is 13% below that of other major economies
• In Britain £4.5b is spent on training each year by employers, but this may not be used effectively
• In 2001 50% of the $56.8b training budget in the USA had not been used one year later and was unlikely to ever be used!

To make training pay, there are a few questions that it is well worth having the answers to.

• What is the need?
• When will the need arise?
• If the need is met will it serve the strategic needs of the organisation?
• Will there be an adequate return on investment?

How can you be sure that you have genuine and timely answers to these questions? All too often training and development requirements are generated as a reaction to perceived bad performance and locking the door after the horse has bolted is bad news. Training requirements are also often generated as a response to a trend or a fad; there have been more reincarnations of fundamental training ideas than there are grains of sand. Some training is sold like clothes, fashions are created each year to generate products that superficially look different, but serve the same basic needs.

Some things stay the same; organisations still need a vision, a mission and a strategy to generate the strategic objectives from which managers derive their goals.

A lot of organisations don’t have a goal setting culture and even in those organisations that do have one; goals are not systematically tracked so that feedback is regular, and not ad-hoc.

On average:

• People who have written goals are 25% more effective that those who don’t.
• People who track goals are 25% more effective that those who don’t.
• People who have written goals and track them are 65% more effective.

Collaborative goal setting, in which goals through the organisation are aligned to its strategic goals and tracked, does not just deliver great results, it systematically identifies any resource shortcomings and needs. It objectively determines training and development needs and provides the basis on which the return on investment can be calculated.                                                        -DKL

David Knowles-Leak runs a performance management company. He works with www.goaltrak.co.uk who provide an organisation wide strategic goals and management system for generating and managing results. He can be contacted on 01628 400 665 and at davidkl@linkmanagementgroup.com

Strategy is a Funny Thing

Jack Welch, former Chairman of GE, articulated one of the most famous strategies in business. Paraphrased, it said, “We'll be number 1 or 2 in a line of business, or we'll get out of that business.”

Powerful stuff. There aren't many people with the guts to make that kind of strategic commitment. And that's what that statement is; a commitment to an organization's long term position in a given arena. A clear guideline for all those involved, that their performance and behavior must take into account this future state.

When we listen to our colleagues, clients and prospects use the term “strategic planning”, we wonder what they really mean, because when pressed for an explanation, they usually say that they're working on “next year's goals”. This is not strategic planning. In fact, from our perspective, there is no such thing as strategic planning. One can only formulate strategy. Executable goals bring a strategy to fruition. Executable goals and planning how to achieve them can incrementally lead to the point where a strategy has become the reality. A strategy is too big, too amorphous to get a human head around in the executable sense.

It has been said that poor execution will sink the best strategy. Trying to execute directly on a strategy just can't get the desired results. Generally, it gets poor results and many unintended consequences. Creating a system of organizational goals can get the desired results. One can make plans to achieve goals. Goals are the most powerful tool for human achievement. Goal setting is a technology and an art. It takes into account the realities of the moment and the possible futures.

Peter Drucker said that when making decisions, one must do it with the absolute knowledge that the information being used will probably be obsolete before the outcome of the decision is reached. That's the risk inherent in taking the action required to achieve goals that will support a strategic commitment. It is also why one can not execute directly on a genuine strategy. The time line is too long and the unknowns are myriad.

In our over 30 years of consulting experience, we have learned that small and mid-size organizations can get along without explicit strategy, but not without explicit goals. Goals make it possible to know how the organization is doing compared to what it wanted to do during any given period. Without them, people in organizations concentrate on “activity” and eventually become enslaved by it. (I believe Robert Heinlein said that). Real appraisal of performance can happen when there are goals. Without them, appraisal sessions tend to become a bully pulpit for the manager.

Strategy is a wonderful concept, to be embraced at the right time in an organization's development. The time is always right for goals.

Do Something!

Our clients are wondering, as are many of us, "what's next?"  "How are we to behave under these difficult circumstances?" One thing is certain; if we do nothing, nothing will happen. That is, without action there can be no results. If we sit around wringing our hands, lamenting the "lousy economy, sick credit situation and housing slump", it will just get worse. The old adage, "don't get mad, get even," seems to apply here.

There is no panacea, no one answer, however, we can do something. And, as cliche as it may sound, goal setting can come to our aid.

Our role as consultants is to help our clients improve organizational performance. The people in the organization are the engine that drives that performance. It follows then, that improving the performance of the people will have a direct impact on the performance of the organization as a whole. Just how can we generate and recognize improved organizational performance?  And how can we use goal setting to help us?

Let's start with something I learned early in my consulting career: "Without a system of goals, our only motivation is survival." A system of organizational goals includes both the organization's goals and the people's goals. Together, they are the "system". One without the other will yield less than optimal results. . . or no results. We all know this. I submit to you, however, that knowing is not doing. Peter Drucker said, "Decisions are only good intentions until they degenerate into work".  Interesting use of the word "degenerate". Simple examples may include, "we're going to increase sales" or, "let's reduce waste" or, "we need a higher return on our investments".

Until these three "decisions" are converted, or degenerate into executable goals that are specific, measurable, tangible, realistic and controllable, they are "just good intentions". There is no denying that it is hard work, mostly mental and emotional work, to create meaningful goals. In an organizational setting, the process is most effective when it is collaborative, meaning that differing points of view must be taken into account. This may lead to confrontation. Many people avoid confrontation because they equate it with negative conflict. With the confrontation of issues there can be resolution. With resolution consensus can be reached. Without at least consensus, if not agreement, forget it. The outcome of the process will likely be vague. This is the painful truth about effective, collaborative goal setting.

What does all this verbiage have to do with "getting even"? Everything! If you can set some short term, realistic goals, say 6 to 12 months, you can get results that will produce results for yourselves, your suppliers, your customers and your people. No guarantees! The alternative of doing nothing, however, does carry a guarantee. . . no results!

-RSL

Changing of the Guard

What's the first thing that comes to mind when you hear about a new CEO taking over the leadership of an organization? Job cuts? Restructuring? Move around the furniture?

Perhaps. Just in the past two months this event occurred with one of our client organizations. The first thing the new CEO did was to gather his leadership group for a day to clearly define the top level corporate goals for 2008. We were fortunate to be asked to facilitate the process. Rather than do the job twice, the CEO decided that as the goals were defined, they would be entered directly into GoalTrakEV, eliminating the error prone process of transferring them from paper or word processor to GoalTrak.

It was a sobering experience for all concerned. While the CEO was familiar with our goal setting process from many years of exposure, his predecessor had shortcut the system. He had to start from square one. We even had to formulate strategy on the fly; no mean feat! At the same time, the CEO and his people were learning how to use GoalTrakEV, as the previous CEO eschewed GoaltrakEV in favor of a home grown spread sheet system which, by the way, no one understood or used.

We still have two more groups of leaders with whom we must work, cascading the corporate level goals to the divisions and departments. They too, will be learning GoalTrakEV, along with the technology of goal setting, as many of them have not been exposed to the process. Our new CEO is paying the price for the short-sighted view of his predecessor.

The salient points here are, the new CEOs understanding of the value of real world goal setting; the advantages of using GoalTrakEV for creation and easy tracking of their system of goals; and the benefits of having each leader set up their Performance Appraisal criteria directly in the system. The CEO actually negotiated expectations with his people in this same session. Senior Leaders are off and running!

-RSL

The Beige Paper on Organizational Goals in Three Acts 12/19/07

Act III

There are a gazillion (that's a very high number with lots of zeros) web sites that purport to be the “be all end all” of goals and goal setting. From a consumer perspective, we believe that anything that gets someone to begin setting goals is helpful. The mere act of writing something down will change the possible outcomes.

When it comes to organizational goals and goal setting, there are many fewer sites that promise the world. A handful are well done and, if implemented according to the provided guidelines, will probably contribute to improved results, that is, of course, if the issues we talked about earlier in this article are addressed.

Our assessment, however, based on a non-scientific research project, is that these professionally developed sites don't really do the job as it needs to be done.

1. ONLY GoalTrakTMEV and GoalTrakTM CV include the complete 9 step goal setting process.
2. ONLY GoalTrakTMEV requires the absolute linking of goals to organizational Strategy and/or top level organizational executable goals.
3. ONLY GoalTrakTMEV provides a complete discussion of the technology and art of goal setting; and provides context sensitive links to the appropriate information as a guide during the goal setting process.
4. ONLY GoalTrakTMEV seamlessly integrates the specific measurable criteria of an individual's goals with his/her performance appraisal without additional data entry.
5. ONLY GoalTrakTMEV requires individual performers to create their own goals, rather than have someone else decide what the person should achieve and how, and push it down without collaboration.
6. ONLY GoalTrakTMEV has GoalMail^TM as the collaborative communication conduit between and among all goal setters and their direct reports, up and down and across the organization.
7. ONLY GoalTrakTMEV was conceived and designed by a practicing organizational development consultant. It is based on 30 years of working with and listening to real clients.

The expected bells and whistles are also present in GoalTrakTMEV: Dashboards, drill downs, goal relationships, privacy, etc.

If you are serious about supporting the continuing evolution and transformation of your organization, then take a test drive of GoalTrakTMEV. Or if you are a mentor, consultant or coach, GoalTrakTM CV.

If you want to Manage Results instead of reacting to them, visit goaltrak.com and learn about the GoalTrakTM family.

If you want to conduct objective, effective performance appraisals, and be able to review actual, real time performance against targets with 3 mouse clicks, then the GoalTrakTM family of Goal and Performance Management SaaS applications is for you!

GoalTrak.com

Because a goal is what you want, not what you think you'll get!!

-RSL

The Beige Paper on Organizational Goals in Three Acts 12/17/07

Act II

Consider this: An organization is comprised of groups of disparate individuals with diverse talents and skills (know-how), brought together for the common purpose of generating a coherent outcome which yields excess revenue, (in our capitalist system), called profit. Most of these people didn't know that the others within the organization even existed, let alone understand their motivations, before they came on board. Without a system of goals that leads in a common direction, how in the world could they be expected to perform up to expectations? Yet this is how most of our small to mid-size businesses operate.

Here is one of our un-glitzy graphics, a conceptual representation of an organization's functional structure from a strategic perspective.

This is the way it works, whether or not we intentionally make it this way. If the Vision and Strategy are absent, then the Organization Goals, if they exist, determine the work that needs to be done. If they don't exist, and by that I mean if there isn't a written system of goals addressing important operational Key Result Areas (KRAs) for a specific time frame and cascaded throughout the organization, then everything else “just happens”. That is, people implement their know-how as they perceive it should be done, or as their supervisor/manager told them to do it. Now, without goals, how does the supervisor/manager know what's the right thing to do?

If you've read this far, by this time you've gotten our message. If you haven't, we'll make it abundantly clear; as far as we're concerned, “without a system of goals, our only motivation is survival!” If that's OK with you, then it's fine with us. If you want more than just survival, have we got a product for you! (or, read on. . .)

Here's a goal setting flow chart depicting the nine steps required to create a goal that is Specific, Measurable, Tangible, Realistic and Controllable (SMTRC). 

Notice that we didn't say SMART goal. The reason is simple: SMART goals are not . . . very smart! Some well meaning (we hope) individual came up with an acronym and made goal requirements fit. This is a case of form before function, as far as we're concerned. It is the sum total of the qualities of a goal that make it achievable. To include Achievable (the “A” in SMART) as one of the qualities is an oxymoron. The Controllable element is missing in a SMART goal. It is the final piece of a SMTRC goal. Check back on Wednesday, December 19, 2007 for Act III.

-RSL

The Beige Paper on Organizational Goals in Three Acts

Act I

            

This is not a white paper! “. . . Several versions of Webster's indicate that the term arose within the past few decades in England to distinguish short government reports from longer, more detailed ones that were bound in blue covers and referred to as "blue books" (not to be confused with the blue books used when taking college exams). A shorter government publication providing a report or position about something was bound in the same white paper as the text - hence, "a white paper".

We're not going to dazzle you with glitzy graphics and tons of tough-to-validate statistics. We are going to explain our position, our rationale, in creating GoalTrakTM.  Succinct and concise are our guiding principles. A few facts and our experience make up the bulk of this document. Onward!

Let's start with a basic fact: The education system in the US does not teach students the technology of goal setting, at least as we understand it. Oh sure, there are a few places where lucky students have a teacher/professor who has been exposed to the fundamentals of goal setting and is wise enough to pass it on to those in his/her classes. In general, however, this doesn't happen. So we end up with a general population that is told, (by the uninformed) to set goals; but not how to set goals.

Why then, are we surprised to discover that most people in organizations are poor goal setters? Further, the leaders in most organizations are products of the same educational system and they don't have the required goal setting expertise either. Result: no goals, few goals, or poorly structured goals; and performance that is much less effective than it could be.

Here's another fact:  A study by Robert Rodgers of the University of Kentucky and John E. Hunter of Michigan State University, showed that goal setting, in combination with participation in decision making and objective feedback, yields average productivity gains of 56%.  These gains occur when top-management commitment and participation are high.  (Journal of Applied Psychology, 1991, Vol.76, No.2)

OK, so the study is almost 20 years old. Does that invalidate the findings? We don't think so, because our sister consulting company, Achievement Alliance Corporation, whose founder created GoalTrakTM, has found this to be true in their work with small and mid-size clients for over 30 years! When organizational populations are introduced to the fundamentals of the technology and art of goal setting, outcome expectations are higher and actual performance is enhanced, producing improved results.

In addition to the need for clearly defined goals, overall organizational performance is dependent on leadership that has articulated a Vision and supporting strategy that are disseminated throughout the organization, top to bottom and sideways. Everyone needs to know where they are headed or they can't make a meaningful contribution to the journey.

Making the task of sustaining an effectively functioning organization even more daunting, is the challenge of ensuring that the behavior of leaders and followers is highly functional; a little discussed but critical factor in our society and business environment that has far reaching ramifications. We won't deal with that issue in this paper; however, you'll find some interesting and enlightening information on the subject here.  Check back on Monday, December 17, 2007 for Act II.

-RSL

Why GoalTrak?

In our 30 years as organization development (OD) consultants, working with organizations of all sizes and across industry lines, we have found challenges common to all. From CEOs to building maintenance people. Plant managers to sales folks. People consistently lament the same missing ingredients from the effective organizational performance pie. Here are a few of the most prevalent:

1-     The organization's Vision and Strategy are invisible.

2-     People are told to set goals, but they never learned how to set meaningful, achievable goals.

3-     Consistent execution, or rather the lack thereof, is the main cause of poor individual and organizational performance.

4-     There is no easy way to update actual performance against goal targets and communicate it so that those who need or want to know can, in fact, get the data in a timely fashion.

5-     Most planning documents lie in a drawer or in a 3 ring binder on a shelf and are reviewed once a year, when it's too late.

6-     Individual performance appraisals are a joke, or are an exercise in mutual destruction of leader and appraisee, usually the appraisee alone; and they are rarely tied to desired organizational outcomes.

7-     The efficacy of the goal achievement tracking and reporting system is poor, so people don't know how the organization is doing, or how others are doing without having another meeting.

8-     Most goals are set in a vacuum by individuals, rather than collaboratively with peers and/or leaders.

9-     Results Management is an unknown concept.

10- Being given goals over which you have no control.

There may be other missing elements. There is no magic number; however, these will do for our purposes here. When any one is missing, individual and organizational performance will suffer. Consultants of all stripes, OD,  Performance Management, quality, business process, etc., all face the outcomes produced by these issues when they get down to the nitty-gritty inside an organization.

We concluded that one of the primary reasons this stuff continues to pervade the business world's infrastructure is because people had no framework within which they could build a cohesive methodology, a system that would address and resolve the issues. There are exceptions, of course. Many of the world's larger organizations have developed systems to handle these requirements. But, for the most part, organizations continue to function with the handcuffs of disparate systems and incomplete information tightly binding their wrists.

Enter GoalTrakTM. It is the natural evolution of our work, combining the power of an organization's people with the technology/art of goal setting and the "always available" capabilities of the World Wide Web. In it reside the Vision, Mission and Strategy of the organization to be used as guides in the creation of executable, operational goals at all levels; integrated with an objective Performance Appraisal system that is driven by the goals of the organization. Because you asked for it!

We don't know precisely why circumstances in organizations are as they are. There are those that say it's because people are lazy. We don't believe that's the case. Others say that people don't want to be held accountable. Perhaps, but we believe that's only a symptom, because when people are provided clear direction, are involved in the decisions and given support, they perform magnificently!

As we develop this blog, and finish creating the foundation for its existence, there will be more discussion of the context within which we operate . . . we, meaning all of us in the business world. For now, we leave you with this thought: paraphrasing John Kotter of Harvard, "Leadership is about Vision and Change; Management is about dealing with Complexity."

-RSL