As with many of our discussions, the topic is vast, so the aim of this article is to get you really thinking about the importance of management frameworks and whether your managers have the right tools for the job. Your proposition is critically underpinned by the driving principles of educating, up-skilling and providing your managers with frameworks to deliver business success. So, do your Managers have the right tools, skills and behaviours to actively manage staff to achieve best outcomes?
A clear specification to get the job done
Think of it like this. If you designed a new product and engaged a manufacturer to produce it, you’d provide a detailed specification to ensure they delivered precisely what you want, by a specified date for a set cost. Car manufacturing is a good example. A design is set, machines at each stage of the build and precisely programmed, staff and managers are fully trained and skilled for each element, quality is monitored throughout and the end product is delivered at a stipulated unit price. Delivery is by design and not by accident.
Operations are no different. To deliver exceptional and efficient service you need to have clear specification so staff and managers know exactly what you expected from them.
dhp has a set of proven frameworks and a methodology that’s been tried and tested over many years. It is incredibly effective because it’s built on operational managers’ experience and understanding of how to consistently deliver outstanding performance. Our goal therefore, is to embed efficient practices into your managers’ daily routines and empower them as agents of change, so they and their teams continue to evolve and improve long after we’re gone.
“High achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectation.”
What happens when an operation doesn’t have standardised frameworks and methodology?
We typically see a number of features shared by organisations that lack a standardised framework.
- Inconsistency – each manager adopts their own approach to team leadership, resulting in wide variances in performance
- Top down communication is ineffective
- Top down decision making – the management chain looks to the top for decision approval and action
- Managers aren’t clear on what is required and decision making can be ineffective
- Managers fail to notice a ‘call to action’, or take no action
- Individuals underperformance is evident and often unchallenged
- Managers “stuck to their desks” and are unable or un-willing to effectively lead their people.
- Teams are unproductive, ineffective and poorly motivated.
And in many instances, it’s not the manager’s fault. It’s simply because they don’t have the proper practice and principles to help them make the right decisions.
“If you think of standardization as the best that you know today, but which is to be improved tomorrow; you get somewhere.”
The backbone of your operation
A clear methodology is the backbone of any operations area. Without it, operations can’t stand up on their own. And without a framework, an operation can’t function correctly. Our methodology and frameworks give operations a strong, well-formed backbone that provides the entire organisation with a firm anchor point for decision-making and action.
Our methodology and frameworks are practical and pragmatic. We’re not going to give you a 2,000-page manual that takes 500 coaching sessions to complete. We take a common sense approach that’s simple yet effective, but don’t mistake that as being easy. You have to follow every step, not just the easy things. It’s not pick ‘n’ mix.
Once embedded you’ll realise enormous gains in quality and efficiency, the dhp team is made up of experienced operational managers who quickly identify waste and inefficiency in operations and implement methodologies that will resolve them. We look at behaviour and routines and the engagement of people. We’re not necessarily looking at technical functionality in a team, we often strip technical issues away. We’re looking at how managers behave, what they do on a daily, weekly, monthly basis, what their routines are, and how they communicate with their teams.
We look at planning, whether that be next day, next week or next year. We examine work allocation to understand how your skills base stacks up against your workflows. And we look at monitoring and control, reporting, and audit of the activity. Once we have a clear picture of your operations, we can then begin to embed active performance management routines, and we’ll help managers to develop behaviours that optimise their effectiveness.
When you engage us you’re drawing on the experience of seasoned operations professionals who have walked the walk for many years. So they recognise and understand the challenges you face, and they know that proposed solutions need to be practical and achievable.
We educate your managers on how the practice and principles all sit together. We combine education with physical desk time with your managers. We support them, we work with, walk with them around their teams, helping them to ask the right questions and unearth the right information. This education process embeds a routine and a set of behaviours that empowers managers with the ability to get on and do the right things, and to get the best out of their teams. We can turn passive, reactive mangers into proactive managers who understand how to interact intelligently with their teams to deliver great results.