StrategyDriven Organizational Performance Measures Best Practice Article

Automated Notification of Responsible Individuals

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StrategyDriven Organizational Performance Measures Best Practice ArticleOrganizational performance measures drive behaviors but, in order to be effective, the information they provide must be known and acted upon in a timely manner. Today’s business leaders can easily be overwhelmed with information; obscuring critical performance metric action prompts. Furthermore, the fixed publication frequency of performance monitoring reports may preclude leaders from receiving action-prompting information in a timely manner. Automating performance notifications, triggered at the time of occurrence, can help alleviate these issues.[wcm_restrict plans=”41692, 25542, 25653″]

Automated Notifications

Automated performance notifications can be configured in several ways and tailored to the communication preference of the individual executive or manager. Such notifications are typically triggered by the realization of a predetermined performance threshold value and/or rate of change trend. Minimal detail is contained within the notification itself along with a link or directions to obtain more complete information. Common system generated notification mechanisms include:

  • Email sent directly to the executive or manager
  • Text message delivered to the executive or manager’s cell phone
  • App notification pop-up pushed to the executive or manager’s smart phone
  • Notification message within the executive or manager’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system dashboard
  • Hardcopy memo printed and sent to the executive or manager’s office

Less common is having the notification alert sent to the executive or manager’s chief of staff / administrative assistant for review, filtering, and forwarding. In these instances, the communication methods should be based on the subordinate’s preferences.

Automated Notifications for Manually Maintained Performance Metrics

StrategyDriven research reveals that only about forty percent of performance metrics can be fully automated. Consequently, a large portion of an organization’s performance measures will not be supported by the ongoing system monitoring necessary to easily support automated notifications. In these instances, near real-time notifications can be achieved through one of the following options:

  • Personnel monitoring the specific parameter make periodic electronic log entries to drive near real-time system monitoring and automated notifications
  • Automated or electronically logged proxy measures are used as a notification substitute to prompt the updating and review of the desired performance measure
  • Automated or electronically logged predictive performance measures related to the desired metric are used to prompt its updating and review
  • Frequency of manual metric updating is increased during critical periods when associated opportunity and/or risk levels are high

Final Thought…

Performance measures drive action in response to opportunities and issues. Automation of performance measure notifications should address both of these circumstances.[/wcm_restrict][wcm_nonmember plans=”41692, 25542, 25653″]

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About the Author

Nathan Ives, StrategyDriven Principal is a StrategyDriven Principal and Host of the StrategyDriven Podcast. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.

Recommended New Year’s Resolutions for Entrepreneurs

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With 2013 winding down, it’s time to start thinking of ways to change, or improve, for the New Year. As the New Year approaches, here are a few New Year’s resolutions and recommendations for the entrepreneur:

As an entrepreneur:

  1. Hire Great People: Continue to try to hire great people so I can focus on my primary roles.
  2. Reduce Email Lists: Reduce the number of email lists I’m on for both business and personal.
  3. Less Stress: Stress less over the minor problems and remember that perfection is impossible.

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  1. Build Talent: Start building the next great batch of TIP talent; Students!
  2. Ask for Advice: Ask more of our advisors, that’s what they’re there for.
  3. Start Selling: Enough building, start selling… hit revenue on all three of our lead product fronts.

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About the Author

Michael Unetich is President of TIP Solutions, a Chicago-based software company building a patented set of software and firmware technologies around call handling and management. He started several successful entrepreneurial ventures, possesses experience in software design and marketing, and has extensive experience in angel investing. Michael is a named inventor on over 10 patents currently under USPTO and international filing.

3 Ways to Improve Your Business Bedside Manner

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Good bedside manner can reassure and comfort a patient even when facing a difficult diagnosis, while poor bedside manner can leave a patient feeling dissatisfied or anxious, from a visit as innocuous as a routine checkup. Big difference. But how does bedside manner apply to business in general? Two words: customer service. No, a doctor-patient relationship isn’t the same as a vendor-customer relationship, but when it comes to building an effective relationship, many of the same principles apply.

We all have competition. Giving ‘customers’ the best experience possible goes a long way toward securing future business. Whether it’s bedside manner or customer service, here are five ways to demonstrate concern and professionalism to patients and customers:

[wcm_restrict]Give Your Undivided Attention
Attentive time is among the most limited of all of our resources. We often find ourselves splitting time between the people around us and the constant stream of electronic communication from the various devices we can’t live without. As we split time and attention in more ways than ever before, the amount available per person gets smaller and smaller. Reduce the likelihood that the other person feels you’re not really ‘present’ by putting away your devices and giving them your undivided attention. Not only does this demonstrate your professionalism, it shows you value their time as much as they value yours. Don’t worry; those messages, texts, or tweets will all be waiting for you when your appointment is over.

Build Trust by Keeping Confidences
As more and more of us become accustomed to communicating and sharing personal information through social media, the notions of privacy and trust start to lose their meaning. Real trust is not only earned over time, but it’s earned by each and every opportunity to keep a confidence. Though it might not be spelled out as clearly as the legal obligations of doctor-patient confidentiality, any professional relationship should be built on a foundation of trust. Trust that you’ll do what you say you’ll do. Trust that you won’t share information you shouldn’t share.

Reciprocate in Kind
With the shift from one-to-one communication to the one-to-many stream of social communication, it’s no surprise that society as a whole has shifted to a ‘me-centric’ one-way thinking. Lost is the common courtesy of reciprocating the considerate gestures of others. Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn have lessened expectations of responding to broadcasted messages. But the type of reciprocity that characterizes strong relationships can’t be demanded of others. By demonstrating thoughtfulness toward others, we can encourage them to respond thoughtfully to us.

The success of any business depends on creating and maintaining meaningful relationships. Dealing with more people, more effectively sets you and your business apart from the competition. When you connect with others in a meaningful way, you become valuable resources for each other. The value you provide for each person in your network can extend outward to and from others with whom you are connected.

Whether your goal is to possess a good bedside manner or just deliver plain, old good customer service, these five tips are a great start. Not sure where your strengths or weaknesses lie? Try asking those on the receiving end? Nothing communicates care and concern more than a genuine customer satisfaction survey, even as simple as asking, “Is there anything else I can do for you?”[/wcm_restrict][wcm_nonmember]

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About the Author

Mike MuhneyCRM pioneer Mike Muhney, the co-creator of ACT! software, is CEO of mobile relationship management purveyor vipOrbit – the first relationship-centric contact manager solution enabling mobile business professionals to manage their contacts, calendar and client/customer interactions across Mac, iPhone and iPad platforms. He may be reached at www.VIPOrbit.com.

Chris Majer

6 Silent Productivity and Profitability Pitfalls, part 7 of 7

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Silent Killer #6: Modern Indentured Servitude

Today’s world is one of sharp contrasts. As a society, we have more choices, opportunities, wealth, and prosperity than at any other point in human history. Yet, we are also more depressed, dissatisfied, and despondent than ever before.

In fact, more than 21 million Americans are depressed, according to Mental Health America, costing U.S. companies more than $31 billion each year in lost productive time.

A key contributor to this malaise is our contemporary view of work – that it is an endless series of ‘things to do,’ things which have commercial value for the enterprise but produce little or no sense of value for ‘me.’

[wcm_restrict]As a result of the five wastes previously discussed, we have inadvertently created a kind of ‘modern indentured servitude.’ We sell ourselves into service in exchange for a paycheck and have only fleeting ‘real’ lives after or outside of work. In this modern malaise, many people feel like victims, trapped by their need to make a living, prepare for retirement, support families, and deal with modern life. We ignore, diminish, or distort the possible ways that work can bring meaning to people’s lives.

To have our work be seen as nothing more than modern feudal toil saps all our strength and turns people’s working lives from a source of inspiration and contribution into a futile search for meaning. Those in senior-management roles may have trouble seeing or identifying with this phenomenon and may mistakenly assume it only happens in other organizations. The executive floors are largely immune from this and, at the same time, unconsciously responsible for it. They are the ones who design or tolerate the practices, processes, structures, moods, and measures that create it.

One of the symptoms of this mess is the new degenerative mood of ‘overwhelm.’ Resignation, resentment, arrogance, distrust, and cynicism have been with us forever, but overwhelm is a creation of our times. The narrative for emotion sounds like this: There is too much to do, too little time, and too many things pulling at me. I don’t have enough energy for this, and it is never going to stop.

Overwhelm and the resignation and panic it generates are great wastes and very effective killers of productivity and profitability. No enterprise can survive for long with an organizational culture that produces modern indentured servitude.

Shift Your Understanding

When leaders are willing to make the shift away from bureaucratic work styles and structures, develop listening as a key management competence, generate cultures that welcome innovation, and build systems and processes that support this new way of working, their people will once again experience meaning and purpose in their working lives. Their interpretation of themselves at work will shift from feeling as though they’re renting out their bodies or brains to feeling like partners with their organizations – in which their contributions to the financial strength, practical knowledge, and reputation of the company are also a route to developing their own financial success, competence, and identities in the world. From this vantage point, work ceases to be toil and becomes a source of meaning and inspiration.

We at the Human Potential Project are not naïve dreamers who think the transition to this new way of working will happen on its own or overnight. It won’t come as the result of good intention, a series of memos, or a new set of offerings at the corporate university. Nor will everyone welcome the changes that are being called for if we are going to reinvent ourselves and our companies to be competitive in this new business world. But leaders who embrace this new way of working will become the stewards of their organization – creating the necessary changes, eliminating the ‘modern wastes,’ and ushering their companies into a future where they’re strong, lean, and poised for success.

Eliminate these modern wastes – silent killers of productivity and profitability – and transform your organization![/wcm_restrict][wcm_nonmember]

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About the Author

Chris Majer, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Human Potential ProjectChris Majer, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Human Potential Project, is the author of The Power to Transform: Passion, Power, and Purpose in Daily Life (Rodale), which teaches the strategies corporate, military, and sports leaders have used to positively transform themselves and their organizations in a way readers can adept to their own lives and professions. He may be reached at www.humanpotentialproject.com.

A Very Merry Christmas Wish from StrategyDriven

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On behalf of the entire StrategyDriven team, I want to wish you, your family, friends, and colleagues a very Merry Christmas and the Happiest New Year. May you experience all the peace, hope, and joy of the holiday season!

All the Best,

Nathan Ives
President and Chief Executive Officer
StrategyDriven