Implementing Performance Measures
Determining what to measure can take considerable effort, but it will probably be less than one-third of the total effort required to implement an efficient and effective measurement system. Data collection and processing systems will have to be implemented to produce the measures; everyone will have to be trained in using the systems and measures; and as the measures are used, some problems are sure to be identified that will require changes to the system.
Perhaps the greatest challenge faced when implementing performance measurement systems is changing an organisation’s culture. Using performance measures requires managers and employees to change the way they think and act. For most people, this is relatively easy, but for some, changing old beliefs and habits is very difficult.
Overcoming such problems requires strong leadership to provide appropriate direction and support. The best measurement system in the world will yield few benefits if the right knowledge, skills, abilities, and values are not developed in a company. An organisation doesn’t just interface with a measurement system; it is part of the system.
Developing and implementing effective measurement systems requires leadership, commitment, and hard work. Some investment is...
Read more
The challenge of merging two corporate cultures
Teik Oh
The most challenging change management initiative is the proper management of a successful merger between two organisations. While the actual steps and processes in themselves are not uniquely different or any more complex than any other business reorganisation, the cultural environment in which a merger takes place creates a very different situation.
Unlike any other change management engagement where disparate groups at least work under one singularly identifiable organisation, a merger brings together two totally unique groups with different core values and working environments that need to go through the same change and emerge united. In a merger, while there are usually areas of “fit”, it is unlikely that the deeper indicators of corporate culture such as corporate history and corporate experience will have any but the most remote of matches.
Mergers and acquisition transactions are usually entered into to gain advantages yet the vast majority of these transactions are done with scant thought on how best to maintain the strengths of both parties and indeed to use them to synthesise greater strengths. Accounting models are not the best indicators for merger success; in a merger 2 plus 2 rarely equals 4.
The prime...
Read more
Effective Meetings
Your meeting should be an event that produces results or outcomes and not the "process of meeting." Things need to get accomplished. To improve the results of a meeting, begin by defining and improving the meeting process and people's commitments to it.
According to a study by the University of Southern California in Los Angeles (as cited in Forbes, 10/25/93)
Read more
- The average meeting takes place in the company conference room and 11 in the morning and lasts an hour and 30 minutes.
- It is attended by nine people -- two managers, four co-workers, two subordinates and one outsider -- who have received two hour prior notification
- It has no written agenda, and its purported purpose is complete only 50% of the time.
- A quarter of meeting participants complain they waste between 11 and 25 percent of the time discussing irrelevant issues
- A full third of them feel pressured to publicly espouse opinions with which they privately disagree. Another third feel they have minimal or no influence on the discussion
- Although 36% of meetings result in a "complete" resolution of the topic at hand, participants considered only one percent of those conclusions to be particularly creative.
- A whopping 63% of meeting...