Organizational Whack-a-Mole – Innovative Management Tools

PERCEPTIONS – Details Analysis Activity

Patrick — Fri, 08 Dec 2023 15:08:55 +0000

A 2005 book titled, “Broken Windows, Broken Business: How the Smallest Remedies Reap the Biggest Rewards” by Michael Levine showcased the power of perceptions and the human brain’s ability to come to false conclusions.

In an online introduction and description of the book, some very valuable insights are shared:

1) In the world of business, the perception of the average consumer is a vital part of every business.

It starts, clearly, with something as seemingly insignificant as an inadequate supply of toys to go with Happy Meals, the prepackaged product aimed at young children. Because McDonald’s does a great deal of advertising and promotion to children, and emphasizes the Happy Meal toy in all of it, children will often ask to be taken to the restaurant specifically to get that particular toy. When the franchise owner or manager has not ordered an adequate number of toys, or the company itself has failed to produce enough and supply its restaurants, the child is disappointed, the parent frustrated, and the cycle of dissatisfaction set in motion.

2) Service is the absolute center of broken windows for business.

Call [a large corporation] sometime and have a stopwatch handy. See how long it takes for you to speak to a living, breathing human being after you’re done with all the automated phone system prompts.

3) Can little things turn a consumer against an entire brand? … The ‘weakest link’ theory is at work here, and it is very strong.

To create a personality for a business, and to have that personality permeate every aspect of the business, to have it become the business in the minds of customers, is the goal of branding… But all these things are tied to a larger concept: the idea of trust. For customers to accept a brand, to have an opinion—preferably a favorable one—about the brand, and to embrace it to the point that the mention of the brand name is enough to evoke a positive image in the mind, it must never disappoint. When the bad impression is made on the first experience with the company, however, it’s extremely unlikely the consumer will become a regular customer. In fact, it’s better than even money that you’ll never see this particular customer again. Ever.

4) Employees who go above and beyond the call of duty are the ones who will spot and repair broken windows. Motivating employees to do so is one of the most important jobs a manager has.

The saying that a chain is as strong as its weakest link has great resonance in the world of the broken windows for business theory. An employee—especially one who has direct contact with customers—is the most visible type of broken window imaginable. Nothing will drive customers away faster than an employee who isn’t with the program.

In all these cases, when there is a negative perception, the brain can begin to think that the entire company is broken or on the verge of collapsing.

The Customer Journey, Voice of the Customer (VoC), and other tools and frameworks help identify “broken windows” inside a company.

The Conversation Framework PERCEPTIONS – Details Analysis Activity is a collaboration tool that allows people from all over the company to come together to identify what “broken windows” they are seeing or hearing about when interfacing with customers – the “what”. It also moves into the “how” to fix the “broken windows”. Identify and set a plan for repair – two crucial pieces to the equation.

When talking about “broken windows”, two scenarios are frequently selected in an on-going organizational challenges survey conducted by Innovative Management Tools. Those scenarios are the following:

“Customers complain or ask questions about the stability of the company because of certain “details” that seem to go unattended.”

“The office upkeep/improvement budget was cut and it is beginning to show the consequences of that through “small” maintenance and upkeep details around the office.”

While the lack of attention to details might not have an immediate impact on a business, the long-term impact is a risk that few companies want to have dangling in front of them.

Paying attention to these details and issues on a regular basis, perhaps once every six months, is a good practice for companies to adopt. To its contrary, leaving multiple “broken windows” broken and in plain sight of customers will compound the situation and potentially push it to the point of no return or impossible to repair without requiring substantial money and effort.

The moral of the story is this: Take care of the small things before they become big things.

PERCEPTIONS embraces the concept and ideas set forth in Michael Levine’s book from almost 20 years ago. The timeless messages set forward in the book remain challenges to today’s companies. PERCEPTIONS brings those messages into action with this Conversation Framework.

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REORGANIZE – Internal Restructuring Activity

Patrick — Fri, 08 Dec 2023 14:53:53 +0000

In recent years there was a reset within companies around the world. Everything as we knew it was put into question and scrutiny. Employees started moving around more, leaving companies for a different position, challenge, work environment, or lifestyle. Some companies downsized; some closed their doors. Some company owners decided to hand over the reins to the next generation.

The reality is that the people movements of the last few years and tendency for people to move more and more presents challenges for companies. No company is immune from people movement at some point.

81.0% of surveyed companies about common and recurring challenges identify with two scenarios that impact a company’s org chart and structure:

“There is new senior management or owners. The time is right to review the structure for possible changes to the org chart.”

“Some departments have shrunk in headcount, and it might be time to consolidate people and departments.”

When faced with the need or even curiosity to entertain the idea of considering a restructuring of the org chart, that activity should be done intentionally and with an open mind, thinking about the how, why, and who. Org chart redesigns can be super stressful to employees and when done poorly, impact the company negatively in many ways.

This is where the Conversation Framework REORGANIZE – Internal Restructuring Activity can assist. This framework guides a group through the org chart redesign in a structured, organized, and collaborative manner. It helps the group step back and look at the company’s org chart from different perspectives with the goal of designing an org chart that meets the needs of today and also ensures that it will make sense to the employees.

This collaborative, facilitator-led activity allows the group to step back and see things at a different level, through different lenses. Redesigning an org chart can become more successful to all parties involved when the conversation and activity is placed in a structured and organized environment where everybody works toward the same objective and goal – company structure clarity and performance improvement.

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TEAMS – Workgroup Management Activity

Patrick — Fri, 08 Dec 2023 14:47:38 +0000

Collective knowledge and teamwork are more powerful than individuals trying to do everything alone on a project. Nobody will dispute that.

An inspirational quote from years ago said, “Teamwork make the Dream work.”

Today, teams and workgroups are very commonplace in organizations. However, despite all the greatest intentions of a team, 76.2% of companies surveyed on the topic say that they struggle in two specific areas.

“There are several teams that fail or fall short of their goals and outputs, signaling a need to approach team planning differently.”

“Official teams and workgroups have inconsistent results. An analysis of why this is taking place reveals that they tend to jump into the work without taking the time to create a Team Charter.”

Both scenarios have a common theme – upfront team planning and organization. We tend to bring the brightest and best people resources into a team and launch them into action, urging them for quick results. That urge to produce results prompts the team members to skip over the most crucial step in the team’s journey, the Forming stage (for those who remember the Motorola Team Stages from the 1980s and 1990s). If you start off a team without a solid foundation, it will have consequences later on.

Now, let’s be realistic. Even with a solid Forming foundation for the team, things can still go whacky and fail to produce results later for a variety of reasons. However, the chances of team success greatly increase when the team starts off aligned and on the same page.

This is where the Conversation Framework TEAMS – Workgroup Management Activity can help. TEAMS walks a newly formed team through the team chartering process in a collaborative, focused, and proactive manner. It helps the team consider many aspects of the team’s journey that are typically overlooked or unaddressed until later when things are getting a little derailed. That is not the best moment to talk about these things for the first time. Emotions are high and pressure is creating tension. The “rules of the game” are best addressed at the beginning, when there are no emotions flaring and the pressure to push forward to the deadlines is low.

This team chartering process, using the TEAMS framework, aligns the team members and sponsors, creates a roadmap for the journey ahead, and creates an anchoring communication tool for all stakeholders.

While you can’t ensure team success 100% of the time, you can ensure that teams get off on the right foot every time and increase their chances of success with TEAMS – Workgroup Management Activity, the family of Conversation Frameworks from Innovative Management Tools.

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HOSPITALITY – Customer Service Analysis Activity

Patrick — Fri, 20 Oct 2023 15:26:12 +0000

Without customers, there is no company. Customer service should always be top-of-mind. The Customer Experience is much more than just the product or service when being used. It is everything from the first to the last touch point in the process, spanning many departments from sales, implementation, delivery, customer service, finance, and a myriad of other departments. Let’s throw on top of that the website experience, the automatic messages and billing, and other ways to make OUR life easier.

But what’s the customer’s perspective? Do you have high customer churn or cancellation? Do you have more complaints than you want? Have some areas been targeted and criticized for having a poor service level?

83% of the companies that we have surveyed find that they are facing Customer Service Challenges. The most recurring challenge is the following:

“There is an inconsistent customer journey experience during the customer journey that management wants to make more consistent.”

Followed closely by: “The company has received poor customer satisfaction survey results and/or customer complaints.”

This is where the Conversation Framework, HOSPITALITY – Customer Service Analysis Activity comes in. This facilitated, small group activity focuses on the customer journey across the various touchpoints with the company to better understand the experience from the customer’s perspective. Is the experience consistent? Are there more positive or negative moments? How can you turn negatives into positives?

This video walks you through the high-level steps of HOSPITALITY. If your company is facing these challenges, reach out to me and let’s talk.

Additionally, if you are interested in assessing your company at various levels to know what your most frequent challenges are, contact me to discuss. Within two weeks your organization could have insights into the challenges that are impacting performance, morale, and productivity.

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BRIDGES – Communications Analysis Activity

Patrick — Tue, 17 Oct 2023 16:50:41 +0000

Communication, communication, communication. It is at the heart of everything we do. Before the pandemic we thought we had an ample amount of communication tools. That was shadowed by the tools that emerged a couple years ago.

But isn’t it ironic, funny, or maybe even a little sad that despite all of the communication tools we have at our disposal today, 94.44% of our on-going Organizational Challenges Survey respondents cite that they have challenges with “Communication”? It ranks #3 in the challenges list.

Want to know what the most cited challenge is? Something that seems so simple but is impacting employees, our businesses, and their productivity over and over. Ready? Here it is:

“Employees complain that information needed to do work arrives late, or not at all, impacting their performance and productivity.”

Seems so simple to fix, but something is getting in the way. That is where the Conversation Framework BRIDGES – Communications Analysis Activity comes in. BRIDGES tackles the sticky topic of working with those who voice their complaints about lack of communication to get their job done and works with them to resolve the problem. It helps open up the communication BRIDGES (yes, pun intended) to improve things. Sometimes a little communication about the communication problem is the solution.

The second most cited communication challenge is the following:

“There is a general perception or evidence that there is poor or inadequate communication in the company and a task force or team has been assembled to look for ways to improve.”

While task forces or teams can be effective at identifying where some issues lie, the question comes back to HOW to correct the problem. Again, those identified people fit nicely into the BRIDGES activity.

I invite you to watch this short video about BRIDGES – Communication Analysis Activity and reach out if you feel that it could help tackle issues in your organization.

Interested in assessing your company at various levels to know what your most frequent challenges are? Contact me to discuss. Within two weeks your organization could have insights into the challenges that are impacting performance, morale, and productivity.

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PRIORITIZE – Priority Management Activity

Patrick — Mon, 09 Oct 2023 23:41:03 +0000

Multiple, new projects + Limited talent with special skills + Worker shortage = Priority Management Urgency.

With our ongoing surveying of Organizational Challenges (contact me to participate in the 15-minute survey), Priority Management ranks #2 out of the 28 categories polled with an incredible 94.1% of current respondents siting two scenarios that are creating challenges for them:

1) Project teams that launched into action in the past without an adequate plan on how to prioritize resources have created problems and now the company wants to plan a project in a different way to avoid creating problems.

Companies realize that a different approach should be considered because the past way of doing things did not ensure success.

2) The same employees are on multiple projects at the same time and need help in prioritizing how to spread their time and talent.

Looking across the talent pool of people who will be on projects, certain individuals are getting pulled into too many directions and need guidance from “the powers that be” to define priorities. If not, burnout is a very real outcome possibility.

Enter the Conversation Framework PRIORITIZE – Priority Management Activity. Designed to guide a group of people through a process of taking a “laundry list” of things to do and assign the tasks to the available resources, based on skills. Having this view of who does what, visually, and with the perspective how overloaded a person might be or where skills gaps exist, BEFORE launching into the project is priceless information and help create a better roadmap for project success.

The same activity could be used to review the myriad of open projects and who is involved in each one to spot overload for individual contributors.

Conversation Frameworks – Guiding the Power and Ideas from Within.

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IMPACT – Decision Analysis Activity

Patrick — Fri, 29 Sep 2023 13:57:45 +0000

We make decisions all the time and sometimes it seems like the decision communication is just a pebble being thrown into the pond. However, some pebbles make ripples that can turn into little waves or a tidal wave down the line. That may be the inevitable case or the intention of the decision. However, preparing for that potential tidal wave (intentional or not) is critical to proactively manage how the decision is both received and perceived.

Company executives almost never make decisions with the intent to have a negative impact on the organization, the staff, or the results. However, many executive decisions are made in a sort of bubble without fully considering the impact as the decision information or message makes its way through the waves of communication or through the levels of the org chart.

In an on-going survey of organizational challenges, conducted by IMT, 81% of survey respondents say that they have some form of challenge revolving around Decisions with the most frequent challenge being the following: Decisions are made without fully considering the impact it will have on the people doing the work.

What this implies is that 1) we make decisions with limited information or perspective, 2) we have a need to rush into a decision for the sake of moving fast, or 3) we don’t really know how we would go about doing a short, but effective deep dive into the impact of the decision.

For any of the reasons listed above, The Conversation Framework IMPACT – Decision Analysis Activity can help. Bring people together, analyze the impact as the messages make their way through the communication channels, and consider how a decision will impact the organization from 10 different perspectives. A structured framework that can be completed in a few hours that helps pool the collaborative insights and ideas of the participants.

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SYNCHRONIZE – Directional Efficiency Activity

Patrick — Tue, 26 Sep 2023 14:58:05 +0000

Your leadership team knows the value of being aligned and in many areas they might be. However, there may be ways to improve that alignment and get everybody even more synchronized.

The Conversation Framework SYNCHRONIZE helps the leadership team consider areas that might not have been previously considered as important or critical alignment topics. Doing a comprehensive alignment assessment as part of a continuous improvement and leadership development program is easy with SYNCHRONIZE.

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HURDLES – Barrier Analysis Activity

Patrick — Thu, 21 Sep 2023 18:23:42 +0000

87% of survey respondents to the common and recurring organizational challenges survey, called DIAGNOSE – Organizational Challenges Survey, say that “there are complaints from employees that they can’t get the work done because there are roadblocks, speed bumps, or obstacles in their way.”

Does your org or do your clients fall into the 87% or the lucky 13%?

The Conversation Framework HURDLES – Barrier Elimination Activity is designed to help you overcome the barriers and get from Point A to Point B with structure and organization.

Overcome obstacles and barriers proactively without waiting for them to become problems.

Conversation Frameworks – Guiding the Power and Ideas from Within.

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HAND-OFF – Delegation Enabler Activity

Patrick — Tue, 12 Sep 2023 00:32:20 +0000

In recent surveys from organizations of all sizes, delegation has shown up in 100% of the surveys as a challenge they face.

New supervisors and managers need to delegate tasks from their individual contributor days so they can dedicate the necessary time to their new role. They are told to delegate, but very often they don’t know how to do it effectively.

For seasoned managers, they may have “delegated” in the past, while the recipient feels like they were “dumped on.”

The Conversation Framework HAND-OFF is here to help all supervisors and managers learn the process of effective delegation so that it becomes an intentional, proactive development tool for those being delegated to, not a reactive, quick solution just to clear the supervisor’s or manager’s plate for more supervisor time.

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