Welcome to the sixth application lab in the [Re]Create Application Lab Collection.
Introduction
All improvement takes place project by project… and in no other way.” —Joseph Juran
Unfortunately, many strategy deployment efforts do not achieve the desired change and performance improvement. Why is strategy deployment so hard? One reason might be that it is just more fun to develop plans at a leadership retreat than it is to do the hard work of implementing the plans and running an organization.
To address this issue, one successful leader of transformation made the allocation of time between strategy development and deployment explicit: “So we are going to spend 20% of the time on strategy and 80% of the time on deployment, and if we say we are going to do something we are going to do it. We are going to do it [at] world-class speed, and we are going to get it done, and we are going to get the results.”
Another reason for the difficulty is people involved are from various organizational “silos.” Each with their perspective, agenda, and motives. A structured approach to planning and leading change initiatives, along with the discipline to follow through with project details, can help address some of these issues.
Read Chapter 6, [Re]Design Systems, in the [Re]Create Book.
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Application
Objective – Understand organizational systems’ concepts, components, and relationships and how they contribute to leadership and organization [re]design for sustainable excellence.
Do you understand your organization as a system of systems? In this lesson, you will identify the key systems in each of the seven enterprise systems categories. Second, you will identify and diagram the relationships between the various systems and processes. Finally, for one work center or department, identify the people processes, requirements, and measures for a particular system.
Enterprise System Video 0:51
Objective – Identify the key systems and processes in each of the seven Enterprise Systems areas.
1. Customer Systems
Start with the customer systems and identify the systems that directly serve and support the customers, such as customer knowledge and customer service. Make this specific to your systems and use the language used in your organization to describe the systems.
2a. Product/Service Systems
Identify the systems that your organization uses to design and develop its products and services. These might include systematic methods like product research, the product design process, and the product development process.
2b. Production Systems
Identify the systematic methods the organization uses to create the products and services including the production, delivery, and support processes. Production methods include making products and services as well as the delivery and servicing of the products and services.
3. Supplier/Partner Systems
Identify the systems that provide the inputs to the production system. Supplier and partner systems include selection, measurement, management, and improvement of performance.
4. Workforce Systems
Identify the systematic methods used to attract, select, develop, engage, and support the workforce. These could include systematic methods for attracting the best talent; training and development programs to ensure they have the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed; and systems to engage and support them with an overall workforce environment culture and the benefits that go along with that. How do you help them do their job?
5. Knowledge and Information Systems
Identify the knowledge management and information systems that support all other systems, including the measurement and analysis systems and the knowledge management and information systems.
6. Leadership and Strategy Systems
Identify the leadership, strategy development, and strategy deployment systems. At the top of the organization, the leadership and strategy systems are combined into a single system. However, some organizations have a separate leadership system that they deploy throughout the organization and at all levels, along with an independent strategy development and deployment system.
7. Governance Systems
Identify the systems that address the sustainability of the organization including financial, natural environment, and social responsibility. Example governance systems include legal, ethics, regulatory, and sustainability systems, as well as traditional governance systems that guide the activities of the Board of Directors.Identify the key systems and processes in each of the seven Enterprise Systems areas.
Enterprise System Connections Video 5:14
Objective – Identify and diagram the relationships between the various systems and processes.
Once you have completed your framework, you are ready to develop an even more detailed understanding of the connections between the systems. Begin with customer knowledge, which is used to develop the strategy in collaboration with the leadership system. Identify your systems that address these areas and make the connections specific to your organization. Then connect strategy development to strategy deployment and then to product design and development. Then make the connections between the product development and design and what you know about customers and your customer knowledge system. Product development informs the production planning and management and ultimately supplier selection and management. Next, connect how you attract, develop, engage, and support the best talent to produce the products and services. Finally, how does your measurement and analysis system support decisions throughout the organization?
System Components Video 8:17
Objective – Identify the people, processes, requirements, and measures for one of your organization’s work centers or departments.
Once you understand the “big picture,” you are ready to go deeper down to the individual systems and processes. Start with one department or work center and answer the 15 questions for the primary system.
Customers
1. Description – Start in the upper right-hand corner with number one and identify the customers and the types and segments of the system or process. These may be external customers, but they might be internal customers or the next operation that receives what your area produces. For example, customers need overnight delivery of small packages.
2. Requirements – Identify the requirements for each type of customer or segment. For example, reliable overnight delivery packages might include several key requirements such as on-time delivery, competitive price, no damage, etc.
3. Measures – Identify the measures of customer satisfaction and success. For example, customer satisfaction surveys, repeat business, and referrals.
Outputs
4. Description – Identify the products and services for the customers by type or segment. Working from right to left, identify the products and services you provide the customers by type and segment – for example, pickup, overnight transport, and delivery of small packages.
5. Requirements – Translate customer requirements into product features and functions – for example, on time, no damage, and easy access tracking info. These could be essential product and service features that would lead to reliable overnight delivery.
6. Measures – Identify the product measures that predict satisfaction and success. Examples might include (a) the percent on time, (b) the percent of same-day deliveries, (c) the percent of lost or damaged packages, and (d) the percent loss the percent of web uptime. Things that would measure on time, no damage, easy access to track, and allow you to manage those and do that well. These metrics will enable you to manage processes to produce the desired product or service that will result in customer satisfaction, repeat business, and referrals.
Processes and Activities
7. Description – Identify the process and activities required to produce the products – for example, pickup, login, sort, load plane, fly, sort, load truck, deliver. When designed and managed well, these processes produce the products and services that meet the requirements.
8. Requirements – Identify process requirements needed to meet the product requirements – for example, timely completion of activities, accurate tracking information, and no damage during the process. Each operation is a customer of the previous operation, creating a “chain” of activities.
9. Measures – Identify process measures that predict the product measures – for example, percent on time for each activity in the process, percent of damaged packages for each activity, and percent of packages lost for each activity. The task here is to identify the metrics that you can use to manage the activities to produce the desired end product or service.
Inputs
10. Description – Identify inputs required for the processes – for example, fuel (jet + truck), airplanes and maintenance, and customer service. These example inputs are external to this process but might be internal to the organization. In other words, they might be provided by another department within the organization.
11. Requirements – Identify the input required to meet the process requirements – for example, fuel that meets specifications, on-time delivery of fuel, sufficient quantities of fuel, and clean fuel.
12. Measures – Identify the input measures that predict the performance as measured by the process measures. In other words, how will you measure how well the inputs meet the requirements identified in the previous step (#11)? Examples might include the percent of the fuel that meets quality specifications, the percent of on-time fuel deliveries, the percent of deliveries that are the correct quantity, and the percent of the fuel that meets the contaminants specifications.
Suppliers
13. Description – Identify the suppliers of the inputs to the processes (internal and external) – for example, fuel suppliers, aircraft manufacturers, aircraft maintenance, and package drop-off points.
14. Requirements – Identify the supplier requirements needed to produce the inputs. These are organization requirements that go beyond the measurement of the product or service provided. Examples might include certified aviation fuel suppliers, safety track record, number of years in business, and so on.
15. Measures – Identify the supplier measures that predict the input measures – for example, number and type of certifications, number and severity of accidents, and so on.
Worksheets
- Complete – Complete the worksheets by yourself or with your group.
- Review – Present and explain your worksheets to your colleagues and boss and get their feedback.
- Revise – Incorporate their feedback into your worksheets.
Conclusion
The [re]design of organizational systems may be the most significant and most challenging task the organization designer faces as they lead the journey to sustainable excellence. [Re]Design requires thinking that is critical, creative, and multi-disciplinary. And it requires collaboration across many functions and levels in the organization. As design projects unfold and prototypes are tested, the scorecard provides the measures to help the design team understand the effectiveness of the design changes.