StrategyDriven Tactical Execution Best Practice Article

Tactical Execution Best Practice 4 – Eliminate Redundant Work

/0 Comments/in , /by

StrategyDriven Tactical Execution Best Practice ArticleWhether in an economic recession or boom, resources are always limited and redundant work always an unnecessary resource expenditure. Yet no matter how hard leaders try to eliminate redundant work, these practices seem to reappear; often the result of well intentioned actions to correct a performance deficiency or misguided adherence to a legacy practice. Therefore, all leaders from the C-suite to the shop floor must relentlessly wage an ongoing war against unnecessary duplicate work.[wcm_restrict plans=”41022, 25542, 25653″]

Eliminating redundant work is not always easy. Regardless of why these tasks originated, they were almost assuredly justified by the very managers and workers overseeing and performing them; so these individuals will likely not recognize the actions as an unnecessary duplication of effort. And when identified, these individuals may be reluctant to relinquish the practice because of the prestige, authority, and/or employment the activity confers. At a minimum, eliminating the redundant task may appear to challenge the good judgment of those who conceived, authorized, or performed the task.

While not always easy, elimination of redundant work should always be pursued. The following are some suggestions to enhance the identification and ease the elimination of redundant work activities.

Identification

  1. Develop an end-to-end process flow and identify the workers performing each activity. No more than one person should be performing each task. Also, identify checks performed by computers and workers as this work effort is redundant. Lastly, look for instances where individuals transfer work documentation between multiple media (e.g. paper to computer) as this is also redundant work

    Note: Second or peer checks and management authorization reviews for safety purposes are not redundant but are vital to maintaining personnel, operational, and asset safety. A foundational number of these reviews should be performed consistent with industry best practices. In some instances, these checks are legally required.

  2. Managers observe employees’ work end-to-end; giving special attention to transitions between employees where redundancies are likely to occur and go unrecognized
  3. Peers from other work groups or outside consultants observe end-to-end work flows. Impartial eyes are often more likely to identify subtle redundancies than those close to the work
  4. Survey/interview those new to the organization. Their recent outside perspective will often reveal duplicate work effort particularly if the result of a legacy practice

Elimination

  1. Train executives, managers, and employees to recognize unnecessary duplicate work
  2. Establish an organizational understanding of the need to continuously improve through constant quantitative reminders of relevant performance imperatives (e.g. organizational results-based performance versus that of leading competitors)
  3. Create a culture that embraces continuous improvement by encouraging and rewarding those who identify opportunities for improvement
  4. Establish forums within which employees can challenge organizational traditions and ‘sacred cows’
  5. Don’t assign blame for the existence of redundant activities, instead, highlight their identification and elimination as an organizational learning opportunity
  6. In the extreme case where staffing reductions occur because of activity elimination, seek to assign displaced workers elsewhere within the organization or help them find positions with another firm

Prevention

  1. Train executives, managers, and employees, especially those who write and approve policies and procedures, to recognize redundant work
  2. Adapt project management and corrective action processes to assess for redundancy before implementing procedure changes
  3. Update software implementation procedures to assess for duplicate computer-human activities

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790)
Founding Father of the United States of America[/wcm_restrict][wcm_nonmember plans=”41022, 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 Tactical Execution Best Practice 4 – Eliminate Redundant Work for just $2!

Access the Article Now!

[/wcm_nonmember]

Return to the Tactical Execution Forum

Leadership Inspirations – What Leaders Do

/0 Comments/in /by

“Leaders establish the vision for the future and set the strategy for getting there; they cause change. They motivate and inspire others to go in the right direction and they, along with everyone else, sacrifice to get there.”

John Kotter
Professor at the Penguin University, renown authority on leadership and change, and author of Leading Change

New Century Leaders

/0 Comments/in /by

What kind of new world leaders should we expect?

Here is one magnifying and surprising solution. I believe we need to teach future business leaders that in our carbon and capital constrained world it is now mission critical to refine all the tools of business to compete on price, quality and social needs. Masters of business administration must also become masters of social needs – from avian and swine flu to energy and environmental matters. I believe this boils down to training to compete for resources and the best minds, while teaching some cultural restraint and leadership skills.

[wcm_restrict]This new century leader must become a Social Response Capitalist, profiting from new forms of energy, new means of mobility, and exceptional and available kinds of information technologies. I want leaders that can produce solutions for multinationals as well as the many key small innovators we need in renewable energy.

Consider the recent rash of corporate and financial abuses, and the sheer ethical stupidity of some strategies and actions.

I am now convinced that businesses that rule by the brute force of technical and terrain advantage alone will slip in their competitive advantage. It takes the grace, force and wit of a diplomat to gain permission to grow. Life as we know it, and society as we expect it, are not possible without such realignment.

I believe the ultimate definition of a trusted new century leader is someone who can embed social values into products in a strategic and consistent way.

I believe that those who can embody these values will thrive in what I call the S-Frontier, where the severity of global markets, and the swiftness of information dominate normal business planning and decision-making.

The leaders we can trust often develop a vivid track-record of achieving such surprising results. Their new products never stray from being efficient, safe, convenient, and affordable.

CREATING SOCIAL RESPONSE CAPITALISTS

I now view three prevailing themes of leadership as boundary conditions for achieving success in today’s S-Frontier. Social Response Capitalists need to:

  • Demonstrate a remarkable tolerance for discomforting information, and then thrive on constant learning. These attributes allow them to balance the three competing imperatives of lowering price, improving quality, and responding to emerging social needs. They can sense what the needs of society will be in the near future and quickly adapt corporate strategies in order to engineer new products that can then reshape the market for their goods and services.
  • Achieve power through applied common sense. These social leaders know when to ignore the signals of distress emanating from their own corporate staff and Wall Street. I describe this uncanny ability as “knowing when to play by the rules, and when to change the game,” and a unique combination of panic and resolve. Applied common sense means being open to input from a vast array of sources, but still being smart enough to know how to ignore the sirens screaming all around you about your corporate strategy and do what you know is right.
  • Recognize that their new business models and social goals need wide circulation. Their need for spreading the word often takes on a missionary zeal. Baseball great Yogi Berra once quipped: “You can observe a lot just by watching.” Like plants that disseminate plenty of seeds to ensure survival, social capitalists are on a mission to spread the word about new paths of growth. They are infusing their firm with a new sense of social purpose beyond finance alone, and they want everyone, rightfully, to know about it.

Such is the stuff of the best corporate strategists. They find something fabulous in complexity and challenge, identify and secure the changes that must be made to adapt to the market and the social needs, then share its meanings and value in a visible and highly social set of ways. They apply the newly discovered value in a systematic and relentless way across the company. In a way, social response capitalists are like Archimedes when he said give me a lever large enough and I will move this world. In the end leadership is always about taking the intelligent risks to make the needed lasting and possible.[/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

Bruce Piasecki is the President and Founder of the AHC Group Inc. (www.AHCGroup.com), which since 1981 has provided general management consulting and leadership benchmarking workshops for a range of corporate affiliates and clients. His latest book is The Surprising Solution: Creating Possibility in a Swift and Severe World. To read Bruce’s complete biography, click here.

Three Feet from Gold

/3 Comments/in /by

Given the current economic roller coaster, does it feel like you are taking two steps backwards for every one step forward? Have you ever felt like quitting? Even though you knew you were on the right track?

Once a highly coveted and symbol of ultimate success, the job of CEO today has been tarnished in the public’s opinion by the news stories of corporate scandals and executive excess.

Napoleon Hill, wrote “Many successful people have found opportunities in failure and adversity that they could not recognize in more favorable circumstances.” It is through perseverance, and definiteness of purpose that the truly talented CEOs of today will identify those opportunities and reach even greater heights of success than ever imagined.

[wcm_restrict]There are many people today who compare our current crisis to the Great Depression during the 20’s and 30’s that almost brought total collapse to our economic stability. Yet from the Great Depression emerged many of today’s greatest success stories. It was the leaders of that time who recognized the opportunities, seized them and reached unparalleled levels of success. Many of them credited reading the book Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill as the tool that gave them the inspiration and courage to keep going.

In was in 1908, when a young Napoleon Hill was commissioned by Andrew Carnegie, the richest man in the world, to embark on more than a twenty year journey studying the principles of success. His book, Think and Grow Rich, was originally published in 1937 and has since sold over 100 million copies around the world. It is widely recognized as the foremost treatise on success ever written. In researching the book, Hill had the opportunity to interview the most successful titans of his time. In addition, he also interviewed people who had given up, people who had failed, in order to truly understand the elements of success.

Considered the grandfather of personal development and financial wisdom, Napoleon Hill was the first to coin such ageless principles as “Definiteness of Purpose,” “Pay Yourself First,” the benefits of a “Mastermind”, and even the “Law of Attraction,” which he wrote about as early as 1919.

Even though Think and Grow Rich continues to sell well today and continues to give hope and inspiration to its readers, Don Green, CEO of the Napoleon Hill Foundation recognized an opportunity to update its core principles with modern examples. Think and Grow Rich – Three Feet from Gold is the product of Don’s vision, a message of hope and motivation given life through the stories of successful companies and their leaders from today’s economic environment. You may not recognize their names, but you will recognize their companies or their brands… for they put their customers, their employees and their companies before their personal quest for fame.

What unfolds in Three Feet from Gold is an invaluable equation for personal success based on advice from these incredible men and women. The Personal Success Equation is:

((Passion + Talent) x Association x Action) + Faith = Your Personal Success Equation

By combining your passion with your talent and then finding the right association you will position yourself for great success. However, to realize that success you must take decisive action and at all time have faith that you are on the right path.

They not only share how they applied this Success Equation in their own lives to achieve great success but more importantly, what they said to themselves when the chips were down. What kept them going when others would have given up. It is that moment in time, when you keep moving forward, that truly defines great success.

Their advice is sincere, generous and above all… road tested by their own successful life stories.

Just a few of their golden nuggets that provide a road map for the successful CEOs of tomorrow are:

Truett Cathy, founder of Chick-fil-A, Inc. said, “Focus on your people more than your profits.” And “stop overplanning.”

“A true leader will take others where they would not have gone by themselves,” was the advice of Drayton McLane, Jr. owner of the Houston Astros.

Debbie Fields said, “Good enough, never is.”

John St. Augustine said, “People need to replace their wishbone with a backbone.”

James Amos said, “The margin between success and failure is a very thin line. History is the past. Base decisions on the future.”

John Hope Bryant said, “Ten percent of your attitude is determined by what life hands you and ninety percent by how you choose to respond.”

And returning to the ageless wisdom of Napoleon Hill, “Every adversity, every failure, and every heartache carries with it the seed of an equivalent or greater benefit.”

Don’t quit, you are just three feet from gold![/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 Authors

Sharon L. Lechter, co-author of Three Feet from Gold is co-author of the #1 New York Times and international bestseller Rich Dad, Poor Dad and 15 other books in the Rich Dad series of books. Sharon works with the Napoleon Hill Foundation to promote Napoleon Hill’s principles for success around the globe. In January 2008, President Bush appointed Sharon to the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy. She serves on the National Boards of Childhelp and Women Presidents’ Organization and speaks internationally as an advocate for financial literacy. To read Sharon’s complete biography, click here.

Greg S. Reid is an author, speaker, filmmaker, CEO of several successful corporations, and co-author of Three Feet from Gold. His prior books include The Millionaire Mentor (2003) and Positive Impact co-authored with Charlie “Tremendous” Jones. In addition, he is co-founder of Personal Development magazine and his work has appeared in more than 30 books. Reid has been featured on local and nationally syndicated programs across the country. He also speaks frequently at corporations, universities, and charitable organizations. To read Greg’s complete biography, click here.

New Whitepaper Release – 80 Percent Efficiency Estimate

/1 Comment/in , /by

StrategyDriven contributors are pleased to announce the release of our eighth whitepaper: Resource Projection – 80 Percent Efficiency Estimate.

Perfect human efficiency? Not likely. How then should personnel resources be estimated?

Human beings are social creatures with both emotional and physical needs. Businesses able to satisfy these needs will be better positioned to attract and retain talented personnel; giving them a much needed advantage in the increasingly knowledge driven marketplace where human resources are increasingly limited. Such organizations will further benefit from increased worker engagement because employees feel more connected and valued.

Meeting these very personalized needs requires an ongoing time investment, social time to build and maintain co-worker relationships, to connect with customers and clients, to contact family and friends, as well as time to physically relax, refresh, reflect, and rejuvenate. This time investment varies day-to-day and person-to-person making it extremely difficult to measure. Time studies, project management research, and our collective managerial experience suggest that knowledge workers, on average, require a twenty percent time investment in these personal activities. Stated another way, professionals spend about one and a half hours of an eight hour workday on non-productive but personally necessary activities. Hence, professionals, those whose breaks are ill-defined, can be assumed to work at eighty percent efficiency when fully engaged.

The StrategyDriven 80 Percent Efficiency Estimate whitepaper provides business planners with an easy to follow set of rules to help them appropriately factor personnel efficiency into their project and business plan resource estimates. These rules are detailed with supporting principles and philosophies; helping users understand the reasoning behind each recommendation.

StrategyDriven Succession and Workforce Planning AcceleratorSuccession and Workforce Planning

We help clients enhance their succession and workforce planning programs through pipeline and capability projection, training and development program assessment, and improvement plan design and implementation assistance. Our evaluations identify retention, replacement, productivity, and quality risks while providing leading practice strategies for maintaining full staffing including temporarily filling vacancies with highly qualified personnel. Learn more about how we can help you enhance your succession and workforce pipeline planning programs or contact us for a personal consultation.