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9 Steps to Improve Performance

Guest post by: Douglas Long

Article Overview: Sooner or later almost every leader faces the issue of a declining organisation. Things that once worked seem to be less effective and, invariably, the task of achieving desired performance becomes increasingly more difficult. Failure to satisfactorily address this issue leads to declining revenues and/or increased costs and/or reduced profits. Unless corrected this problem of a declining organisation can prove very career limiting for those involved.

9 Steps to Improve Performance

The traditional way of dealing with an organisation in decline is quite simple – push for increased productivity; reduce staff levels; move operations off-shore; outsource to contractors; introduce more technology to replace people; lower prices to increase sales volumes; increase sales quotas; change the remuneration system so that there is more “at risk”; and the like. We use these because the evidence shows that, at least for a period, in most cases they work.

But what happens when, no matter all that you do, the situation doesn’t improve or, even more problematically, gets worse? All too often it seems as though the process is repeated again and again despite the fact that its not working. It seems like lots of people haven’t learned that “insanity is doing the same thing but expecting different results”.

There is, however, a different way of addressing the issue. But this different way necessitates a rethink as to who needs to be involved in turning the situation around - it requires that the energies of everyone are harnessed in order to resolve the situation. The steps are simple:

1. Make a list of all the things that impact on your organisation's ability to operate profitably.

2. Sort the list into two groups - those things within your organisation and those things external to your organisation

3. Sort the "internal" list into the following categories: knowledge, strategy, non-human resources, structure, human process

4. Very honestly and as impartially as possible, assess each item in each category of this list as to whether it actively enhances profitability, impedes profitability (usually by causing a problem or blockage that affects some other item from functioning effectively), or operates in such a way as to prevent profitability

5. Determine how to rid your organisation of those things that prevent profitability and clear the impediments

6. Determine how those items enhancing profitability can be further supported

7. Sort the "external" list into the following categories: those you can influence, those you cannot influence

8. Develop a very clear plan for positively influencing each item you can influence and develop an approach for coping with those items you cannot influence

9. Empower everyone to make the new plan work.

Let’s consider a real situation from Australia in order to understand how this can work[1].

Some years ago the Australian subsidiary of a multinational company went into an earnings fall. They employed several hundred people and the workforce was totally unionised. Traditional approaches were used to no avail and the CEO was given an ultimatum: “Turn the situation around quickly or you will be sacked and the Australian operation will be closed down.”

Someone once said that nothing focuses the mind more quickly than the threat of imminent death! The CEO got the message. He had nothing to lose so he decided to go for broke – try something totally different and see what happens.

The CEO started by acknowledging that what he was trying wasn’t working and that something different had to be done. He brought together the entire management team to share the problem and enlist their help in finding a solution. As a team they realised that they would also need commitment from everyone else – including the trade unions. They then called a mass meeting, to which trade union officials were also invited, and presented the full picture – including financials – to everyone. Suggestions were called for and the guarantee was given that every suggestion would be considered by a team that comprised equal numbers of both management and non-management people with everyone having an equal vote. It took a while for total trust to develop but, as both management and non-management focused on a common goal – returning the company to profitability and saving jobs – a totally new relationship emerged and the energies of every person were harnessed towards achieving desired results. The end result was positive and, in fact, lead to the complete turnaround required.

In this case it took the fear of closure for a new approach to be tried. But it doesn’t have to be that way. In the years since I have seen these steps prove effective across a wide variety of organisations in every business sector in both Australia and overseas.

We all operate today in an environment of increasing competition, rapid availability of “knowledge” (whether or not accurate), an increasingly sophisticated workforce, more demanding customers, and huge amounts of pressure for better productivity. There is ample evidence to support the belief that traditional ways of dealing with this aren’t working and, in fact, are simply bringing about a situation in which everyone is concerned primarily for themselves rather than for the organisation that employs them.

The steps set out above give you an approach that will enable you to deal with the issue of a declining organisation in a new way – one that engages everyone with finding a solution and achieving results.

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Article Tags: change facilitation, company turn around, engagement, improving performance, leadership, productivity improvement



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