Where is your focus?

?We are living in a world that is characterized by volatility, uncertainty, chaos and ambiquity. These conditions call for a new organizational focus. One grounded in flexibility, proactive responses and new ways of doing things. But are we doing these things?

The Scenario

Your primary client of your services or products calls and rants and raves that they are facing major issues with your products and /or your services. How do you respond?

There only a set number of ways for you to respond to this daily potential of issues for your organization.

Response 1: Ignore it

You know your products and services and there can’t possibly be anything wrong. The customer must be doing something wrong. Give it time and it will correct itself. If that is your focus I refer you to the three rules of business:

Rule 1: Murphy told is that if something is going to go wrong it will

Rule 2: Schultz told us that Murphy was too damn optimistic

Rule 3: Unknown tells us you are both wrong, if something is going to go wrong it already has

Response 2: It is not my job

Okay the customer has a problem. You decide to play the blame game. If something is wrong, it must be marketing’s fault because they overpromised something. It is Finance’s problem because they used faulty numbers on the invoice. It is R&D’s fault because they failed to notice the defect. The list goes on and on.

Response 3: What is really going on?

This should be your first response. Your focus needs to migrate away from the function aspects of the problem and find out what is really going on. Considering that time is of the essence you need to find the root causes immediately.

We do this by changing the focus of our responses to these scenarios. We change from a functional point of view where we place the blame on another part of the organization or the value chain to one if there is something wrong then we need to follow the process.

Focus Change Strategies

Strategy #1: Walk the walk

Walk the entire value chain from your suppliers to your customers to track the process of the products/service delivery. Find where the system constraints are located in order to identify where the problem is originating

Strategy #2: Develop your team

Develop a cross-functional team to determine the who, what, and where and when the problem exists. Using the techniques of open dialogue, review the process to see not only what went wrong but what you can do to ensure that the problem does not return. When we refer to cross-functional team we mean just that. Be sure that anyone who has an interest in the resolution of the problem is involved. Both internally and externally.

Strategy #3: Enter with an open mind

Remember your role has changed. Everyone on the team is a human capital management scientist regardless of what their role is. We are in a constant state of experimentation and inquiry. The mindset on a daily basis needs to be one of how can I make this process better than yesterday? Be open to a wide variation of solutions. Do not jump to conclusions thinking that is the way we did it before. This is a new situation; the old way probably won’t work this time.

Strategy #4: Create a new corporate culture

Make it a priority to make the change focus a permanent part of your organizational model. Don’t think oh well we solved this problem so now we can go back to the old way of doing things, you can’t. Our business world will not permit the return. Get rid of the excuses to the new culture (It’s not my job; that is not how we do things around here?)

W. Edward Deming told us that if you can’t explain something as a process, you don’t know what you are doing. This means that the functional view is plain wrong. HR is conducting the talent acquisition does not drive the total organization. Finance and their number crunching does not drive the organization. R&D in building new products and services does not drive the organization. Each one is part of the bigger process flow through the organization. Process is the kingpin to a successful organization. Starting today, make the process view the focus of your organization. Everything begins with a process that drives the organization. Work on process improvement and all the other problems should find their resolution in this new focus. It will enable you to move to a state of being proactive rather than fighting the organizational fires as many of you do now.

Looking for the perfect model for improving your organizational processes? Order your copy of the TLS Continuum Field Guide - How the Theory of Constraints, Lean and Six Sigma will transform your operations and Program flow to be released in February of 2024

About the author:?Daniel Bloom?knows HR and Change Management. He’s a speaker on transformational HR, a strategic HR consultant and trainer. Thank you for subscribing to this newsletter. The best strategy that I ever undertook was earning my SPHR and the Six Sigma Black Belt. You can take the same path with our Road to Organizational Excellence Seminar. For more information visit https://netorg5223078-my.sharepoint.com/:w:/g/personal/dan_dbaiconsulting_com/ETY_Nur5SptJmboTeh04ijUBb39pq5bXzhFAIOJmSOK6Dg?e=EVVhmg or email us at [email protected]

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