Lack of preparation is every manager's nightmare.
Do you find yourself needing to get up to speed on a particular subject in time for an important meeting or event? Are you struggling to find both the time and the patience to track down the most appropriate material?
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According to freelance author Charles Parker, measuring performance is something that all organizations do. They may do it systematically and thoroughly, or on an ad hoc basis and superficially - but they do it.
External agents and organizations also measure performance - shareholders, investment houses, banks, regulators, and so on. Performance measurement is an important aid to making judgements and to making decisions.
And according to author Max Moullin, a well-designed performance measurement system is vital for ensuring that organizations deliver cost-effective, high-quality services that meet the needs of service users. But without feedback on all-important aspects and a system for ensuring that the organization acts on that information, managers are struggling to improve services.
For performance management to be effective, it must:
- Reflect results, not the activities used to produce results;
- Contain normalized metrics that can be used in benchmarking;
- Be seen to be practical and easily understood by all;
- Provide a continual self-assessment;
- Use reliable and robust measures;
- Provide a benefit that exceeds the cost; and
- Have clear ownership of all measures.
Find out about how your organization can improve its own performance management systems in this Briefing.
Articles:
Making breakthrough improvements in closing the books: a six-step system
Regulators and the investment community are demanding that closings become faster and more accurate. Most organizations are not equipped to meet these requirements, however. Many attempt to achieve them by investing more heavily in technology, but technology alone is not a panacea...
Originally published in the Handbook of Business Strategy
Volume 5 Number 1, 2004
Cognitive excellence: our people are our most important asset
I once heard an employee say: "If this company would only treat me as well as they do their machine tools, I would be a happy camper. They are constantly spending money on testing, upgrading, monitoring and attempting to get the best they can from their machine tool investment. Their consistent objective is Six-Sigma production quality." An interesting thought ...
Originally published in the Handbook of Business Strategy
Volume 5 Number 1, 2004
Closing the performance gap: five simple tools can help
Unhappy customers, uninformed employees, mounting chaos: sound familiar? If any or all of these debilitating elements are in play in your company, you have been experiencing the classic symptoms of "performance gap" - the difference between the business outcomes you expect and the hard reality of what you are getting.
Originally published in the Handbook of Business Strategy
Volume 5 Number 1, 2004
Effective management commitment enhances six sigma success
This article examines the approach in incorporating the six sigma quality concepts into the day-to-day business operations. The primary emphasis is not on the positive financial results that many companies were able to achieve with the implementation of this quality concept, but to illustrate how it can be linked into the overall company strategy.
Originally published in the Handbook of Business Strategy
Volume 5 Number 1, 2004
The journey to steps to six sigma
Six sigma means less than four (3.4) defects or errors experienced for every 1 million transactions - that is, only one out of every 250,000 parts produced would not fully meet all aspects of the customer's product specification. Simply put, "first-time" six sigma performance is a commitment to perfection.
Originally published in the Handbook of Business Strategy
Volume 5 Number 1, 2004
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