Extracting & Protecting Value

Sometimes good work is done and the value created (not destroyed) is not immediately recognized. This creates challenges of energetic maintenance: e.g. "cash flow." If value is not recognized, energy appears to leave the system and the system gets weaker. To maintain the strength and integrity of a system, it must at the very least be fed.

So how can systems learn to extract and protect value for the work it does, especially if the work is done on behalf of another system?

Problems, Issues, Opportunities and Initiatives Shared by Operations Managers

Important and Urgent

• Leadership training [13 VOTES]
  - cross-training so current/internal staff is capable of doing more
  - “maximizing human capital”
• Planning for the downturn (and upturn) in the economy [9 VOTES]
  - Managing staff levels
  - An opportunity for “staff on call”? If so, how to structure, administer, etc.?
  - Handling change in volume
  - Managing motivation and morale
  - Maintaining competencies, especially after staff reductions or when running lean
• Productivity – Doing more with less, while maintaining set standards (delivery, service, quality, etc.) [6 VOTES]
• Building vendor partnerships (vendors are part of your corporate “team”)
• Product safety (eg. peanut butter salmonella outbreak) – major impact on the entire business
• Meeting delivery and service requirements in and unpredictable environment (when demands/orders change very frequently or are made with little to no notice)
  

Important but not Urgent

• Cross-functional teamwork (management level) – making decisions that are the best for the company overall [2 VOTES]
• Green resource conservation strategies [2 VOTES]
• Getting employees to embrace lean concepts/to take ownership/realize that they make a difference
• Managing growth in different economic times
• The impact of EFCA (Employee Free Choice Act; please see post below)
• Capitalizing on supply-chain strategies in an entrepreneurial environment
• Meeting delivery schedules while moving a plant’s location
• Continuing process improvements in and environment already JIT
• How to effect a culture change in maintenance systems
• Capitalizing (fully) on ERP systems

Changing the culture to develop front-line supervisors to take more responsibility

Some questions asked by roundtable participants:
· Are your goals clear?
· Are problems identified/managed more top-down or bottom-up?
· What made the training at your previous employers successful?
· Do you view the culture as changeable?
· What has made past training successful?
· What portion of your employees’ reviews depends on exhibiting the behavior desired?
· Have you put any signs up? (refers to marketing on the walls regarding goals, safety or performance goals, etc.)
· What other communications initiatives have been tried?
· Are your peers’ goals clearly defined?
· Were business reasons for change/corporate goals and strategies set communicated?
· How are you planning to publicize/reward someone when they do something good?
· Have you taken time to find out what employees want, need, how they feel, etc.?
· Have you identified who the “potential” leaders are?
· Are possibly too many goals set/trying to be achieved, or are they possibly misunderstood?
· What percent of decisions brought to you should be made by supervisors?

Some experience shared by participants:
· Cultural change can take a long time
· Weekly or monthly meetings can help advance the change you’re looking for
· A line-leader program can relieve supervisors of paperwork, equipment adjustments and repetitive requirements. These are long-time employees who are identified leaders on the floor. In sample program, dividends were reaped in third year.
· Once-a-month employee meetings to share information. Use TV break-room to communicate. You’d be surprised of the power of a smiley face on a chart!
· Some decisions can be turned over to front-line supervisors
· Ken Blanchard books on leadership, coaching, team-building
· Culture of small company can be one of “micro-management” compared to a larger company. Empowering line leaders and supervisors can take time when shifting power to them.
· When the list of initiatives is daunting, a manager could select the top three that will have the most impact. Then talk about and preach only those three both to the employees and with the executive management team.
· Assure employees that it’s OK to make a mistake.
· Communicate principals you want your employees to follow in decision making (Covey’s principal-centered leadership) http://www.amazon.com/Principle-Centered-Leadership-Stephen-Covey/dp/0671792806/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234197683&sr=1-1
· “Comfort is the enemy of change.” Are you willing to use “positive” stress? See comment below
· Ritz-Carlton case study: moved from 200% employee turnover to virtually none by identifying the type of employee needed in the job and then recruiting for it. http://www.quality.nist.gov/Ritz_Carlton_Hotel_Co.htm
· Develop a matrix that shows accountability
· Identify the most important tasks to mid-management team’s function.
· Sharing information to many levels is key (goals, strategies, methods, training, how performance will be measured and rewarded or not, etc.)

EFCA: What Steps Can Employers Take to Prevent Potential Problems if it Becomes Law?

• Educate supervisors about the dangers of retaliating or discriminating against pro-union employees.
• Resolve any unsolved employee issues and complaints that could make a union look more appealing to your workers.
• Use new-hire orientation to explain the advantages of your company’s union-free status. Talk about the drawbacks of unionization with current employees before organization attempts are made.
• Make sure non-solicitation policies are in order, so you can prevent third parties from coming on-site to drum up support for a union.

What are companies doing?

• Discussing what is unknown: How long is an employee authorization card good?
• Educating supervisors: How to spot potential union efforts. How to handle risky employee situations. No-solicitation policies.
• Educating employees: What is a union? How will the EFCA remove your democratic right to a secret ballot? A card an employee signs in front of a union organizer may be their only vote.
• Educating employees using long-time front-line supervisors who have credibility. Also opportunity to engage lead workers whom other employees look up to.

EDGE HR Managers Share Issues of Concern

• Attendance policy: How to communicate and encourage attendance and reduce the turnover that results from enforcing attendance policy.
• How to prepare for a changing regulatory environment. Potential new laws and laws currently on the books but not vigorously enforced. Issues include: equal pay, medical leave and fair labor standards.
• How to staff for flexible skilled labor needs? Pay OT vs. adding employees vs. temporaries.
• How to communicate clarified policies within a newly published employee handbook without damaging morale. Moving from a culture without policies to one with policies and the impact it may have on employees used to fewer limits.
• The need to update safety policies and procedures.
• How to meet the needs of customers in the current economic situation with appropriate workforce structure and hours.
• How to develop performance metrics for the entire organization, linking each to profitability.
• Training for the entire organization. How to create a robust professional development program for employees with limited resources.

What Are Appropriate Metrics to Use to Evaluate HR Managers?

What are fair and appropriate metrics to use to evaluate and hold accountable an HR manager? Where do you find the right benchmarks? EDGE HR managers contributed to this discussion at the Jan. 27 EDGE HR Managers meeting, the first of four in 2009. Ideas and experiences shared include:

• Link any measurements to profitability.
• Balanced scorecard: Link drivers to the bottom line by following profitability upstream. HR may route through Operations to link to the bottom line. (Approach applies to all jobs within a company).
• SHRM and ERC may have benchmarking data.
• If no applicable benchmarking data are available, use past performance as a baseline.
• Select metrics that can enhance your ability to contribute to the organization.
• Survey the parties you serve. Try to make the questions produce actionable information and constructive input.
• What metrics make sense? Turnover, time to fill (positions), cost of benefits, 401k participation?
• Helps to put yourself, as a manager, in the owner’s shoes.

MBA UltraLite

This week, we kicked off the first of a ten-session “crash course” in business and leadership, designed for rising stars in growth companies and taught by a mix of academicians and experienced business leaders. We created this course in response to the voices of CEOs who were asking all of their employees to make management decisions, often with very limited business education and leadership training. By explaining the rationale, language and inner workings of business and each functional area (Strategy, Operations, Marketing, HR, Finance, etc.) we begin to build a holistic bridge between teammates that often don’t understand each other. We then crack open doorways of leadership development, covering personal assessment and learning, communication, negotiation and project management. In the end, each participant gains practical tools for how he or she may create value on a personal and organizational level, benefiting themselves, their companies and the region as a whole.