The Four Factors that influence successful business improvement

In today’s climate many organisations are embarking on business improvement initiatives in order to protect or grow their businesses. You may have already embarked on your improvement journey to try to cut costs or maintain or gain your competitive edge. Often when setting up these initiatives businesses become completely focussed on a single element of the improvement. They don’t consider the four fundamental factors that influence successful business improvement. Let’s look at the four business improvement factors and see how they interrelate.

Factor One – Systems; 

• Many Businesses Think, that the development and implementation of a new computerised system is the answer to all operational and reporting problems. Or believe because they already have an operating system in place that they have been using for some time, that that will always be fit for purpose.
• The Reality Is, that the development and implementation of your system is only the beginning of your improvement journey. A system is not a substitute for management action. If the system is not updated and used properly by the people within your business. It may as well not be there! Equally if your existing system is not reviewed and its performance objectively evaluated, overtime it will become detrimental to your business. Organisations operate at such a pace that things change and if the systems don’t change with them, then they become ineffective and damaging. When did you last evaluate the systems that are used within your business? 

Factor Two – Processes;

• Many Businesses Think, that the operational processes that have always worked, will continue to be effective and deliver profit. To change a process will cost time and money and that their teams are still following the processes that were implemented and documented years ago.
• The Reality Is, that operational processes become out of date. Steps are introduced without careful consideration of the wider impacts, and slowly materials and time are introduced to make life “easier”, or to meet “customer” demand.  This can cause your once efficient process to become inefficient.  It will cost you more if you don’t change your inefficient processes. Teams are not always compliant and become complacent, if the process is not easily executed and intuitive. Often teams find short cuts, even if those short cuts cost you money. When did you last critique your operational processes?

Factor Three – Policies;

• Many Businesses Think, that policies are put in place to satisfy a regulatory body or meet the needs of an accrediting body, that will award some sort of recognised badge, ITIL, ISO, H&S, IIP , the list is endless. Businesses believe that this will enable the organisation to gain status and recognition within their field. Some policies are enforced and are a legal requirement.
• The Reality Is, policies should be put in place to improve the business and not negatively impact profitability. When a policy is implemented or enforced it is critical that the impact it will have on the profitability of the business is considered. The systems and processes required to adopt the policy successfully need to be in place, and most importantly your people need to be fully trained in its execution. It is critical not to implement a policy because a competitor has, or because you think it might be a good idea.  When did you last review the policies that exist within your business and ensure that they are fit for purpose?

Factor Four – People;

• Many Businesses Think, the people within the business should be committed and loyal because they are being paid. They also believe that if they give their people a new system to use, or train them in a new process that they will use it and follow it without question. Some managers think that if a new policy is introduced it will be adhered to and supported from the outset.   
• The Reality Is, the people within your business are the fourth and most influencing factor in determining whether your improvement initiative succeeds or fails. If the teams within your business do not use the system, follow the process or comply with the policy, your initiative will fail. The people within your business hold the key to its success; they can help you unlock its real potential. In order for your teams to do this you must ensure the following. Your team’s values and beliefs align to the goals and objectives of the business. The attitudes and behaviours of the people within your business are engaged and positive, and the communication within your business is concise, open and honest. Explain the need for the improvement and outline the benefits of the new system, policy or process. With your teams on board at the outset your initiative cannot fail. How engaged are the people within your business?

 

To ensure the full potential of any business improvement initiative is achieved, be sure to consider the four factors of influence. SYSTEMS, PROCESS, POLICIES and most importantly PEOPLE, Good Luck!

To learn more about the factors that influence business improvement or how to get started then why not call me or email me mike.bresnihan@thefrankboys.com

Shiny, Happy, People – The value of Powerful Management Behaviours

Question One: Are your people firing on all cylinders? Question Two: Are they engaged?
A recent survey by Gallup revealed that 61% of employees were not engaged and 20% of employees were actively disengaged. A staggering 81% of workforces operating in some kind of negative way, thus having a detrimental impact on the business they work in!!!
I have carried out hundreds of pieces of analysis, management studies and management questionnaires when visiting organisations, ALWAYS arriving at the same conclusion. The staff, teams, and even departments aren’t fully engaged in what is happening and therefore the organisation is only achieving a fraction of the potential that exists
I have managed lots of improvement projects, transformational initiatives, and customer experience projects, time and time again the underlying component that drove the success was not the methodology applied, not the classroom training, not even the frustrated CEO launching the initiative, saying “this has to work” It was the engagement and attitudes of the people!
In the early days I used my instinctive approach, I worked with the people using the management skills and tools I had learnt, and applied them in a way that enabled the people I was working with to be receptive.  That’s not imposing, forcing or telling it’s COACHING, SUPPORTING, and EMPOWERING.  I fast learnt that this was all well and good but you can’t go around saying I operate instinctively with people and support them and then we deliver results. I knew I had to develop something that CEO’s, Directors, people could relate to. Something that held the answers to the two questions above, something to get teams firing on all cylinders and engaged in the work they deliver.
I delivered training workshops, development sessions, and improvement workshops and always smiled as the delegates walked into the room, there was always one who you knew would be trouble, I could see it in their face. He / She would be my challenge for the session. These were performance focussed sessions and didn’t really focus on the individual needs, just the needs of the business.  I also knew that once the session was over, much of what I had spouted on about would be left in the training room or on the note pad and never used in practice. I knew something had to be done differently
Then I got some exposure to NLP training, this was slightly different and focussed on the mind set and individual, quite refreshing, but it seemed to leave the tools and RESULTS elements out. Why is it that in so many cases you either get the business training side or the business mentoring side but you rarely get a combination of the two and how powerful would it be if you could have that combination?
It was at this point I decided to create Powerful Management Behaviours. If you really want to engage your people follow the three steps below and transform the people and profitability of your organisation Mind Set – Ensure your people are in the right mind set to deliver what is being asked of them. Support them to deal with everything that could be impacting their ability to perform for you. Confidence, Relationships, Debt, Sexuality, Alcohol, Drugs. The list goes on; in today’s society the list is endless. This doesn’t mean you can often fix their problems for them but supporting them in identifying any issues can help your people to take responsibility and steps to fix them. If the mind-set is in shape, the individual will be in shape and in a position to help you get your business in shape Tools– There are hundreds of organisations that just don’t ensure their people have the necessary tools available to support them in doing their job. Tools may exist but are they fit for purpose, have you ever asked your people??  Ensure your people have elements of the following tools at their fingertips to help them carryout their role Resource Planning and Workload Management Time Management Action / task lists 1-1s Training plans / skills logs Performance reports and management information Best practice logs and lessons learnt report Coach – Coach and support your people to apply a positive mind set using practical tools when they carry out their job. Making the effort to spend time with your people and investing that time, demonstrates you are interested in them. The net result is that they invest time in you and your business.
It’s all very well knowing your staff aren’t engaged, it’s getting that engagement that is the challenge. Applying Powerful Management behaviours in your business delivers outstanding results and can save your company millions – Shiny, Happy, People!!!
We have helped hundreds of organisations engage their employees and create shiny, happy, people, call me or write to me at mike.bresnihan@thefrankboys.com to learn more about powerful management behaviours

The real key to success as a Manager – Latest Top Tips

Every organisation “puts the customer first”. Every organisation “invests in their people”. It makes you sick to hear this right? We’ve all heard it a thousand times. We also know that despite this being a mantra to many, it’s rarely practiced. Yet, it is true. Nurture your customers and staff and you can’t fail.
In reality managers in most organisations that we meet want to serve customers and staff as well as possible, but the day to day challenges of working life often distract and dilute the value that they add. Intriguingly, this is often a symptom of absent management on a wide scale (and as such a wide scale lack of focus on customer and staff may exist – which is perilous in times like these).
Let’s keep it simple. Follow our simple tips to stay ahead of the game: How much of your week do you spend thinking of ways to do things better? How much time in your week do you spend on 1-1s, 360s, PDPs, objective setting? How much time do you spend reviewing performance and looking for root cause problems? I can virtually promise you one thing: It’s not enough. You should aim to spend (realistically) 75% of your time on performance management activities. Put staff performance first. This will lead to motivated and focused teams. If the above is a hard question to answer. Ask yourself this: How much time do you waste? Think about the bigger picture. Think about sickness, meetings, duplicate activities, system problems etc. All this work only serves to distract you from your core purpose as a manager. Reduce it and spend more time on your staff. You should aim (realistically) to spend under 10% of your time on these activities. How much time to you spend thinking about the customer? However much it is, again, I can promise you, it’s not enough. Even if you are in a back office/ corporate function. Serving those around you will most likely help them to support the customer. Who are your worst performers? Ask yourself what are the top root cause problems in your business? A manager/ organisation is only as good as the quality of the staff. Manage poor performance. Share best practice. Reward and recognise those who do well. Be prepared to have clear conversations with those who can’t make the mark. For each person holding back the team there are people who will do the job ten times better. How involved are you in the recruitment process? (even if you’re the C.E.O). Get more involved. C.Vs tell only so much and interviews are notoriously fallible. Interviewers cannot help be swayed by a good speaker/ someone who ‘looks right’. Check references. I mean really check. The references are often seen as the ‘bit at the end’. Actually the references can tell you a 100 times more than the interview. Give your team meaning. Does your team make shoes or do they make works of art that make people very happy? Even back office teams help customers/ patients/ service users. Make sure your team REALLY appreciate this. Take them out of the office for the day to meet the customers. Give your team real purpose and you make sure the customer is in the mind of your team(s) (AND it helps your team be motivated). Engage and collaborate with your staff and customers. Survey, question, invite, test, listen. Stand up and be counted. Find out what really counts and what doesn’t. Adjust your strategies accordingly.
There are of course many more things you can do to really get back on track. The key is to really empower your managers to manage, which is much easier said than done. We’re professionals at just this, so if you would like to speak to someone in confidence, drop us a line!

Save costs in your organisation immediately – Top Tips

“Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.” William James Philosopher
Every manager will have heard of Lean and most of you will have been subjected to a Lean exercise at one point of another. Most managers we meet are cynical about “lean initiatives”, largely because their current environment is pretty much the same as it was before!
In reality this is most likely because the leadership team got distracted with the next big thing or they missed the most important point. Like many management theories, they can work, but only if you and everyone involved actually embraces and then lives and breathes the fundamentals. This is your chance!
The long and short of it is that Lean can be VERY powerful and if properly applied can delivery results, FAST. Follow my top tips to get results: Top Tip 1 - Clean your office/ work environment – sounds so irrelevant, but it’s not. Throw away the dusty old books, papers and clutter. Make the work environment a pleasant place to be. Buy some plants. Change people’s seating positions to make sure people are physically part of a team. One of the first things the new Major of New York did when he got into office was remove much of New York’s graffiti. It sends a message. Buy your team new chairs if the ones they use are creaking. Top Tip 2 - Get rid of waste – in all of its forms. In order to do so you really do need to step back a bit. What is your team/ organisation doing that it doesn’t need to do? What products/ services add little value (but consume lots of resource), what responsibilities have crept into your domain that only get in the way? What bells and whistles on your products/ services add unnecessary complexity? What processes can be simplified? Top Tip 3 - Focus on quality  – I mean REALLY focus on quality. Poor quality work wastes time and ultimately revenue. Introduce peer reviews, quality metrics, quality monitoring, rework monitoring, quality checking activities, reward great performance and share best practice. Top Tip 4 - Identify your top two bottlenecks. Now bottlenecks can be quite tricky to find. Bottlenecks sometimes move from week to week and what appears to be a bottleneck might be just the symptom. Try the “5 whys”. Delve deep. Now acknowledge this point: Your organisation is only as fast as your biggest bottleneck. Any teams that are working faster than the speed set by your bottleneck is just burning cash and wasting effort. If staff/ teams have idle time as a result, then use this extra resource to exploit your bottlenecks!! Exploit your constraint. Remove it. Then follow this top tip again. Top Tip 5 - synchronise your operation. This may seem a bit abstract but whole theories are dedicated to this one point (like the Theory of Constraints). Once you’ve found your bottleneck and you’ve exploited it (see tip tip 4) then accept this point: Your bottleneck sets the work priority of your organisation. Make sure people only work to this priority. Top Tip 6 - Decide as late as possible – Billions are wasted in business each year because decisions are made too early, when the decision maker is compromised (because they might not have all the facts). Now decisions have to be made, of course, but the later you can defer your decision the less risk you invite and the more money you save. Top Tip 7 - Conduct a “Kaisen Blitz” or put simply – an “improvement workshop”. Invite cross sections of your organisation into one room, remove tables, arm yourself with post-its and pens and facilitate really good, free, open debate and exercises on what needs to be changed. Create an action plan, prioritise the actions and bring them to life. Top Tip 8 – Empower your team. Nothing new here… but making it happen is so difficult for so many organisations. Your leadership team must be inspired and capable. Your staff must be trained and skilled. Best practice must be shared. Coach you organisation to move towards “management by exception”.
Share your problems with us now and we’ll give you FREE practical advice by posting our advice on this blog. Simply sent us an email with your organisational challenges to thebusinessdoctors@thefrankboys.com

Five things to start doing in 2012

	“I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning” – Joseph Priestly
As we approach the end of January it is still not too late to set your plans and objectives for 2012. It’s very easy to offer advice and opinion on what is going wrong, and to speculate about the future. It is not so easy to support and offer advice on what needs to be done. I list below five tips to help you maintain and grow profitability with your business through 2012.
Tip One – Understand and Quantify. In business there is always the opportunity to improve. Understanding what that opportunity is and how it can be realised is fundamental to your on-going success. Once you have your ideas, quantify them. Ensure that the effort required to implement them is not greater that the return you will achieve. Many organisations start improvement initiatives and implement systems, sales and new ways of working without really understanding the commercial benefit.  Profit is what will keep your organisation alive, understand and quantify the potential to improve it! http://bit.ly/tYRXOq
Tip Two – Evaluate your Architectures. OK, so I have been writing about business architectures for some time now. Think of your business like a house. If the architecture wasn’t sound your house would crumble, the same can be said of your business. Not walls, floors and doors, but Policies, Systems and Processes. If any one of the elements of your architecture is not operating correctly the consequences can be very serious. It is important to periodically, objectively evaluate the effectiveness of your policies, systems and processes and ensure that they are working for you. I have known organisations lose millions because an element of the architecture was flawed. Ensure your organisation is EQUIPPED or failure is inevitable (EQUIP- Explain, Quantify, Understand, Implement, Protect) http://bit.ly/uG9jjA
Tip Three – Support the People in your business with Powerful Management Behaviours. Your people are your most expensive but important asset. If they are not supported and managed then it’s like buying a really expensive car and not driving it! The people within your organisation need leadership, support and the tools and capability to do the job. If they don’t have these things your business is in danger. It takes years to build a good reputation, underperforming teams and people can kill your reputation in minutes. Empowering your teams through coaching and support can transform your management community and deliver outstanding results. http://bit.ly/v3OZ3K
Tip Four – Deliver Effective Projects.  I have seen hundreds of organisations run ineffective projects. Defining what projects need to be delivered and, understanding the objectives and benefits of the projects is critical. Projects and initiatives are not always the answer to business problems, but they are often put in place to do just that! Don’t run projects and initiatives within your business just for the sake of it. Ensure that there is a business need and benefit, recruit strong project management and support, measure and evaluate the project’s success. Don’t waste time and money on projects and initiatives that don’t add value and benefit your bottom line. Are your projects currently delivering? Do you know the expected financial benefit? http://bit.ly/u6TlbF
Tip Five – Effectively Communicate. So many organisations are so busy with the day to day operation that they forget to communicate what is happening. Keeping your customers and teams informed of what is going on within the business is critical to receiving their on-going commitment and support. Plain straight talking about the objectives, plans, challenges and successes will help bring your organisation together and focus everyone on any task in hand. Effective communication is the mechanism that can bring any of the things you are trying to achieve within your business to life. But remember be “Frank” and don’t make it more complicated than it needs to be http://bit.ly/ztXY4f
These tips are just the beginning for you and your business. Why not follow one or even two of these tips today and transform your business in 2012. Running a business is like raising a family. Nurture it and it will grow strong and be successful

We have helped hundreds of organisations using the techniques described above. To learn more give me a call or write to me at mike.bresnihan@thefrankboys.com

Successful people are often thought of as being lucky. Is it just luck? Ten top tips to become ‘lucky’.

“In order to succeed, we must first believe that we can.”     Michael Korda (Photo by Lars Lonninge)
There has been so much research which seeks to define the essence of a “successful” person. Character traits such as: communication, understanding, problem-solving, inspiring, confidence-building and trust always come up top. How does this help you? Well the answer is probably not a lot… the chances are you are trying to do all of this already. The real barriers to your successful self often lie in your values, beliefs and associated behaviours.
There’s a relevant body of knowledge called Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) which talks about values, beliefs, and patterns of thought and their impact on your perceived character traits. Now to be Frank, a lot of NLP moves into the fringes of the implausible. However, there is some great stuff in it, much of which I’d like to distil for you here.
Our approach is simple. It’s not about luck or magically becoming “inspiring”. It’s about helping your chances of succeeding in whatever you are trying to succeed at by becoming more self-aware. Becoming more self-aware helps you to influence your behaviours and the behaviours of others, which can only help you become successful, right?
Top Tip 1: List your three core values. These are the three values which you hold truly dear – and are often very telling. Mine are integrity, loyalty and results. Top Tip 2: If you are ever under pressure to compromise your core values then you will quickly become stressed/ angry/ depressed. In business this happens every day. Think about recent cases. What can you say or do to avoid this in the future? If you can remove these conflicts you will add calm to chaos and make friends of enemies. Top Tip 3: Your core values also tell you what you’re brilliant at. Use these core values in your language. Talk about your core values openly. These can rapidly become your unique brand, our selling point to others, the characteristics with which people will know you by. Top Tip 4: “If you believe you can, you probably can. If you believe you won’t, you most assuredly won’t” [Dennis Waitley”]. If you’re like most people coached, you’ll have beliefs that hold you back. Do you actually believe you can be C.E.O/ Director/ Manager/ The Top performer? Your language and behaviours will reflect your beliefs. Identify your top three restricting beliefs. Top Tip 5: Challenge these restricting beliefs. There’re no good! Take your personal challenge head on. Change your attitude and behaviours accordingly. Belief in yourself and others will belief in you. Top Tip 6: Think about how your core values translate into daily activities. For example if “Trust” is one of them you will most likely be happy to let people get on with things. Top Tip 7: Now consider the following example. If one of your core values is “Trust” and you do let people get on with things, what if this also translates into a perception that you are an absent manager/ director? How will this help your ‘luck’? List potential conflicts. What are you going to do in order to change this? Top Tip 8: Conduct the same exercise with your team/ direct reports. Encourage them to share the results. Create core values for your team/ direct reports. Try and encourage your team to see how their values might translate into behaviours that cause conflicts. Identify what values are really valuable and harness them
Now I’ll be honest with you, the next two tips are loved by many and hated by as many. Many of our clients have used these tips to GREAT affect… but some are just too cynical. So I’ll leave the remaining two tips as optional extras!
Top Tip 9: Think your way to success. Think about your future successful self. Think about the values and beliefs you have. Imagine the house, the car, the garden that your successful future self will have. What are your family doing? Create a picture in your mind of this happy future self. Top Tip 10: Create a physical drawing of your future happy self. Put it somewhere you will see it frequently. Your desk, your handbag/ wallet, your bathroom mirror. Use this image to add the positive beliefs into your daily life which will help you achieve.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Have you tried any of these tips? Do let us know! If you need any help with any of this then you’re not alone, take a look at our results focused Powerful Management Behaviours programme or drop me an email on tim.gray@thefrankboys.com.

Do you understand what people are saying in your business? Ten Tips to help you get “Frank” about business improvement

	“You must be the change you want to see in the world” – “Mahatma Gandhi”
This comment is very inspiring, change within organisations starts at the top. If you want people in your organisation to think and act differently you must SPEAK to them in a language that they understand and as the Leader, you must lead the change.
Hundreds of people have said to me “who is Frank?” to this I reply “Frank is a value!” I often get very blank looks. Having worked in management consultancy for 15 years, I learnt some very funny terms and statements in order to try to get my point across. Until I realised that actually what is most important is the ability to be able to talk to everyone within the business and help them to understand what needs to be done in order to improve things. This is how and why, “The Frank Boys” was born. Communication within business needs to be FRANK, OPEN and HONEST.  You don’t need jargon, you need results!I list below 10 tips to help you get “FRANK” about business improvement.
Tip One - Don’t Say – “Across the Board” – Say “We want to improve the entire business”. When you want to change things within your business, you need to be clear about it.
Tip Two - Don’t Say – “Think outside the box” – Say “We want to create new ideas for improvement”. Be open and honest about what you want to happen and what you want from your people. Help them to understand quickly and precisely what is needed and they will deliver for you.
Tip Three – Don’t Say – “Push the envelope” – Say “We need to try hard to think of new ways”. Often the answers to the problems are right in front of us. Nothing needs to be pushed, just supported and encouraged.
Tip Four – Don’t Say – “Head space” – Say “I need more time to think”. So many of us find it difficult to be honest about what is happening to us. If I say I need more time I will look weak and like I don’t care. Encourage people to be honest and realistic about the time and ability they have to do things.
Tip Five – Don’t Say “Bandwidth” – Say “We don’t have time at the moment, or we are very busy”. People are either busy or they are not. If people within organisations are genuinely busy then this is what they should say. It is foolish to try to mislead colleagues or customers by saying anything else.
Tip Six – Don’t Say “Ball Park” – Say “This is an estimate”. No one can be 100% accurate all of the time. So provide estimates and be open and honest about them. Encourage people within your business to clearly identify when something is an estimate or when they are quoting a realistic figure or timeline.
Tip Seven – Don’t Say – “Out of the loop” – Say “I wasn’t told, in, or I don’t know”. I have heard this phrase used literally millions of times in business. It is code for I didn’t read the email, I didn’t come to the meeting, my manager didn’t tell me or I don’t know the answer. All of these things need to be understood and acted upon. It is no good ignoring them. If you do they will reoccur for sure.
Tip Eight – Don’t Say – “Level playing field” – Say “Let’s agree our starting point or be straight about where we are today”. Acknowledging and agreeing where you are at the moment and what the starting position is, can sometimes be difficult and uncomfortable. Many people in business move away from this as quickly as possible. Don’t, face it head on and it will all seem clearer as a result.
Tip Nine – Don’t Say – “Back to the floor” – Say “I would like to come and see how the work is done or see things as a customer would”. Understanding the issues members of the organisation face is critical to fixing them. Having an idea of what is going on is not good enough. Lead from the front, support your management community and let them see you are committed to the future of your business and its people by talking to them.
Tip Ten – Don’t Say – “Brain dump” – Say “Get ideas”. The brain is far too important to all of us to even contemplate dumping it! Big or small we need it and we need everyone in business to use it. Everyone in your organisation has the ability to support the change, and improvements required in today’s climate. Talk to them, use them and you will be amazed at what you can deliver.
This list only scratches the surface in terms of the jargon used in business. But I hope helped highlight how confusing and restricting using jargon can be. Encouraging people within your business to commit and say what they mean is difficult, but openness, honesty and building trust are fundamental to success. Success can only be achieved through frank; straight talking communication. This should be applied whether you are trying to improve your Processes, People, Policies or Systems.

To learn more and get clear about what people are saying in your organisation, and how to improve things give me a call or write to me at mike.bresnihan@thefrankboys.com