StrategyDriven Organizational Performance Measures Best Practice Article

RACI Matrix

/0 Comments/in , /by

Performance measurement systems monitor the behaviors and results of the organization’s workgroups and, in some cases, individuals; providing periodic reinforcement of the achievement of desired outcomes. This reinforcement can only occur when an individual understands his/her role as associated with a metric and receives and understands the associated performance information. Such role designation and communication is fostered through development of a RACI matrix specifically associated with each performance measure within the system.[wcm_restrict plans=”41654, 25542, 25653″]

RACI charts have long been used in project management settings to communicate individuals’ roles and responsibilities as associated with particularly large projects. The benefits of these charts are well translated to organizational performance measurement systems where, like projects, activity ownership and performance feedback is key to driving continuous performance improvement and ensuring results achievement.

Creating a RACI matrix for organizational performance measures can be done using the following adapted definitions:

  • Responsible – Individual(s) who maintains and updates the performance measure
  • Accountable – Person who is accountable for the performance/outcomes reflected by the metric
  • Consulted / Concurrence – Individuals consulted when changes to the metric are proposed – C1. Person whose approval is required prior to changing the associated performance metric – C2
  • Informed – Persons whose performance contributions are reflected in part or whole by the metric’s indicated outcomes – I1. Executives, managers, and supervisors who through lines of authority or functional collaboration need to be made aware of the metric’s reflected performance – I2. Public locations where the metric is to be posted – I3. Accountable individuals and contributors who are notified of changes to the performance measure – I4

Note that the performance metric system RACI definitions often result in an individual having more than one designation for an individual metric as illustrated in the example below.

StrategyDriven Organizational Performance Measures RACI Matrix
Figure 1: Example Performance Measurement System RACI Matrix

Click here to view a larger image.[/wcm_restrict][wcm_nonmember plans=”41654, 25542, 25653″]

Hi there! Gain access to this article with a StrategyDriven Insights Library – Total Access subscription or buy access to the article itself.

Subscribe to the StrategyDriven Insights Library

Sign-up now for your StrategyDriven Insights Library – Total Access subscription for as low as $15 / month (paid annually).

Subscribe Now!

Not sure? Click here to learn more.

Buy the Article

Don’t need a subscription? Buy access to Organizational Performance Measures Best Practice 23 – RACI Matrix for just $2!

[reveal_quick_checkout id=”41653″ checkout_text=”Access the Article Now!”]

 
[/wcm_nonmember]

Additional Resources

Individual RACI assignments can be difficult. Several other StrategyDriven articles provide additional insights to help in this decision-making process including:

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.

Jeffrey Gitomer

People don’t know what they have. It’s better than money.

/0 Comments/in /by

I’m sure you’ve heard the expression, “Count your blessings.” I wonder how you interpret that. I wonder how you count them. I wonder how you take advantage of them. My biggest wonder is how grateful are you for your blessings.

HERE’S AN IDEA: Re-look at your blessings from a different perspective. Are they blessings or are they assets? Are they blessings or are they attributes? Are they blessings or are they gifts that you can share with others?

GOOD NEWS: There are no right answers to those questions.
BETTER NEWS: You have to determine the answers for yourself.
BEST NEWS: Once you determine what those blessings, or assets, or attributes, or gifts are you can begin to build them, add to them, enjoythem, and turn them into a happier, better you.

HERE’S HOW TO DO IT: Sit down at your laptop and write your eulogy. Write down what you would want your children or your significant other to say about your life. How you lived it, how you achieved in it, and what your best qualities were. What kind of a person were you? What kind of a father or mother were you? What kind of a son or daughter were you? What kind of a friend were you?

Those are the questions that will reveal all of the assets, all of the attributes, and all of the gifts that you have.

In my opinion, the one blessing or attribute that will define you better than any of the others is what you gave. I don’t mean how much money you gave away. Rather, I mean what you gave of yourself. Did you volunteer? Did you participate in a charity? Did you help your kids with their homework? Did you help an elderly person across the street? Were you a giver or a taker?

Giving defines your person.

Me? I give smiles. And I give them on purpose, every day.

I have a daily goal. Make ten people smile every day. That may not sound like much, but it’s amazing what happens when you can make someone you hardly know smile at you based on your interaction with them. It means that you have been kind, or humorous, or thought provoking, or just a good guy or gal. Sometime it involves a bigger tip than you might normally give. Sometimes it’s just a matter of holding a door. Whatever it is, when you make someone smile it changes their whole physiology. They walk away feeling better than they did because they encountered you.

My daily goal also includes one other element: performing a random act of kindness.

Random acts of kindness are easily defined as proactive politeness, proactive helping, or proactive giving. No one asked for anything. You just decided to get up and do it.

I wonder if you ever think about random acts of kindness. I wonder if you regularly perform random acts of kindness. I wonder if you understand who feels best after the random act of kindness is been performed.

If you perform them like I do, then you know who feels best. You do.

Oh, the recipient feels great because you helped them or honored them. But you feel greater. Random acts of kindness have a double win. And the feeling lasts a long time.

I challenge you to make ten people smile and perform one random act of kindness a day. I challenge you to do it for the right reasons: for yourself.

When you make people smile, you smile. The power of that transfers immediately to all your other thoughts and you become happier. In fact, you look for ways to make other people smile because of the feeling that gives you.

And that’s a self-imposed blessing you can take to the grave.

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at salesman@gitomer.com.

Recommended Resources – The 4 Disciplines of Execution

/0 Comments/in , , /by

StrategyDriven Recommended ResourcesThe 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals
by Jerry Weissman

About the Book

The 4 Disciplines of Execution provides the steps needed to repeatably translate one’s business strategy into the day-to-day activities instrumental to realizing organizational goals. These disciplines include:

  • Focus on the Wildly Important – Give your best effort to those few goals that really matter instead of giving mediocre effort to dozens of goals.
  • Act on the Lead Measures – Carefully track the lead measures and let the lag measures take care of themselves.
  • Keep a Compelling Scoreboard – Make sure everybody knows the score at all times so they can tell if they are winning or not.
  • Create a Cadence of Accountability – Hold frequent accountability sessions whose only purpose is to advance the Wildly Important Goals.

Benefits of Reading this Book

StrategyDriven Contributors like The 4 Disciplines of Execution for its methodical, repeatable method of translating corporate strategy into the day-to-day actions of organization members. We appreciate the adaptation of the book’s principles to both an organization and team-level implementation.

Chris, Sean, and Jim richly present their concepts with detailed illustrations and examples; making the disciplines both easy to understand and readily implementable. The 4 Disciplines of Execution is remarkably well aligned with the foundational principles upon which StrategyDriven, its products and services, is based. For its actionable principles of strategy execution while promoting organizational alignment and accountability, The 4 Disciplines of Execution is a StrategyDriven recommended read.

Mistakes That Hinder Sales

/0 Comments/in /by

They say it’s the little things in life that matter. This principle applies to sales representatives if they want to be successful in their career.

As salespeople, we often get caught up in the things that stare us right in the face. We focus on quarterly goals, the weekly conference calls, and the ever-looming concern over what this year’s bonus will be – all the while overlooking ideas that keep us on top of our game. Some of the mistakes we make are obvious, such as failing to make enough calls, lacking product knowledge, and not asking a client to buy. But it’s those deeper neglected areas that cause us to slowly lose our edge or superiority.

In my view, there are three common pitfalls salespeople must avoid to insure maximum results regardless of where they are in their career.

[wcm_restrict]Self-stagnation. Why do sales reps stop developing the skills needed to stay on top? Perhaps they have been reasonably successful over the course of their profession and have become complacent. This stagnation can result in lost opportunities. If the product itself is mature, salespeople have to continue to reinvent themselves and their tactics. Let’s face it, even if they have the leading product, competition is looking for new ways to topple them from their peak.

Lack of Discipline. Selling is a process that is repeated over and over, yet the play-by-play is unique from one call to the next. Discipline, however, must remain the same.

In the movie ‘Hoosiers,’ based on a true story, coach Norman Dale takes over a small town Indiana high-school basketball team. Dale’s first task is to instill discipline into a team that had never known such a practice. What seemed unnatural to these young men soon became the cornerstone that led to a state championship title.

If you’re not disciplined in your daily approach to sales, how can you ever expect to make it to the state championship game? It’s sometimes difficult to motivate yourself to make another phone call, to drive ten more miles, or to approach one more customer in the store. And it’s sometimes easier to make a call without proper preparation, but such broken discipline can mean missed opportunities. It’s important to live by the fundamentals of the game, even when the game is sales.

No Follow Through. You’ve made a sale. The fulfillment department has delivered the product. As far as you know things have gone just as planned. You have a happy customer. However do you seize this moment to capture future sales?

It might be obvious the product has done what was promised, but a follow-up visit can reassure the buyer he or she made the right decision. Let the customer know he or she is more than just a commission check to you. Taking the extra time to build the buyer’s confidence in you can produce enormous pay-offs. It not only makes future calls easier, but it also opens doors. A satisfied buyer might provide you with additional leads.

Remind yourself of the mistakes that take you out-of-bounds in the sport of selling. Remember to bring fresh ideas to the table to help avoid self-stagnation. Like any good sports team, discipline and fundamentals lead to long-term success. And following through in sales can be like the follow through of a golf swing that keeps you straight in the fairway of sales.[/wcm_restrict][wcm_nonmember]

Hi there! This article is available for free. Login or register as a StrategyDriven Personal Business Advisor Self-Guided Client by:

[reveal_quick_checkout id=”25489″ checkout_text=”Subscribing to the Self Guided Program – It’s Free!”]
 
[/wcm_nonmember]

About the Author

Allen Guy, Senior Vice President of Business Services, State Bank and Trust CompanyAllen Guy is the author of Playing to Win: The Sport of Selling and How You Can Win the Game. A veteran sales representative and manager with experience that spans more than twenty-five years and multiple industries, he is currently senior vice president of business services for State Bank and Trust Company in Mississippi.

Playing to Win is a convergence of sports analogies and practical business skills to educate and entertain readers as they further develop their sales abilities. It provides applicable advice that can easily be remembered and put into practice.

StrategyDriven Alternative Selection Warning Flag Article

Alternative Selection Warning Flag 2 – An Initiative for Every Executive

/0 Comments/in , , /by

StrategyDriven Alternative Selection Warning FlagSenior executives typically ascend to their elevated positions through the contribution of significant organizational value. While these individuals’ daily activities provided ongoing benefit throughout their careers, there is seldom a more value adding opportunity than successful leadership of a strategic initiative or large-scale project. Consequently, senior leaders seeking further career development and advancement covet these initiatives; sometimes resulting in the creation of such projects to satisfy an individual’s need rather than an organizational one.[wcm_restrict plans=”25541, 25542, 25653″]

Strategic initiative selection should serve to offer high mission value regardless of where in the organization the initiative resides. On occasion, a sound selection process may assign a strategic initiative to each executive within the senior leadership team. However, more often than not, the distribution of these initiatives will be unevenly divided among senior leaders and in many cases one or more executives will remain without an assigned project. Devising initiatives for otherwise unburdened executives detracts from more organizationally value-adding efforts by diverting limited resources and management attention. While not all inclusive, the four lists below, Process-Based Warning Flags, Process Execution Warning Flags – Behaviors, Potential, Observable Results, and Potential Causes, are designed to help leaders recognize when inappropriately create strategic initiatives to satisfy personal demands for them. Only after a problem is recognized and its causes identified can the needed action be taken to move the organization toward improved performance.

Process-Based Warning Flags

  • Strategic planning procedures demand each business unit pursue a given number of initiatives within a defined timeframe, typically one year, rather than focusing initiative selection on overarching organizational goals (See StrategyDriven article, Strategic Planning Warning Flag – Business Unit versus Goal-Based Planning)
  • Business units have differing (not integrated) strategic planning processes generating initiatives requiring support from other work centers
  • Strategic planning processes limits the number of strategic initiatives assigned to any one particular area
  • Executive and managerial performance evaluation systems drives the need for these individuals to demonstrate personal capability by leading and/or participating in large projects
  • Promotion criteria favors those leading and/or participating in strategic initiatives
  • Annual bonus program protocols favor those leading or participating in strategic initiatives

Process Execution Warning Flags – Behaviors

  • Board members and C-suite executives use initiative leadership for executive positional needs justification, value contribution identification, managerial performance demonstration, and rewards and promotions decisions
  • Executives and managers demand leadership and/or participation in strategic initiatives as a way of demonstrating individual value contribution
  • Managers resist allowing subordinates to participate in the initiatives led by other organization leaders

Potential, Observable Results

  • Functional area compartmentalizing of strategic initiative effort such that these projects don’t benefit from cross-functional insights; limiting their overall value potential and differentiation from competitors’ products and services
  • Delays in implementing strategic initiatives
  • Initiatives lack credibility and implementation buy-in by the broader organization because of a lack of cross-functional development participation
  • Elevated resistance to strategic initiative implementation
  • Personnel development is limited because of a lack of opportunities to participate in cross-functional initiatives

Potential Causes

  • Board of directors values strategic initiative leadership and provides compensation and promotional benefits to those leading such projects
  • Executives and managers feeling of self-worth aligned with leadership and participation in strategic initiatives
  • Executives and managers value strategic initiative leadership and participation; providing compensation and promotional benefits to those involved with such projects
  • Senior leaders do not collaboratively share accountability for all strategic initiatives taken on by the organization (See StrategyDriven article, Strategic Planning Best Practice – Shared Accountability)

Final Thought…

While there are many similarities between the Initiative for Every Executive and Too Many Initiatives warning flags, they are distinctly different. Those seeking to determine whether such conditions exist within their organization need to look deeply into the underlying drivers to discern whether an organization has too many initiatives because it is assigning one to every executive or if the fact that every executive has an initiative is an outcome of pursuing too many initiatives.[/wcm_restrict][wcm_nonmember plans=”25541, 25541, 25653″]

Hi there! Gain access to this article with a FREE StrategyDriven Insights Library – Sample Subscription. It’s FREE Forever with No Credit Card Required.

Sign-up now for your FREE StrategyDriven Insights Library – Sample Subscription

In addition to receiving access to Alternative Selection Warning Flag 2 – An Initiative for Every Executive, you’ll help advance your career and business programs through anytime, anywhere access to:

  • A sampling of dozens of Premium how-to documents across 7 business functions and 28 associated programs
  • 2,500+ Expert Contributor management and leadership articles
  • Expert advice provided via StrategyDriven’s Advisors Corner

Best of all, it’s FREE Forever with No Credit Card Required.

Access the Article Now!

[/wcm_nonmember]

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.