FAQs: Back to the Fundamentals - Align Towards Your Ideal Future (Webinar)

You mentioned revisiting the fundamentals including goals, outcomes, and leading measures. How do you advise effective management of the measures? 

Answer: Based on our experience in serving our Clients at Online, we find the most essential steps to effectively managing measures are to ensure you have the right tools and the right governance established to support efforts.

• Tools: At Online we advocate for formal enterprise performance management processes through the use of tools like the Results Software by our partners at Mass Ingenuity. By creating one central “point of truth”, you can start acting on your data, using it to guide decision-making and prioritization.
• Governance: Creating accountability is an essential component of effective enterprise performance management, and can be achieved by assigning process and outcome owners to ensure someone always has a finger on the pulse of what really matters. Additionally, a regular meeting cadence is a great way to ensure there are consistent reviews and re-evaluations of the company strategy. Lastly, you need to ask the question, what happens if we don’t meet a threshold or target? To mitigate, we encourage organizations to set up recovery plans with clearly defined steps of how they will get a measure out of the red and back into the yellow or green.
  
  

I lead a department within my organization. I see the value in the exercise you discussed, but it will be a challenge to coordinate this for the entire organization. Can we use the Results Management System to define our priorities even if the company at large is not ready to do so?

Answer: Absolutely! Our experience is that when divisions or entities within an organization implement the Results solution, the improvement in their performance becomes noticeable and clear to other divisions or entities. This in turn generates a heightened interest and enthusiasm around the offering, and advocates for the credibility of the tool when considering implementing Results within the company at large.


You mentioned our balance sheet measures are usually lagging measures. How do you know if a measure is a leading measure? How do you pick a leading measure?

Answer: Leading measures are quantifiable indicators of how effectively a given work process is functioning. Leading measures answer the question: What will show us that we are doing the routine work well? To pick effective leading measures, you want to start by identifying the key processes that align with your organizational mission and goals. From there, identify the process customers, and focus on measuring the customer’s needs through metrics such as cost, quality, time, etc.

You mentioned the idea of a “Fundamentals Map”, but I am not familiar with what that is. Could you explain what it is and why it is a valuable deliverable?

Answer: A Fundamentals Map is a single-page illustration that shows the routine work (or core processes) that must be managed for an organization to achieve its mission, vision, and key goals. The map also captures the outcome measures and process measures used by an organization to know how well the fundamentals are being managed and how capable the core processes are to meet the strategic desires of the organization.

This deliverable gives you a birds-eye view of your organization, blocking out all the noise and focusing on what really matters, on only one page. It becomes a fantastic tool to circulate within your organization to get everyone on the same page, increasing buy-in and making everyone aware of how they contribute to larger company goals in their own day-to-day work.  


We already have a Fundamentals Map. What are some indicators that we need to re-visit our performance system?

Answer: There are several indicators that can signal a need to re-visit your performance system, including the following as a few key examples:

1. The desired outcomes in your organization are not favorable, and your measurements did not give you an early indication that there was a problem on the horizon.
2. The ownership of your outcomes and processes is out of date – new measures might not have owners, owners may have transitioned out of the organization or into new roles, there may be a lack of balance within the distribution of your accountability framework, etc.  
3. The measures in your organization are always green and are rarely used for decision-making. You are likely not measuring the things that are really essential to your core business
   
   

At Online our consultants have ample experience in rapidly reviewing performance systems, identifying gaps, and facilitating collaborative discussions with your team to close these gaps. Please reach out with any other questions, we would love to have a conversation!


We have a strategy but never seem to complete our portfolio of projects. How can Results Software help me with this complicated problem?

Answer: The primary way the Results Software can help you solve the complicated problem of not being able to complete your portfolio of projects is through its ability to guide you in the prioritization of your projects. The Results Software will enable you with real, valuable data to help you focus your scarce resources. This in turn will ensure that your resources are not spread too thin, and by blocking out the noise you will be able to hone in on the initiatives that really matter. Especially amid all the uncertainty that we have experienced and continue to anticipate in the coming months, it is crucial now more than ever to be making the most out of your resources, time, and talent.


We already have an overloaded ecosystem of tools and applications. Why do I need yet another software application for enterprise performance management?

Answer: The answer to the reason why you need another software application for enterprise performance management is simple, it is what will take your strategy from being just a concept to becoming a reality. Balancing your strategic initiatives and operating processes is a complex task, and the biggest challenge comes in the way of actually operationalizing your plan. In order to execute your strategy to its fullest potential, you need to be able to actively track, measure, and create accountability through formal processes. With a tool like the Results Software, you will be able to maximize the value of the investments you make into your strategy and ensure the important items for your organization are getting measured and managed.