StrategyDriven

An organization’s mission defines its purpose for being.  Making the mission measurable and then prioritizing those measures helps create a sense of where the organization should focus its efforts.  However, prioritization at this level does not create the clarity needed for individuals making resource allocation choices between their day-to-day activities, especially if the activities all serve the same mission measure.

Categorically prioritizing the organization’s major ongoing activities helps focus efforts on the twenty percent of activities that tend to offer eighty percent of the organization’s value.  Activity categorization starts by identifying the value adding products and services the organization provides.  All activities uniquely related to the creation of an item are placed in an activity category together.  Excluded from these activity categories are the common, supporting processes such as human resources and finance which are grouped together and labeled as supporting processes.  Next, a simple, relative prioritization scheme is created, often having three to five priority levels.  Each activity category, except that of the supporting processes, is placed within the relative priority scale in order of the value provided by the product or service represented.  The most value adding item is assigned to the highest priority and so on; with the least value adding item assigned the last position in the lowest priority level.  The resulting prioritization list is then broadly communicated and reinforced; shaping resource allocation decisions at all levels of the organization.

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Popularity: 19% [?]

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Business planning is the art and science of identifying what a company should and should not do balanced by its available resources. While much of business planning focuses on setting strategic direction and defining tactical activities, achieving balance requires that significant attention be given to the critical area of resource projection.

Annualized resource projection involves a number of processes that together paint a picture of the organization’s resource availability and needs. Creation of this picture begins with development of two key elements: resource availability and standardized activity assumptions. These assumptions are then applied to the proposed activities identified during the alternative development process. The resulting all encompassing list of resource loaded activities is further honed through an iterative process involving resource projection and alternative selection into the final portfolio of activities to be pursued. Derived from this portfolio is the organization’s time bound resource availability and needs.

Capacity planning refines the annualized resource projections; giving the organization insight to the additional resources needed in order to account for the inefficiencies associated with resource scheduling; personnel hiring delays and qualification; and equipment maintenance, calibration, and retooling. Each of these inefficiencies prevent resources from being available one hundred percent of the time; thereby forcing the organization to either increase its asset base or decrease its level of activity. Capacity planning reveals the average level of inefficiency providing insight to the resource and activity planning adjustments to be made.

Posts in this category are dedicated to discussing the leading practices of companies successfully executing a resource projection program in support of strategic planning.

Popularity: 18% [?]

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable
by Patrick M. Lencioni

About the Reference

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Patrick M. Lencioni examines five obstacles to effective teamwork.  Focused on the executive team, Mr. Lencioni illustrates the harmful effects diminished teamwork has on an organization’s effectiveness.  He then prescribes actions that can be taken to overcome these obstacles thereby increasing overall organizational performance.

Benefits of Using this Reference

StrategyDriven contributors believe that an organization can only perform effectively if there exists a cohesive, aligned, action-oriented executive team guiding it. We like The Five Dysfunctions of a Team because it highlights the common barriers to effective teamwork and an actionable process for overcoming these barriers. While the process presented focuses on an organization’s executive team, we believe the same principles can be used to improve teamwork at all levels of the organization. Additionally, Mr. Lencioni’s recommended actions support what StrategyDriven contributors believe is key to sustained, superior success; shared vision, focus, and commitment.

As a business novel, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team presents its principles for improved teamwork through a believable, vividly illustrated, and easily related to story of an organization’s struggle to improve performance. Many of the best practice recommendations found on the StrategyDriven website compliment the actions prescribed in The Five Dysfunctions of a Team; making this book a StrategyDriven recommended read.

Popularity: 11% [?]

Measurement of observable variables has always been as much an art as it is a science. How, when, where, and with what we measure observables highly influences the values derived. Subsequently, when using performance measures to evaluate the comparable results achieved by various products, services, business units, and individuals or a single item’s performance over time, differences in measurement methods and/or data resources can create undesirable variations in derived values and invalidate the comparison. This increased information uncertainty in turn diminishes decision-making effectiveness.

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Popularity: 14% [?]

In today’s competitive environment, it is no longer good enough to offer employees a good place to work.  Rather, it is imperative a company creates a work environment where the best want to work.  Only when such an environment exists will a company attract and retain the most knowledgeable, skilled, and accomplished employees; who in-turn will effectively execute its activities and make it a viable competitor in an increasingly aggressive marketplace.

Accountability makes a workplace the place where the best performers want to be because of a shared drive for excellence.  These organizations, through the individual and collective behaviors of their people, continuously and consequentially pursue performance improvement and achievement of the organization’s mission.  The best performers, motivated by one or more of a variety of rewards such as contribution, recognition, advancement, compensation, and control, seek out highly accountable organizations because these organizations feed their motivations while at the same time presenting them with the challenge to continually improve.

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Popularity: 16% [?]