Keeping It Simple

Sometimes keeping things simple yields the best results. This is particularly true for start-ups and small businesses.

Don’t get sucked into complex (and expensive) systems of control or ‘improvement’.

Stick to the basics.

Set realistic goals (consistent with your declared mission and vision). If the goals are long-term, set intermediate targets.

Communicate those goals/targets  throughout the organisation (especially to those who can influence them).

Make sure staff have the skills and support needed to realise those goals.

Measure progress towards those goals.

Review the measures regularly and take corrective action where they indicate a lack of expected progress.

Reward those who excel in their work and accelerate progress towards goals.

Ensure the goals stay relevant as conditions or circumstances change.

Do We Have To Make A Choice?

 Climate-change activists often insist theirs is the right way.  They insist that everything we do (or more often not do) must help ‘save the planet', rather than make us richer or more secure. Yet, in all fields of human activity, the two can co-exist, even help each other…. If we look at green policies and practices through a long-range telescope, looking at the bigger picture and taking a long-term view.  (I know we are facing a shortish-term crisis …..but bear with me.)

Take agriculture.  If we reduce, or preferably stop, the use of pesticides and fertilisers, and use ‘old-fashioned’ approaches to improving and protecting the soil, we can save money, reduce the damage to the planet and improve yields (and therefore productivity).

If in industry, we stop trying to clean up the mess produced by manufacturing processes, and instead redesign them to avoid producing that mess in the first place, again we can reduce our costs, reduce the damage to the planet and,  in the longer -term, improve yields.

We have to start thinking strategically and holistically, instead of looking for short-term measures and failing to think through linkages and unintended consequences of these short-term measures (which is, by and large, what we do now).  We could transform.our stuttering attempts at climate-damage limitation into a climate-improving strategy which at the same time improves productivity across a range of industrial sectors. 

Does Time Matter?

 Of course it does!

However, concentrating on squeeing every last drop of productive output from each day and multi-tasking to get more done can lead to burnout, to stress and anxiety and to a drop in performance.

If this sounds like your existence, then think about what it represents.  

Time is managing you, rather than you managing your time.

Almost certainly, you and/or your loved ones, will be complaining about your poor work-life balance.

You have to regain control over your schedule - by better prioritisation, better delegation, better planning, making sure you have fewer distractions, taking proper breaks - all the usual time management practices.

Time does matter.  So, control it.  Make control of your own schedule your very own superpower, rather than your arch-enemy.  Your family will thank you for it - and you will feel much better for it. Almost certainly, you will also be more productive - so your organisation will reap the benefit! 

A Lesson in Communication

Doug Conant was the CEO of Campbell Soups in 2001 when the company’s business was at  rock bottom due to several organisational issues including a toxic culture. Among the many leadership strategies, Doug adopted, one of them was to engage with each staff member and personally, connect with them.

He did something that was unheard of – in his 10 years at the helm, he wrote 20 notes a day, resulting in more than 30,000 notes to thank employees for their contribution to the company. On his visits to offices, he would find his notes stapled to the softboards, bulletin boards and sharing pride of place on their desks. 

Not surprisingly,  as a result in 2009 Campbell Soups outperformed its competitors.

None of this required new technology, new techniques or new advisors.

It simply required new communication.  We know that, above all, effective communication requires a will, a desire to communicate.  Conant’s desire to communicate changed the culture of the organisation - and transformed its performance. 

A Need for Balance

 I have talked previously about the need to balance the pursuit of efficiency with a need for resilience - we need to be able to cope with supply chain, labour or other problems.

We have also talked previously about the need to balance a concentration on throughput with the need to maintain, or improve, quality.  No use making more widgets if we can’t sell them or they are going to annoy our customers.

Another balance we’ve mentioned is the balance between concentrating on throughput or the longer-term well-being of our workforce.  A workforce that gets burned out becomes inefficient.

Now I’m adding another balance to the list -not one we’ve explicitly mentioned but one we’ve hinted at.  This is the balance between continually refining and improving what we do with the need to do other things - to innovate In both products and processes. 

So, you can see why being a senior executive or manager is a difficult task.  Maintaining a watch on all these factors - and maintaining the balance - can be tricky.

But another way of looking at it is to use a common factor - value.  We ask how any decision we are about to make will affect value for the customer.

This is the true essence of productivity - which is, remember, the ratio of output to input - or value created per dollar employed in the business.  Productivity - if measured properly - helps maintain the various balances, using efficiencies only where they add value for the customer … the one true balance you have to msintain.

How Good Are They?

 Over the last couple of decades (before the pandemic) lots of middle income countries and middle-performing companies were integrated into global supply chains. Advanced nations and advanced companies had no choice as they needed new sources of materials, parts and skills.

These new supply chain partners soon learned what was expected of them and with a fair bit of prompting and a fair bit of help and support, they upped their game and moved from the middle ranks to the top ranks.  

This is how countries like China and Mexico rose up the ranks of manufacturing industry countries.

It helped that the companies involved could see the ‘art of the possible’ from their new partners. 

(It also helped that a number of countries abandoned manufacturing ingthe pursuit of a services-based economy.)

It also led to internal competitors of these companies seeing  the gains being made and striving to emulate this enhanced performance - raising the levels of performance of whole industrial sectors in these previously middle income countries.

This was, in effect, a very unstructured form of benchmarking.  

Look what they are doing.

Wow, it looks good!

It seems to her working.

Couldn’t we try try it as well? 

It is always easier to emulate something you can see working, rather than some theoretical model or vision.

This is why sector-based benchmarking can work for any country.

Measure the performance of a range of organisations in a sector across a range of factors.

Identify the ‘good’ and the ‘best’ performers on each factor.

Share the lessons of good performance.

Set in train programmes to help the ’tail’ of companies to emulate the performance of the few at the head.

Re-measure performance and identify gains. 

Simple - in theory.  And remember, you are showing companies what their peers are doing and achieving. , not holding ups some ideal model.  

Lobby your political or industrial representatives to set up sector benchmarking programs.

Industrial Relations

 One of the ironies of modern business life is that whenever anyone uses the term ‘industrial relations’ they are almost certainly referring to poor relationships.  

Similarly, the ‘industrial relations industry’ is about handling (and dealing with the consequences of) poor industrial relations.

So, how do we avoid the pitfalls associated with these poor relationships.

Well, it starts at the top - in all senses of the word.  

It clearly starts with the senior executive team and/or the business owner(s).  They set the tone, the atmosphere  and the organisational culture in which relations with the rest of the organisation are developed.

Secondly, it starts with the ‘top’ of the strategic hierarchy of the way in which the organisation operates-  the culture, mission and, especially, the values set.  A key value required by the top people in the organisation is empathy - the ability to put themselves in the place of others and understand their views, concerns and motivations.

You need to understand why other stakeholders take the stance, or carry out the actions, that they do.  What you do, every day - and what you plan for the future - must be informed by that understanding.  Good fortune and rewards should be shared; good performance should be acknowledged.   Equally, of course it must be clear that behaviour inconsistent with the core values of the organisation will not be tolerated.

It is, of course, generally easier to maintain good industrial relations in times of success, and when the organisation is not being threatened by damaging external factors.  It. Is at these times when effective communication is important  so that stakeholders understand the threat and the reasons for ‘defensive action’.

Industrial relations is not an exact science. There is no formula for success  - but a strong will to communicate based on basic empathy and a supportive culture will prove invaluable.