Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance
Proper Planning Prevents
Poor Performance
Failing
to plan is planning to fail
Time spent in
reconnaissance is never wasted
No battle plan ever survives
first contact with the enemy
What can go wrong will go
wrong
Murphy
was an optimist
All the above are
proverbs or sayings revolving around the delicate art of planning, whether it
be an event, a sales campaign, a shareholder meeting, a new product launch or
an employee satisfaction survey.
I use the word “art”
when talking about planning, as it is as much of this as a science. Many people have written about the steps
needed for effective planning, and two of the quotes above are from them. In the end, it boils down to a number of
factors such as specialisation, technical knowledge, type of exercise and, most
of all, experience.
As a guide though, you
will need to consider:
·
What your target or
end is (i.e. a university Open Day, a shareholder meeting, a new product
launch, a charity fund raising-event, next year’s business or even a child’s
birthday party). The ultimate goal is
different for each activity or event.
What do you see the event looking like?
·
What resources you will
need (human, physical and financial).
You may need people to help or supervise, equipment such as vehicles (or
even public transport) and every project needs a budget of some sort.
·
For people, what
skills will you need? Are they readily
available?
·
How much freedom to act can you give them? The more control, the more you will need to
make decisions yourself and the more bottlenecks could occur.
·
Will you need a
particular venue or premises (and is it/are they available)? Is there sufficient parking for cars? What are rail/bus links like?
·
What legal or local
regulatory obligations may affect the plan?
How will you overcome them?
·
What could go
wrong? Too many plans assume that things
will go well. However, the unforeseen
can and does happen regularly. How will
you cope? Will you need insurance? What scenarios could derail things, and how will you respond?
·
How much will it
cost? Where will the funding come
from?
·
How much time will you
need to put everything together? This is
usually the main issue as you will often find that you have less time that you
would ideally wish for. You will need to
prioritise what gets done first, what are the “need to have’s” versus the “nice
to have’s”.
The only way to
develop your skills is practice. This may mean making mistakes, but you will
learn from them and soon become a much-valued member of your team or group.
I usually use a “grid”
to help me plan. This isn’t perfect (and
often gets altered depending what I’m doing), but it helps focus me.
|
Project
Name
|
Name of the project or event
|
|
Objective
|
What will “success” look like?
|
|
Resources
|
Who/what will I need to succeed? Who/what do I have?
|
|
Deliverables
|
What will need to be done to ensure success?
|
|
Deadline
|
How long do I have/how long will I need?
|
|
Legal/regulatory
|
What laws/rules/customs, etc will I need to observe?
|
|
Environmental
|
What environmental considerations (if any) will there be?
|
|
Training
|
Will I/my team need any training before we start/as we
progress?
|
|
Stakeholders
|
Who could have an interest in this, e.g. staff, customers,
unions, legal authorities, shareholders, local community?
|
|
Rules/Guidelines
|
How strict or general should we be to allow people to work
independently?
|
|
Communication
|
Who needs to be kept informed? How often?
What information will I need and when?
How will we communicate?
|
|
Risks
|
What might go wrong?
How will I put it right?
|
|
Early
Warnings
|
How can I anticipate things going wrong (if at all)?
|
|
Resources
|
Who/what will I need to succeed? Who/what do I have?
|
|
Cost
|
How much will it all cost assuming I get the time and
resources I need?
|
|
Completion
|
How will I know that I’ve really finished the task?
|
|
Recognition/Rewards
|
How will I recognise success and how often?
|
One thing you’ll
notice is that there’s a considerable amount of thought required before you get to allocating resources
and budget. That’s how it should be.
Once you’ve submitted
the plan (and it’s been approved!) remember that you need to track things to make sure everything’s
on time/on budget. Nowadays, you need to
have enough flexibility built in to be able to react to changing
circumstances. There’s no use following
a plan that clearly no longer suits new conditions – that’s the road to
disaster.
I have spent more than half my
life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to
“emerging” economies. With more than 20 years in the world financial services
industry running different service, operations and lending businesses, I
started my own Performance Management Consultancy to offer solutions for
improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses,
charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international
speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email . My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of
services. For strategic questions that
you should be asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.
Labels: Career, Financial, Productivity, Risk, Strategy
Why SMEs Need To Upskill On Finance
I spend a great deal of time working with SMEs and notice that what many have in common is a lack of appreciation of how important it is to have a basic understanding of the way your business’ finance works and how accountants and investors/lenders look at things.
Finance these days isn’t something you bother with when you need a loan. You need to work at your business’ financials from Day 1. It needn’t take much time, but you need to be able to answer several questions when confronting lenders or investors:
• How strong is the business financially?
• How profitable is the business?
• What mainly drives revenues?
• Is the business liquid?
• How much debt does it have?
• How much can it earn in the next 12 months?
Regulation and oversight have evolved over the years, meaning that lenders and investors have to jump through more hoops to get money out of the door (even if they want to). A business that can’t provide a coherent financial picture is going to find getting support.
Another reason to have a good understanding of the financial strength and drivers of your business to be able to evaluate offers.
In addition to knowing your own financial position, you’ll need to understand how to evaluate offers. A lot boils down to going through the details and asking “awkward questions”. For example:
• Do you know how to reduce the dazzling array of interest rates that may be quoted to effective interest rates?
• If you were to actually calculate the charges laid out and add them up, what effect would that have on your finance costs?
• What security is being asked for and how will it impact your ability to trade?
• What “wriggle room” do you have in terms of charges and interest rates? Is the interest rate charged the highest you can afford (leaving little room for manoeuvre in case of a problem), or does it allow you “room to breathe”?
• What happens if the business experiences a run of bad luck?
Once you’ve answered these questions and others you’re then in a position to understand whether the offer is acceptable or not. Don’t just take it for granted that the lender won’t negotiate. They may or they may not. You won’t know until you’ve tried and you may still be able to negotiate better terms in some form or another. With your understanding of your company’s financial performance and bases as well as what will be happening over the foreseeable future, you have authority. You may be able to make concession son pricing, security or even amount lent to get yourself to the best position.
I have spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With more than 20 years in the world financial services industry running different service, operations and lending businesses, I started my own Performance Management Consultancy to offer solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email . My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services. For strategic questions that you should be asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610
.
Labels: Crisis Management, Financial, Risk, Strategy
The Cost of Bad Bosses
I see
a lot of articles on leadership and giving feedback. I see far fewer on the cost to an
organisation of a “bad boss”. This is my
own “ten cents worth”.
Although most organisations are fairly
effective at rooting out poor performing employees, they show less ability when
it comes to spotting bad bosses. This
often takes much longer, and costs the organisation more. Three quarters of
employees report that they work for a “bad” boss, but how do they define “bad”? You need to distinguish between ineffective
leaders and “bad people”.
Bad bosses may not be obvious for a number
of reasons:
·
They’ve been promoted to their
current position, so the feeling is that “they must be good” (logical);
·
They’re often adept at “office
politics” – presenting a very different face to their bosses compared to their
direct reports (I’ve seen this myself);
·
They may be good at disguising
or hiding their tracks;
·
Even if senior management know
they’re “bad”, they don’t want to admit their mistake in promoting them;
·
Subordinates may not say
anything for fear of reprisals (very true).
The costs or signs of a bad boss show up in
a number of different ways, for example in a:
·
Higher degree of absenteeism (e.g.
sick leave) in the team/department compared with others;
·
Higher degree of errors than
might be expected in the department;
·
Higher level of departures or
transfers compared to other departments;
·
High level of staff replacement
costs.
Whatever the sign (or signs are), you have
a problem and need to fix it before productivity becomes seriously ruined, your
product or service is affected and your organisation’s reputation lost forever.
A bad person or leader can bring down a business very quickly, as countless
examples in history show.
Once you’ve spotted these signs, what do
you do? I recommend several approaches:
·
Look for evidence to confirm
your suspicions – is it really a case of one individual or a team setting out
to make an effective (but unpopular) boss “look bad” for their own reasons?
·
Observe and talk to team
members and to peers of the boss concerned.
How people react around the individual or when talking about them?
·
Ask yourself if it’s a
leadership or personal issue. If
leadership, it can be changed. Personal
ones may be more difficult (but not insurmountable). For example, has something recently happened
in the individual’s personal life (e.g. loss of a loved one, divorce) that has
changed their behaviour?
·
If there’s a real problem,
speak to the individual concerned (not as easy as it sounds). Depersonalise any criticisms, but make it
clear that behaviour has to change.
·
Use facts or examples, don’t generalise.
Point to specific instances of behaviour and their impact on others. This may mean you have to keep a closer eye
on the person concerned.
Some ask whether a good boss can “turn
bad”. As I mentioned above, if something
bad has happened in their personal life or professional life (e.g. being passed
over for promotion), they may react in a way that damages relations with their
team without even realising it.
Make sure that you realise that a “bad
boss” isn’t necessarily a “bad person”; they may just be an ineffective leader. Can this be changed with the right coaching?
I have spent more than half my
life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to
“emerging” economies. With more than 20 years in the world financial services
industry running different service, operations and lending businesses, I
started my own Performance Management Consultancy to offer solutions for
improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses,
charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An
international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email . My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of
services. For strategic questions that
you should be asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.
Labels: Career, Customer Care, Financial, Strategy, Teamwork
