Cracking the Management Systems Code

The oldest and the most successful philosophy of Management Systems depend on the triad of People, Processes and Projects/Products. Some corporates however might try painting another picture! But that doesn’t change the corners of this triangle that remain the three P’s:)

Simply put, for a management system to succeed, a clear ideology of corners and alphabets that the corners designate is key! You can have other concepts, other objects with more corners and more alphabets designating your values but knowing them and translating them further is important!

In this post, lets see how mostly known management systems are organised and how can they best be understood so the three P’s are correctly placed. Throughout the world, ISO is working in the most effective way to define values of a managemnet system in both generic and specialized ways. It defines standards for companies making shoes as well as companies making software. Hence, this is a benchmark that can be referred to as having some standard practices that ANY organisation must follow in its management structure. Lets crack that management structure to begin with. I will try my best to make it soung easy and doable. And believe me it is no rocket science. With little deliberation and very much sincerity :), you can get it done in your organisation without spending much.

Define the Scope of the Management System

Every management system must have a scope on which to probe the management system onto. Define that and trail that information down your people.

Resource Management ( technical, human, non technical)

The most important of the resources is Human Resources ; People ( Human Resources)

Organisations run on the basis of their resources but they tend to base their strength on technical resources and their procurement. However, the core is Human Resources; the People. The key to success of a management system is not only to take care of technical and non technical resources but to really take care of human resources as well. Taking care means not only their payroll. Just as a technical resource has more to it than a price tag, it has its warranty, it has its expiry and maintenance, so does the human resource. People need to be taken care of, maintained and their well being needs to be the TOP priority of an enterprise. Imagine an enterprise with no People, without this pillar , the concept of a good enterprise cannot be envisioned, no matter how digital you go and how much you automate. Processes and Projects have no meaning without people. So, what does taking care of people mean in real.

It means what they say has a weight near management. It means that they are involved in decisions. It means they are given time to breath out of the work environment. It means that they are given work and then trusted to deliver output. It means that they are treated according to their performance. Good performance must be encouraged and bad attitude must be discouraged. One size fits all policy isn’t always a good management strategy. The good thing about this kind of resource is that they speak up 😀 so the edge is that you can listen and pay heed . They wont silently crash like networks 🙂 they will prompt. Its better to act when their red flag raises. Human resources red flag is raised when there is heavy resource turn over in a specific area. Management needs to probe in WHY and action needs to be taken. However this is a REACTIVE approach. Organisations where the approach tends to be more reactive than proactive become toxic with time and the people factor starts reaching its expiry limit sooner than expected.

A more PROACTIVE approach is offering benefits, an attitude of trust, sports, vacations, work from home, relaxed routines and friendly work environment in addition to what has already been discussed above. This is how this ‘P’ needs to be taken care of.

the lesson to be taken from this part of the blog is that rather than a fix them approach, managements can follow a listen to them approach so People’s hopes, aspirations and ambitions are in sync with the company

Description of Products, Projects and How they are developed/Implemented

Another P is Projects and Products. Yes the breadwinning aspects are products and projects, the sources of income. We need to define what they are, a portfolio and keep it growing. A portfolio must be in the ownership of a business development team that keeps an eye on the strategic direction of the company so work is not done randomly and projects here and there dont distract the teams from the real objectives.

Also, if the company needs to define and be clear if the leadership wants to focus on Projects or Products. These are two different ballgames and need different kind of work cultures. They cannot coexist however, projects can give rise to products but the team needs to KNOW exactly when this transformation will happen. Any confusion in the timeline will lead to havoc and none of the two will realise, neither project nor the product. !

Also, having a product/project catalog helps in selling services to prospective clients in a much better way. Imagine a customer walks in a resturant and he needs to eat. and there is NO menu. 🙂 Make that menu , publish it , customers will choose from it and your own business development team will be able to sell them better.

Processes and their Continual Improvement

Process is the third P. Theory of continual improvement suggests that if you repeat a pattern you get good at it. So anything that can be repeated and called a process can yield a product. If that process is improved, the product can also be improved. This direct proportionality of process and product can be put to best use in management systems. Visualise all the processes in your organisation, embed a continual improvement mechanism and VIOLA ! you would be on the track of success soon!

The continual improvement of processes is based on the PDCA metholody as depicted here

Following are the steps that need to be taken for Process Improvement

PLAN : PLANNING FOR IMPROVEMENTS
Establish Business and Process Needs
Align Measurement and Analysis Activities
Identification of Improvements
Gap Analysis
Process Action Planning
Organizational Planning
Establish and Maintain an Improvement Plan and Schedule
Preparing for Risk Management
Preparing for Decision Analysis and Resolution
Ensure Management Commitment and Responsibilities towards Improvement
DO : EXECUTING THE IMPROVEMENTS
Process Definition
Process Roll Out
Process Deployment Planning
Process Trainings
Process Implementation
Monitor Implementation
CHECK : MONITORING
Management Review
Audit/Appraisal
Analysis of Data
ACT : CONTROLLING
Feedbacks
Providing Process Feedback
Promoting Customer Satisfaction
Corrective and Preventive Actions

So, in this post you saw how the Ps of People, Process and Project/Product have been balanced on the sides of the Management System triangle giving it perfect symmetry.

For those who want to add corners to this triangle, beware of the fact that violating management trigonometry rules is a serious crime 😮