Management By Asking Really Good Questions

1. Management By Asking Really Good Questions

2. Online Search of “Management by …” • … Exception • … Objectives • … Walking Around • … Wandering Around • … Intimidation • … et al.

3. The Evolution of the “Management by …” Journey MBE MBO&R MBWA MBWT vs. MBF MBO MBWAWAP MBWA&L

4. Management by Exception • First described by Lewin, Lippitt, and White in 1938 along with the autocratic leadership and democratic leadership styles • Managers intervene only when their people fail to meet their performance standards • Managers stay out of the way of improvements that the employees generate. If personnel are performing asexpected, the manager will take no action. • Major advantage: Empowerment of the employees • Major disadvantage: Effective only in limited circumstances

5. Management by Objectives • First popularized by Peter Drucker’s 1954 book – 'The Practice of Management' • Still commonly used • Integrated management system with planning as its dominant function • Aim: increase performance by aligning organizational goals and subordinate objectives – central focus is the cascading of objectives from the organizational level to individual levels • Intermittently replaced and sometimes simply exchanged with Management by Objectives and Results "It's just another tool. It is not the great cure for management inefficiency ... Management by Objectives works if you know the objectives; 90% of the time you don't." -Drucker

6. Management by Objectives • Advantages: • Objectives can be set in all domains of activities and for various levels of the organization; relatively ease to use; widespread acceptability, and longevity in usage • Disadvantages: • Short-term and narrow focus on bottom-line results can become a major facet of its use • Possibility that the pressures resulting from strict adherence “… could be counterproductive and contribute to a climate that may lead to distortion of the system, manipulation of accounting figures, and, ultimately, unethical behavior.” (2004 Management Accounting Quarterly)

7. Management by Wandering Around • Developed by executives at Hewlett-Packard in the mid-20th century • Popularized by Tom Peters in the early 1980s in his book with Bob Waterman, “In Search of Excellence” • Other derivatives include: • MBWAWAP (Without a Purpose) • MBWA&L (and Listening)

8. Management by Wandering Around • Advantages: • Executives get out of the office to build relationships, motivate, and keep in direct touch with the activities of the workforce • Reflects commitment to keep up to date with individuals and activities through impromptu discussions, "coffee talks," communication lunches, etc. • Creates opportunities for “frank, two-way communications” • Disadvantages: • Depending upon the organizational culture, some employees may suspect MBWA is just an excuse for managers to spy and interfere with their work • Suspicion may be heightened if MBWA is implemented during a high-stress time for the organization

9. Management by Intimidation • Managing people based on fear • In direct opposition to Deming’s 8th point of management to “Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the company ” – enabling employees to feel secure enough to express their ideas and ask questions • Has most significant deleterious effect on the morale of employees • Most organizations have some managers or leaders who use MBI approaches • Advantages: None known • Disadvantages: Myriad

10. Management by Wishful Thinking • MBWT – Also known as “ostrich syndrome” • Toxic form of management • No known “how to” books, but is recognized as not particularly uncommon, and something to be avoided • Demonstrated in organizations where: • Plans are developed in the absence of a planning process • Meetings are held to generate enthusiasm • Managers retreat to bury their heads in the sand (or the other work that they have) and hope that the organization will be successful • Frequently associated with “get rich quick” fads • Advantages: None known • Disadvantages: Myriad

11. Management by Fact • One of Deming’s guiding principles whereby all employees collect data about the work they perform, and use that information to make decisions affecting their work • One of the “Core Values and Concepts” of Baldrige • Customer, product, and process performance measures • Comparisons of operational, market, and competitor performance • Supplier, workforce, partner, cost, and financial performance • Governance and compliance outcomes • Depends upon analysis – extracting larger meaning from data and information to support evaluation, decision making, improvement, and innovation • Requires segmentation of data (e.g., markets, product lines, and workforce groups) to facilitate analysis

12. Management by Fact • Advantages: • Supports decision making in a changing environment • Supports more viable strategic planning • Supports more accurate review of performance • Supports efficient improvement of processes • Supports accomplishing change management • Supports comparing performance with competitors’ or with “best practices” benchmarks • Disadvantages: • Requires agile measurement system • Requires resistance to making decisions “on the fly” • Requires patience and diligence

13. Where to next? ?

14. Management By Asking Really Good Questions • Advantages: • Holistic approach to organizational improvement • Leading edge of validated management practices • The focus is on results, not on procedures, tools, or organizational structure • Really Good Questions • Disadvantages: • It is not easy • Not a “How to” book • There are no “Answers” • Not a quick fix • It takes time, patience, & “stick-to-itiveness”

15. Why does MBARGQ work? • Compels us to maintain a comprehensive strategic focus on overall organizational competitiveness and sustainability • It examines and evaluates our key processes • “Linked activities with the purpose of producing a product or service for a customer (user) within or outside the organization” • Generally, processes involve combinations of people, machines, tools, techniques, materials, and improvements in a defined series of steps or actions • And through examination and evaluation, … it compels us to improve I see the Baldrige process as a powerful set of mechanisms for disciplined people engaged in disciplined thought and taking disciplined action to create great organizations that produce exceptional results. —Jim Collins, author of Good to Great

16. So … you just might ask … ?

17. How can I use the criteriato best help my organization? • Read / understand the key terms and questions, and how they interrelate; use them as part of your language • Is this a systematic approach? Is it well-deployed? • Think of the organization “as a whole” • Rarely does optimization of individual processes / departments optimize the system / organization • Be on the lookout for opportunities for improvement • Understand and coach others that an “opportunity for improvement” is not a criticism of the status quo • Be prepared to “question-drop” at appropriate times Become an examiner!

18. “Question-dropping” can help … ! • Focus our thinking and our efforts • Empower people to think • Clarify what’s important • Highlight the strengths • Identify best practices • Discover opportunities for improvement • Create the conditions for innovation • Encourage two-way communications

19. Some Really good questions you won’t find in the criteriaTo give you a “jump start” on asking really good questions

20. Key questions for Key “systems” • Leadership • Communication • Strategic Planning • Action Planning • Customer Relationship Management • Performance Measurement, Analysis, & Review • Knowledge Management • Workforce Engagement, Development, & Management • Process Management & Improvement • Disaster & Emergency Preparedness

21. Leadership • Who are all of the stakeholders in this decision we need to make, or in this process we are about to change? • What are the stakeholders’ requirements and expectations in this process (especially the customers)? • How will we role model or “live” our Mission, Vision, and Values? • How will we recognize and reward the behaviors we want to encourage, and hold people accountable for organizational results? How do we know?

22. Communication • Who needs to know what, by when, and to what degree of detail? • How will we communicate this information to them? • Different mechanisms for different groups? • Is “one-way” communication sufficient, or do we need “two-way” mechanisms? • How will we assess the effectiveness of the communication to ensure that we didn’t just broadcast a message? Best Practices?

23. Strategic Planning • What are the challenges and advantages we face, both now, and in the foreseeable future? • What are our critical success factors? • Does our plan address them all? • Will the achievement of our strategic objectives and goals logically lead to the attainment of our vision? • Is our plan too broad / too narrow / just right? • Do we have the right priorities? How do we know?

24. Action Planning • Do our objectives and goals have “SMARTER” action plans? • Specific • Measurable • Aligned • Realistic • Time-bound • Evaluated • Reviewed • Do all of our organizational objectives / goals have action plan support? Best Practices?

25. Customer Relationship Management • Do our customers know all that we have to offer them? • Why would / should / do they go anywhere else? • Do we know their requirements and expectations? • How can we meet all of their requirements and exceed their expectations? • How do we recover their loyalty if we let them down? • Are they really “engaged” with us, or merely satisfied? How do we know?

26. Performance Measurement, Analysis, & Review • What are the “key” measures that spell success for this organization? • What can we stop measuring? • Are we measuring this to drive improvement, or just to monitor? • How can we find comparison / competitor / benchmark levels of performance? • Are we comparing “apples to apples”? • Is more improvement worthwhile for us to strive to achieve right now? Best Practices?

27. Knowledge Management • Do we know what we need to know about this topic? • If not, where can we find out more? • Is it worth the cost ($ / time) to find out more? • Do we “think we know,” or do we “know we know”? • How can we best use all of our “knowledge repositories” to enhance learning and sharing? • Workforce, databases, documents, guides, policies / procedures, software, etc. Best Practices?

28. Workforce Engagement, Development, & Management • Do we have the right capabilities and capacities? • How do we foster the skills, knowledge, talents, attributes, and characteristics we want to have? • How do we engage the workforce, in addition to satisfying them? • How do we prepare our workforce for the future? • How do we provide a “safe” environment – physically and emotionally? • How do we foster innovation? Best Practices?

29. Process Management & Improvement • How do we focus on what is right – not who is right? • How do we promote understanding that “opportunity for improvement” is not criticism of the status quo, or the people who created this system? • How do we move from reacting to problems to fact-based, systematic evaluation and improvement and organizational learning through innovation? • What process management and improvement tools are we using … PDSA/PDCA, ISO 9000, Lean, Balanced Scorecard, Six Sigma, … something else? Best Practices?

30. Disaster & Emergency Preparedness • How do we identify / assess our risk level for various threats? • How can we prevent / mitigate the risks? • How will we continue our operations, if something happens? • How (and how quickly) can we recover? • How do we use our actual events and our drills to improve? Best Practices?

31. Our “final consideration” of a Really Good Question “Would it be helpful … ?”

32. Some thoughts by some who have gone before us • This is not an agenda item – it’s how we do things around here • The award is wonderful – and it’s amazing what these questions have done for our organization • Getting everything into 50 pages is hard work – there is way too much great stuff • Results are not an issue – these are the same ones that we review on a regular basis, anyway • It used to seem like a “foreign language” – now it makes total sense

33. What are Your Questions? info@quietexcellence.com Denise Haynes 330.573.4025 Doug Serrano 703.869.6658