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Management Observation Program Best Practice 10 – Foundational, Situational, Event-based, and Random Observations
While management observation programs serve many purposes, they primarily exist to drive achievement of the organization’s goals in a manner consistent with its values. These formal, documented observations accomplish this by shaping and reinforcing personnel behaviors critical to supporting excellent operational performance. To provide adequate coverage, these observations should be performed on a recurring, situational, event, and random basis.[wcm_restrict plans=”41950, 25542, 25653″]
Proper observation timing ensures both managers and contributors remain faithful to the organization’s operational performance guidelines during routine ongoing operations as well as high-risk evolutions. This timing includes:
- Foundational Observations – observations occurring at a given frequency within a defined time interval. These observations typically focus on those broad-based behaviors required during most, if not all, operations
- Situational Observations – observations targeted at specific high-risk activities to ensure risk mitigating behaviors are demonstrated during these critical times. These observations occur during the preparatory training for and performance of high-risk activities and not at any specific time interval
Another class of situational observation supports self-assessment and/or benchmarking activities. These observations are performed in advance of the assessment or benchmarking activity to provide additional, timely information in support of these activities - Event-based Observations – observations performed after a significant performance expectation violation that sets a dangerous precedent or causes significantly adverse impacts to the organization. These observations are performed across a broad number of organizational groups, especially those performing similar operations to that group in which the violation occurred, so to identify the extent of condition of the undesired behavioral deviation and to broadly reinforce adherence to the proper management standards.
- Random Observations – observations reinforcing desired behaviors performed at the discretion of the individual observer without any specific activity relationship or time constraint. Such random observations reinforce with employees the need to be ever vigilant to the adherence of workplace standards because their compliance may be monitored at any time
Well-constructed management observation programs define, schedule, and monitor performance of foundational, situational, and random of observations. (Event-based observations are added to the plan as needed and set to occur for such a time as management deems necessary to effectively reestablish and reinforce the desired behavior.) Managers responsible for the organization’s operational programs in consultation with senior leaders who help identify the key risks to be monitored typically identify the specific observations to be performed on an annual basis. The resulting observation matrix is then broadly communicated to those leaders responsible for observation performance. Observation quotas and performance tracking systems are updated as discussed in StrategyDriven article, Observation Quotas.[/wcm_restrict][wcm_nonmember plans=”41950, 25542, 25653″]
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About the Author
Nathan Ives 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.
Most companies employ a periodic employee review program, typically comprised of a major annual review and sometimes complimented by a formal mid-year feedback session. Examination of these programs reveals most performance ratings are based on those individual behaviors, events, and accomplishments occurring within a few weeks of a review’s development. Consequently, employees achieving great success throughout the year, particularly those with significant achievements earlier in the period, feel cheated by a process that frequently overlooks these accomplishments.[wcm_restrict plans=”41942, 25542, 25653″]
Direct management observation and immediate feedback is the best tool for reinforcing performance expectations among employees. And while such reinforcement is optimally effective at maintaining high performance levels when given consistently over time, some management observation programs become a checklist task for executives, managers, and supervisors; resulting in the majority of observations being performed at the end of the observation cycle or in clusters during a narrow time frame within the cycle. Workers learn that standard adhering performance reinforcement only occurs during a very brief period within the cycle and that substandard work will typically not be observed and behaviors corrected the rest of the time. Work behavior quickly aligns with the pattern of expectation reinforcement; sub-optimizing overall performance and adversely impacting the observation program’s effectiveness.[wcm_restrict plans=”25541, 25542, 25653″]
Some things can go without saying… performance standards are not one of them.
Management observation programs generate a wealth of individual and workgroup performance data. All too often, workgroup managers view their employees job functions as being singularly unique and so don’t consider pooling their observation results with peers. Doing so, however, creates the possibility of identifying broader organizational trends that may be culturally driven and more economical to resolve with a single integrated initiative.[wcm_restrict plans=”41928, 25542, 25653″]
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