Bringing Quality to Life

When Dave Brubeck wrote Take Five, Columbia Records were not impressed and initially blocked its release. The song went on to become the first million-selling 'jazz' record and stayed in the charts for 15 weeks, possibly the only hit in a 5/4 time signature. The prime number 5 has a long history of significance; described by Pythagoras as "the number of man" due to the human being having five main senses, five main organs and five digits on each arm and limb.

But the significance of five doesn't stop there. There are the Five Classical Elements, the Five Basic Directions of Orientation, the Five Life Stages, the Five Oceans, the Five Virtues, the Five Stages of Spiritual Growth, the Five Buddhist Precepts and Stages of Meditation and the Five vows of Jainism - even The Ten Commandments were said to be presented to Moses in two stones of five. The Bahai scriptures talk of the Five Prophets, there are the Five Books of the Old Testament and there are of five lines in the musical stave.

• So in keeping with tradition the number 5 can be used to cover the following aspects of a business:

The 5 components (of a business management system)
The 5 conversations (of a business manager)
The 5 characteristics (of a business)

• Let's look at these groups in turn.

The 5 key components of an integrated business management system:
QMS quality management system
FMS financial management system
CSR corporate social responsibility (profile)
ISMS information security management system
PMS performance management system

Building a QMS using the traditional principles of quality management ensures that the system is centred round the market it operates in and facilitates a culture of continual improvement. Once this is embedded, an organisation can apply for an ISO 9001 quality certificate should they want to.

Building an ISMS using the key principles of information security ensures that the system is designed to protect the organisation's "CIA" - the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information - and doing that engenders 'a culture of privacy'. Once this is embedded, an organisation can apply for an ISO 27001 certificate to add further steel to its tender process.

A robust FMS is imperative of course, but one that not only covers the fundamentals such as payroll and invoicing but that also facilitates accurate reporting, analysis and forecasting. Finance managers with a broader business understanding - i.e. quality and operations management - tend to have more of an impact in the organisation.

A PMS underpins the other components by incorporating a competency framework, productive appraisals, 360 degree feedback and 'a coaching style of leadership' amongst department heads. Social Responsibility doesn't need to be created or established for it already exists in the hearts of every member of staff looking for meaning in their jobs and for a way to make a positive contribution. This just needs to be realised and encouraged.

CSR (ISO 26000) covers ethical business practices, contributions to community projects, the reduction of environmental impacts (ISO 14001), the management of health and safety (BS OHSAS 18001), and other causes that organisation wants to sponsor or get involved in. The aim is to get each component to harmonise and become fully integrated for maximum efficiency and so that there can be mutual learning from each component.

The 5 characteristics of a business:
If you go to a football match there is always a supporter who, in spite of watching the game for 60 minutes will lose track and ask "what's the score?". Similarly, you can run a company for a few years and easily lose track of where you are and where it is you are trying to go. Many companies conduct a self-assessment or audit to 'put a stake in the ground' and gauge where they are in terms of both business and quality management. The SCORE self-assessment tool is divided into the following categories:

Service - this category looks at the overall level of service perceived by the customer through the various access channels - i.e. the business website, the company switchboard, the complaints department and the various social media platforms. These interfaces can often provide the customer with an instant perception of how an organisation conducts its business, even if it does not represent the full picture.

Communication - this is specifically about the quality of conversations across the organisation - i.e. the way internal meetings are conducted, the way messages are communicated to staff, building relationships with suppliers, understanding the customer to effectively determine their needs and keeping in touch with all relevant parties during the relevant life stages of a project or sale.

Output - this is the end product (or 'specific service') provided to the client this is what ultimately determines whether the customer's needs have been met - it could be a car, a bottle of wine, a book, a data report, property, technical repairs, a maintenance contract etc. Two critical procedures must be in place: verification (checking that the output meets the input - i.e. the initial request or specifications) and validation (checking that the output is fit for purpose - i.e. does what the customers wants it to do.

Recruitment & Retention - this is about accurately identifying the type of staff required and the competencies they should have; an effective screening process that gets the right people in the right positions is essential and then following up with an on-going learning and development programme that keeps motivation levels up can be a deal-breaker in terms of sustained performance. As inappropriate leadership can chip away at the loyalty of talented people, department heads need the right kind of training before their direct reports become examples of bad management stories they tell later in their career.

Environment - this is about the infrastructure of the organisation - i.e. the performance of tools & equipment, IT systems, software etc.; it is also about the daily working environment - i.e. safe and tidy work areas, appropriate temperature levels and orderly filing systems. Humans not happy in their environment rarely work to their potential.

The 5 conversations of a business manager:

• Customer (determining their needs and making sure their needs are met)
• Learning (coaching, training and mentoring staff)
• Auditing ('improvement conversations' that check on quality levels)
• Strategic (short and long term planning)
• Supplier (evaluating, selecting and monitoring)

When we talk about ISO and 'systems' we run the risk of alienating people and turning business and quality management into a world full of rules and documentation. But ISO has changed a lot since the last quarter of the twentieth century, is now lighter in documentation and has a new focus on effective communication. Management for me is a series of effective conversations and the more productive that each conversation is the more productive the organisation will be. These conversations form into the above groups.

Conversations with customers begin with an accurate determination of their needs and their expectations and then to ensure that they are kept informed throughout the process so that their initial needs and expectations are ultimately met and hopefully exceeded.

Conversations with suppliers should start with the intention of generating something that is 'mutually beneficial' (one of the core quality management principles). From the customer's point of view this should incorporate evaluation, selection and monitoring to ensure that the supplier delivers something that supports the requirements of the end client.

For the business to become 'a learning organisation' it needs to hold meaningful and Learning conversations with staff by choosing the appropriate intervention; training (the passing of specific skills), mentoring (guidance from an experienced colleague) or coaching (facilitation with a view to greater levels of empowerment and accountability).

The organisation can also learn through its internal (and external) auditing programmes and should view these audits as Improvement conversations. Auditors can become the organisation's best friends by not only uncovering serious issues but by helping to determine the root causes of problems so that their recurrence can be prevented.

Strategic conversations are the conversations that define an organisation. If meetings amongst top management are allowed to become perfunctory and superficial reviews of meaningless data, opportunities to have creative and enterprising discussions can be lost. Sometimes quality needs to be 'sold' again to employees.

In order to fully understand customer satisfaction, management can hold meaningful conversations about quality and ask employees what quality means to them; what brands they admire and how they want to feel as customers so that they can be inspired to deliver that same service back to the customers they serve.

This is how organisations can enhance quality through the energy of conversation and through fostering a culture of social responsibility can bring quality to life in more ways than one.

For more information visit http://www.TheEnergyofConversation.co.uk

Project Management Application - Technology That Can Benefit Your Business

For any company to operate efficiently and complete projects in a timely manner, it is necessary to have a project management application to organize projects and help increase productivity. Since the introduction of desktop computing for businesses, companies have been improving their workflow by using organizers that track processes involved in the completion of a project. Nowadays, these applications have become more popular and are simplified to help a company operate more productively. These applications are usually easily accessible through browser windows, online programs, and cloud based computing systems.

If you're looking for a way to improve overall communication and functionality of your business, you can do so by integrating specialized software into your company. There are a variety of applications for managing a project and it is important that you get the right project application that will provide all the benefits your company needs. In fact, the latest applications designed for project management provide greater functionality than ever before. These applications provide the ability to use things like RSS feeds, sharing and swapping of information.

Examples of these applications include Microsoft Project, Basecamp At-Task Projecturf, and ClientSpot and they are extremely beneficial in helping in the management process. Project plans which outline project tasks, task due dates, who is assigned each task and completed dates are reported in the Gannt charts and outlines formats. These applications assist the manager in ensuring that the project is moving toward completion, delegate task responsibilities and reporting project status when necessary. Before you decide you application to get, you'll need to first the nature and size of the project you are managing. Then select application that meets the requirements of that project. There is an application for each type and level of project management

You may want to consider a project management application that can be easily customized to your company's specifications. Also, you will want to include various types of information to the application's database so that employees can reach them via the search functions, and through the creation Gantt charts and graphs. It's also essential to have a good project management application that will continually backup and archive sensitive data. With the fast pace at which technology is moving, we can expect better and more efficient applications will be developed for project management. To find out more about what you can do with these types of applications, and the many ways your company can benefit by using them, it is a good idea to contact a vendor that deals with these types of software.

Learn more about your project management application from Phil. Phil is an expert in web based project management.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Phil_E_Williams

How to Engage Employees in Any Economy

Prior to my life as a Leadership Keynote Speaker and Executive Coach, I was a corporate executive for a long time. During that tenure, one of the most interesting comments I heard about my leadership results was:

"I don't know what you're doing over there but your teams sure are happy. They work longer hours than anyone else and they are always having fun."

This was even more interesting a comment because I heard it during the depths of the recession when hiring and salaries were frozen, our staff numbers were thinned through attrition, and all the "extras" were a distant memory. Now, I knew that this observation was a bit of an exaggeration because my teams obviously weren't always happy. No one in corporate America is, especially during tough times.

I understood why this senior executive held this perception, though. He sat nearby my team for a year or so and, during that time, he saw spontaneous dance contests, singing in the halls, boisterous and frequent conversations over the cubicle walls, and lots of group screaming in front a hallway television screen during Monday Night Football (we never got out in time for people to watch at home! Heck, it was advertising).

Why this comment was most interesting, though, was because I never set out to have a "happy" team. Now, don't get me wrong, I was thrilled that they were happy, that they got along, that they occasionally danced in the halls. But that wasn't the goal.

My priority was their welfare, their growth, and their security and, in turn, the welfare, growth, and security of my company.

Sometimes that meant they didn't like me very much. Sometimes it meant that they weren't so happy that day... or week. If I knew that their thinking I was Attila the Hun occasionally was getting them through a challenge, then I was o.k. with that.

Ultimately, they climbed over that challenge, then another, then another. They knew they had earned the "stuff" to make them successful. They knew that they were valuable. That's why they were happy. That's why they sang in the halls.

As a leader, you need to care deeply about your people's welfare, their growth, and their security. They sense it. They know when you think they are valuable. They also sense it when you don't.

In this case, the chicken and the egg argument is obvious.

You can't create a happy team by throwing parties or having group lunches.

The appearance of happiness in the halls, and often times of that ever elusive engagement, comes from an employee who knows that their organization and their leader cares about their welfare, is interested in growing their careers and not just in getting the job done, and is empowering and equipping them to create their own security no matter what challenge is thrown at them.

For more information on employee engagement, please feel free to contact me at http://www.thecoryellgroup.com

The Top Components of Strategic Planning

If you already know what is strategic planning, then the next thing you'd have to be familiar with before learning the process of strategic planning is its key components.

Number one on the list is vision. This summarizes what the organization desires to be, or how it wants the world in which it operates to be. It is a long-term view and focuses on the future. It should be one that should inspire and motivate the members of the organization.

Second is the mission statement. The mission statement is an predominant, endless statement of your purpose and goal. It also tells what your organization wants to accomplish and in what ways you plan to accomplish them. It's a pronouncement of the reason for your company's existence.

Next values are then specified. Values are the organization's basic beliefs about the way you would run the company or organization. It provides an idea to the management and staff on what behaviours is acceptable and what are not. Most of the time values is connected with the culture of the organization.

What follows is the setting of the goals, objectives and tasks. Goals are defined as a list of wide-range strategies and tactics that have to be done so that the company can reach its mission. Objectives on the other hand, are SMART (specific, measurable, action oriented, realistic and time bound) strategies or activities that are need to reach the company's goals and vision. Then, tasks are precise activities and actions members, employees have to carry out day by day. They, too, should be specific, measurable and time bound.

Then, there's the strategy. It is a blend of the results the company or organization want to achieve and the ways by which it is seeking to get there. Another name for strategy is roadmap because it tells the company what path to take so that the goal or vision can be achieved.

It is at this point that strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats are pointed out. These four are simply represented by four letters - SWOT.

Also, there are the action items or plans. These are definite statements that point out the ways in which a goal will be accomplished. An example of which is stating that the company would have to use quality management software to evaluate quality of products or performance.

Second to the last is the scorecard. It is used to easily record the information of the key performance indicators and is also used to measure performance against the monthly targets.

Last but not the least is the financial assessment. Data gathered here are dependent on historical record and future predictions. This is used to plan and forecast the future, assisting you to have much better control over your organization's financial performance.

Strategic planning is important for any company that is poising itself for growth. As companies in various industries are working to provide their consumers with better, more targeted products and services, knowing how to work on quality management software which has become a rising imperative even for small businesses.

Map What Matters To People With Power

If you're going to deliver for someone, make it your priority to deliver up. That gives you breathing room to deliver for everyone else.

Figure out who holds power

You know where to start: your boss, plus your boss's boss and/or board of directors.

To determine the rest of your list, ask:

• Who above you in the organization will freak if you fail to deliver on commitments? This probably includes some of your boss' peers.

• Who, if they slacked off for a month, could destroy your ability to deliver? This includes most, perhaps all, of your directs.

• Who else must continue to cooperate for you to meet your significant commitments? Consider key customers, firms running important and hard-to-replace outsourced operations, and suppliers of critical components.

I call these people "powerholders"-the subset of your stakeholders who can make a real difference in your ability to deliver and reap rewards.

Map what you want from each other

Create a "Power Map." Make a spreadsheet, with a row for each powerholder or group of similar powerholders. Add these columns to your spreadsheet and drop in some bullet points. Or, if you're comfortable with mind-mapping or organization chart software, make an org chart and annotate it with this information:

On what bases are they formally rewarded: Sales? Variance from budget? Share price? How often: Quarterly? Annually? On what sets of data: Accounting data? CRM monthly reports? An industry report?

• What informal rewards are important to them: Industry visibility? Support for their "brand"-running a tight ship, being a great mentor, pulling off the impossible?

• What do they want from you/your role: No surprises? Achieving the quarterly sales target? New products to market faster than their peers' divisions?

• What do you want from them?

Catalog what you can do for (and to) each other

How could they help you get what you want? How could you help them get what they want?

Make sure to consider this question both from the capabilities you have today and from possibilities for the future. For example, your head of R&D wants external visibility as a leader in green materials. Later this year you'll be starting work on next generation, eco-savvy products. You could offer her the opportunity to become the public face of this initiative. In Influence Without Authority, Cohen and Bradford catalog ways you can build your power by helping others get what they want. Make a habit of noting what's important to the people you meet and identifying early and appropriate opportunities to use your resources to be of service.

If you're in a tough environment, you'd be wise also to keep an eye for the rough stuff. What could they do to you (especially below the radar) if they want to turn up the pressure on your group? Refrain from labeling people as "friendly" or "unfriendly" to you and your team; instead identify the current and potential flows of information, money, and support between your group and theirs.

Now, identify other stakeholders and their interests

When you can take a few more minutes, add the other groups of people who are interested in what you do and could help or hinder, but don't meet the power criteria above. Often these include:

• People who were passed over for your job

• Junior players who want to hitch to your star

• Diversity groups across the firm

• Customers (if your own customers are internal)

• Consultants who have worked with your group

• Who else is relevant for you?

Update your map as power shifts

Calendar a meeting with yourself at least quarterly to update your map. Consider the relationships between your powerholders and other stakeholders- who listens to whom. Determine your next actions to delight, satisfy, or minimize damage for your powerholders.

© 2012 Pam Fox Rollin

This excerpt by Pam Fox Rollin, courtesy of Editor Laura Lowell, is Rule 7 from "42 Rules for Your New Leadership Role" Second Edition. Pam Fox Rollin coaches executives to succeed in broader roles and guides senior teams to make the most of new talent. Pam is known as a dynamic speaker and valuable thought-partner to leaders navigating themselves and their organizations through complex change. You can get a free, no obligation excerpt for this book and others at the 42Rules book store.

Make Your Job Doable

Very few people thoughtfully manage the scope of their job. I suggest you do.

Reframe the criteria for success

There's no shortage of ways to view your job. At a minimum, there's what you think you're supposed to be doing, what your boss thinks, what your team thinks, and your by-now-buried job description. Chances are, these four views of your job are all different. Even worse, none of them may be doable.

You want to be evaluated on a short, relevant set of metrics. Refine your criteria to the critical three to five priorities, and then align expectations for what you will deliver.

While you'll find more flexibility in small and mid-sized companies, mid-level leaders in larger companies can sometimes alter formal company metrics. In any case, you can definitely use metrics to drive the off-P&L understanding of your function.

Organize your priorities

Let's start by considering what leaders do:

• Set direction (strategizing, planning)

• Engage and mobilize people (developing, communicating)

• Enable execution (hiring, budgeting, coordinating)

• Other stuff only you do

I offer the first three buckets with thanks to Sharon Richmond, now Director of Cisco's Change Leadership Center of Excellence, and my co-author on leadership research. Sharon developed this simple yet powerful model of what leaders do. The fourth bucket reflects the reality that many leaders have an "individual contributor" component to their job.

For each of these buckets, note the priority responsibilities of this job. Said an executive I interviewed: "You can only really care about three things at a time, maybe five." Note what you think you should be doing (how many hours per month you'd allocate to each, to maximize business results). Finally, leave yourself some time to participate, lead, or initiate cross-functional efforts that drive value to a broader P&L.

Then note other initiatives that take significant time, but either don't fall into these buckets or aren't priorities for you. "When you find an individual opportunity, hand it down with your mentoring," says Pat Arensdorf, CEO of Critical Diagnostics. "You can't do many of those yourself. Turn most over to your team."

Laying out your priorities in an organized way prepares you to have a conversation with your boss, coach, and others who can help you redesign your job and re-set expectations to line up with value for the business.

Deflect early requests to go off-mission

Especially in small companies or recession-decimated larger ones there tend to be too few bodies, which leads to many requests to take on extraneous tasks. While some of these "yanks" are non-negotiable, saying yes will derail you from bigger goals. Again from Pat Arensdorf: "You can be a hero by clearing the plate a bit but beware: you might be successful and this might become expected, and you may never get to what you were hired to do."

Another challenge arises for new leaders from underrepresented populations. "Finally! A Latina on a divisional exec team! Let's get her in the mentoring program." "Finally! Someone in product design with a materials engineering background. Let's pull him onto the green team." Etc. Totally understandable. And, if this is you, you're in for some tough but valuable conversations about when would be the right time for you to add which of these activities.

© 2012 Pam Fox Rollin

This excerpt by Pam Fox Rollin, courtesy of Editor Laura Lowell, is Rule 37 from "42 Rules for Your New Leadership Role" Second Edition. Pam Fox Rollin coaches executives to succeed in broader roles and guides senior teams to make the most of new talent. Pam is known as a dynamic speaker and valuable thought-partner to leaders navigating themselves and their organizations through complex change. You can get a free, no obligation excerpt for this book and others at the 42Rules book store.

Leadership Lessons From The BBC's George Entwistle

It's George Entwistle under the cosh from the House Of Commons Culture Select Commitee. The Director General is asked by Conservative MP Damian Collins, whether he is really just an Editor in Chief or The Director General?

It's a damning comment for it implies that Entwistle does not carry the bearing and presence of a man in full grasp of his leadership brief!

The Committee then goes on to compare the DG's leadership stance with that of News International's James Murdoch, who under inquisition from the culture committee, found constant refuge in the defence of 'Im sorry, I don't know'. Thus leading to the same charge of a 'wilful lack of curiosity' being levelled at both men.

One could also include G4S's CEO Nick Buckles in this category as well. Buckles exhibited a minimal grasp of the details of his companies Olympic recruitment strategy, and was made to look weak under pressure from the Home Affairs Select Committee.

All of which begs the question, as to why these leaders seem to lack one of the most vital of leadership qualities of all, which is curiosity. Did they ever have it? And if so where did it go? Or did they never have it in the first place, in which case what qualifies them to be leaders in this age of change?

Curiosity is vital for a leader. It comes from an open mind and genuine interest in both life and the organizations which they lead. Curiosity allows them to pick up on details, patterns and other behaviours which informs them about the current health of the organization.

And that curiosity for detail helps them instinctively pick up on mis-alignments that could lead the company off-track, or behave in a way that is contrary to the agreed core values.

The leader is the standard bearer of the organisations core values. It is from out of these values that they read the runes. Thats why it is vital for a leader to walk the floor; meet people; find out what is happening; whats new?

Sure there are meetings to attend to, challenges to handle and the future to strategize for. But surely one of the main functions of a leader is to maintain a daily curiosity on what is happening in the business?

Note: New thoughts, ideas and opportunities can just as easily turn up with a junior member of staff as they can with senior managers. Especially if you create a culture that encourages people at all levels to feel a part of the business.

When there is lots to do, and not much time to do it, a form of mental shutdown can occur. The leader, can easily become no more than a good general manager of stuff, rather than a champion of a new future. Thus being curious is not an aid to success, but more a hindrance, as they learn to manage on a 'needs to know' basis.

It's easy for habitual thinking to become the norm, as anything new simply adds to the mental workload. The leader can thus be highly capable in 'the known' and the familiar, but out of their depth when it comes to 'the unknown' and the not yet appeared.

To keep curiosity alive, the leader has to put aside time in their day, when they simply do nothing more than read the runes of the business. It may involve them just sitting alone in their office casting their mind out across the business to scan and sense. To get in touch with their gut feeling and instincts, which will pick up things which don't feel right.

Or they can get out and about, with a keen sense of curiosity, and talk to people in the business, to find out what they are up to. Howard Schultz, The CEO of Starbucks, religiously visits twenty five of his stores a week. Not to check up on staff, but because he is interested in what is happening in the coffee houses, where the essence of his business can be found.

As we enter times of change, leaders can't be expected to know everything. But by being curious, they can draw from others the vital nuggets of insights, that can create a bridge into the future.

You don't need to have all the answers. But it helps if you have a mindset that keeps you open minded to possibilities that exist outside of your habitual frames of reference. It's a leadership lesson George Entwistle will have learnt the hard way this week.

Martin Perry is a Leadership Coach. He helps leaders build confidence, self-assurance and calmness as they lead their people across the bridge of change.