Do I Know What is Really Happening in my Business?

 

 

At an urgency room people started piling up at the lobby as nothing seem to be moving, people was coming out but nobody was being called in, when staff at the counter were challenged by the delay, the answer was that the system was down and they had to wait for it to come back up and it would only be a matter of minutes, after about another 30 minutes or so of waiting and more sick people arriving nothing had changed other than the anxiety of people expecting to be looked at.

Some people started to leave looking for other options as they could see no progress on the issue being resolved, when a solution was proposed to start keeping track of patients information on paper so the fundamental service could be provided employees at the front desk did not want to make a decision, all they could do was to argue about the system, about how it continually failed and all the distress it caused, and so their primary focus appeared to be in ensuring they fulfilled requirements of the system, not caring for the wellbeing of people seeking medical attention at their facility.

Finally the medical head of urgency care came out wondering why they had an empty set of urgency rooms when there appear to be a lot of people waiting, it was then that he was made aware of the situation and his solution was to hand each patient back their pre-filled documents, a blank piece of paper and a pen so they could have their data at hand when needed and medical staff used these papers while they allow time for the system to get back on line while they were being taken care of; it was pretty much the same solution that had been proposed before and thought to be unacceptable and a good reason for the staff to argue with patients and share their frustration.

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Situations like these are not unusual where common sense does not seem to be there, where staff does not understand the big picture of Corporate, and they focus only on the one thing they know how to do.

People get trained in to use of ERPs, to input data into a system, and often they become mechanical and transactional about how they handle their piece of responsibility, when it fails is when things don’t work the way they are supposed to and their criteria has to come into play to maintain customer focus while dealing with unexpected situations, now to be fair many companies work in an environment that does not allow for free thinking, people get penalized when a decision is made that was not directed by middle management or simply the argument of the statistical value makes it ok not to be proactive and customer oriented. In my experience this is not what the C-suite or the board of any corporation is expecting to happen at any level, the worst part is that very often they are not aware of these situations because they lack the right type of information flowing to them.

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Management Systems should be in place to ensure that off plan situations are looked at, resolved, escalated and corrective actions are in place so fixes are made and implemented into the process, let’s be clear that a Management System is not necessarily a software to input data so it can be analyzed after the fact raising flags in the future when most of the damage has already being done and sometimes it is irreversible like loss of confidence by customers or would have been customers.

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A Management System is the set of tools, behaviors and indicators that allows the everyday operation to run smoothly with an interactive focus on problem resolution at the point of execution in the moment it is happening, it directs staff to escalate issues in a timely manner (minutes vs hours or days), it reinforces company values and covenants, it promotes and facilitates teamwork and achievement of goals at every level, it manages exceptions so they don’t become organizational problems, it forces each layer in the organization from the operator to the CEO to take action and make decisions in such a way that business stay on track and quality, operational and financial goals are achieved.

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Think about how an effective Management System could have spared VW, HSBC, BP, Takata and many others from getting to a point where damage to their reputation and financials were so catastrophic.

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Another good example of when things go wrong is the transition between shifts, how many times have you been in a situation where shift change just puts everything on hold, including you as a customer or end user, and of course you are supposed to understand it and be patient because is a normal business practice for them, it is not fun when 30 or more minutes of your time is stolen by the way things are managed by vendors, service providers and of course government agencies, when there is a solid Management System in place these situations are of particular attention and major improvements are made picking up hundreds of lost hours, production gains, and all sort of efficiencies and costs, the Plant Manager for a metal parts manufacturer said “I was very proud of my indicators and did not think improvements could be made until I was forced to see it through the eyes of a Management System” When employees are in an environment where human interaction is needed – pretty much everything -  it becomes critical that a solid Management System is in place and, solid well understood behaviors and tools are exercised and coached on the regular basis, these skills when consistently applied define how the culture of the company is going to be shaped in the future, for good or bad and this is one of those things that like high blood pressure in humans, it can severely damage your business without you noticing until too much damage has been done and sometimes it is too late to fix it.

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Do you have a solid and effective Management System in place within your organization? Large or small if you want to be effective at what you do and how you do it you’ll be better served if you ensure you have it.

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By: Cristopher Del Angel, CEO at To The Top Management Consulting