Performance Perspectives

Category Archives: Enterprise Performance

The Pursuit of a More INTEGRATED and UNIFYING Performance Management Process

Posted on by

 

Try and google any profession or discipline in business, and you’ll no doubt get millions of search results, ranging from the most basic definitions and history of the profession (a la wiki pages), to a litany of vendors and experts doing everything from advertising their offers to providing tips and “how to ” advice.

But while the volume of search results might be a bit more frustrating than you might like, the general topic discussed remains relatively consistent. Google “law”, and you get lawyers and law related topics. Google “medicine” and you get medical advice and thinking. Google “golf” and you get golf tips, instruction, and scores. Sure, you get content reflecting different variants of the profession, and even varying depth of discussion, but not different professions altogether.

Now try and google “perform

ance management” and watch what you get. Chances are, you might feel like you’re wading through a forest at night without a flashlight. But if you wade into it long enough, you’ll start to see four separate categories of content (and what essentially has emerged over the years as four separate professions) with their own content, messages, thought leaders, followers, and overall “ecosystem” (a bit much for what is really a single and simple, yet very important, business process).

  • You’ll see those who focus on the pure HR discipline, where performance management carries a connotation of employee appraisal systems, compensation, coaching and the myriad of other topics. Most would put in the “human capital” context.
  • You’ll also see those who focus on the metrics and measurement aspect of the business (the importance of measurement, kpi’s, performance reporting and analysis). These results often cater the needs of corporate performance or measurement functions.
  • You will also see some level of strategic dialogue, from strategy mapping to alignment of executive teams and even basic planning frameworks taught in first year b- school. All of this is generally oriented toward strategic planning functions and the executive team themselves.
  • But by far, the most prevalent hits will come from the business intelligence (BI) community, which is most often geared to the IT and sometimes the CFO crowd.

For any of us who have spent time in the PM discipline, we know that there is no “one right answer”. All of these professions create value in their own domain. And the discussions you find in each area- be it on blog sites, web sites, or social media, carry very useful content. But they still show up as very different in terms of their focus, content, audience, and even the agenda they are pushing.

Ok, but is this such a big deal?

Well, lets think about this from the perspective of a client executive trying to implement an EPM platform within their company, and this picture starts to get confusing and frustrating. Not only are they forced to deal with each of these four domains with the vendor community, but they are forced to deal with the very same internal factions and silos within their own Organization. I can’t think of many (actually any) other disciplines that carry this much confusion around roles, processes, and systems within a business. Having to wade through that kind of maze wastes valuable time and energy that could otherwise be spent on implementing a far better and more effective EPM solution.

Some of us in the performance management community have made our humble contributions to clear up some of this confusion. For example, we’ve started to see the term BUSINESS performance management used to differentiate it from the appraisal and compensation stuff. Or “portfolio performance management” to describe how PM applies to our investment portfolios. I’ve even seen the term “operational performance management” used to describe how this discipline applies to operating units versus executive groups. But does any of this really help, or does it further confuse things? As if the HR guys aren’t focused on BUSINESS performance management…or that the OPM guys don’t care about EPM or PPM…and that this is all somehow separate from what the “BI folks” focus on— come on!!!

My not so humble opinion is that we should drop all these semantic gyrations, and focus more on what we are trying to create collectively. Performance management is an INTEGRATED CORPORATE PROCESS that includes ALL of the above. But until we think about this as one unified discipline, and one unified process, we will never have the kind of substantive impact on the business that we all know is possible (and very likely even bigger than any of us can individually see today).

Now there are most certainly organizations out there who do in fact “get it” from an integrated standpoint. But from first hand experience, I can tell you that these companies have fought an uphill battle all the way- one that has only been made more difficult by those inside the profession itself…including many of the current thought leaders in each of these arenas.

I’d like to see more effort by the collective performance management community…within and across all of these disciplines to align around a more integrated definition of performance management, and a common approach to deploying an integrated performance management platform, rather than four individual solutions. Sure, we’ll bring all these capabilities to the table to enable that…but let’s start viewing these components as pieces of the puzzle rather than each continuing to view theirs separate and distinct solutions.

Call me naive if you will, but I think this all starts by stopping all this “silo style” dialogue and begin spending way more time speaking with a common voice and more integrated narrative.

I invite some healthy debate and dialogue around this topic, so please forward your thoughts and comments and we’ll see if we don’t make some bigger progress in the months and years ahead.

-b

Author: Bob Champagne is Managing Partner of onVector Consulting Group, a privately held international management consulting organization specializing in the design and deployment of Performance Management tools, systems, and solutions. Bob has over 25 years of Performance Management experience and has consulted with hundreds of companies across numerous industries and geographies. Bob can be contacted at bob.champagne@onvectorconsulting.com

What Can Social Media Teach Us About Performance Management?

Posted on by

I suspect, quite a bit.

While I’ve worked in a number of different industries in the Performance Management discipline, I must admit that I’m relatively new to this whole Social Media thing. One of the things that quickly became very clear to me is that the vast majority of posts- be it on twitter, blog sites, or discussion boards that focus on the subject of Performance Management, Measurement, or BI (Business Intelligence) in general, tends to be geared to those disciplines as they relate to Social Media.

Now, either this is an industry where the “management of performance” is at a level so disproportionately higher than any other in today’s society (which I find doubtful given the state of Business Performance in general), or it is simply one where the majority of developers and advocates of BI solutions happen to find themselves playing in today. Or it is because the users of social media have found it so useful in their marketing, sales, and CRM processes, that playing in this space is of such paramount importance to their competitive success. Or perhaps it is simply because social media, by its very nature, is quite an addictive “sport”, behaviorally driving them to expand their network and  crave the “daily fix” of data that tells them how they are doing.

Quite frankly I don’t really care which it is, and neither should you. Most likely, it’s a combination of all of the above. But regardless of what is driving this passion for performance information, the manner in which performance is being proactively managed in this space is quite impressive, and carries with it some interesting dynamics worth noting and taking back into our businesses where performance improvement REALLY MATTERS!

Here are a few of my observations on why it works so well in social media space:

  • Data Visualization– from both a creative and simplicity standpoint. Just a quick scouring of the internet yields hundreds of websites that offer a variety of visualization tools that offer easy to read/ easy to interpret metrics that can tell you how you are doing in a single snapshot. I’ve worked with organizations that spend thousands, if not millions of dollars installing performance dashboards that quitefrankly don’t hold a candle to the style and simplicity of some of these tools. And while I don’t underestimate the nature and complexity of some of these “corporate projects” (data gathering, conditioning, integration, report generation, cultural dynamics, etc.), the fact is that many of them have missed the importance of the visualization part altogether. In my 20+ years of working in the field of Performance Management, the most important thing I’ve learned is that the ability to communicate messages and results is the MOST VITAL part of making the system work, and data visualization is the key to that. Social Media analytics have made significant advances in this regard, and offer many good ideas that we should all start looking at to improve our BPM processes.
  • Ease of access, and ease of use– Simply stated, the performance analytics in this space are cheap and easy. Notice I don’t say cheap and dirty, because they’re not. No matter what tool you end up using in this arena, they are all usually one click away. They don’t require big downloads, layers of security, or complex set up. Even those that require a subscription cost only a few bucks a month. Now I’m not suggesting you can set up a corporate wide EPM reporting system for 100 bucks a month (although a small business probably could !), I am saying that we can certainly take a page out of their playbook. Fact is, the part where our effort and resources should be strongest is in selecting the right metrics, setting the right targets, and shaping the culture to fully leverage the information at hand- NOT in creating  (or in some cases REINVENTING) new applications, when there are those  that might be able to simply “plug and play” with our existing process and data. Now before I get an earful from the myriad of software vendors out there who think I am way over simplifying this, I would ask a few simple questions. Why is it that companiesstill try to manage data using their antiquated excel and access tools and data models? Why is it that companies who do invest millions in “big time” BI systems and solutions still struggle so much in getting users to actually USE their reports in the day to day management of the business. More often than not simple is better.
  • Focus on the result desired– How many of you would  admit to actually “getting lost in the data” from time to time? I’m betting quite a few. I cant tell you how many times I see organizations tracking dozens of performance stats, but give me blank stares when I ask them what their desired performance outcomes are, or what their targets should be for the coming years. Yet many of the tools in Social Media space seem to start at the beginning with those very questions, as they should. Many of these tools, begin by explaining WHY certain metrics matter. They proceed to tell you HOW these metrics impact each other. And the good ones take your right into the space of actually setting your targets, with some even providing useful benchmarks that align directly with your desired outcomes.
  • The gaming mindset– whether you call this “gamification” (a term that is used in the industry to describe how effective companies harness consumers’ inherent  desire to “participate in a game”- be it the collection of “badges” on face-book games, to the age old loyalty programs of the airlines and hotels), or simply recognize it for what it is- practices than encourage simple behavior modification (remember Skinner’s pigeons?). The fact is that most human beings resonate with this. If we can accept the fact that this behavior pattern exists, then we can also begin to ask ourselves how it can work inside our businesses. People wake up day in and day out to check their Facebook counts, twitter stats or online game rankings. We should be able to build that same dynamic into wanting to see the same kind of “performance updates” in the workplace. I submit that there are two reasons why this hasn’t occurred (beyond the fact that people care about themselves more than they do the workplace). First, we haven’t kept it simple enough (its hard to get interested in 100 metrics or metrics we don’t understand). And second, we as managers haven’t made it something they should care about. Once you’ve captured their interest, the driving desire to understand and analyze “why” will soon follow. 
  • They understand COMMUNITY, and where they live- Often literally. Human beings, whether at home or on the job tend to harness the power of those around them to increase their enjoyment, quality of life and need for interaction. Social media by its definition has tapped into that and really made it a thriving business. But what does this mean in the workplace? Our IT systems in business tend to be used only for quantitative data and analysis. But what if we could mine that data so that we can understand what our employees and managers really CARE ABOUT. Where is the dialogue focused? What do they talk about and care about? When do they talk? What trends are they worried about? Perhaps this may sound a bit far fetched for the business community, but I am of the believe that there is a world of data out there that we could really harness in getting metrics and performance issues on the radar screens of our stakeholders, and in the right context.

    Twitter Analytics- A typical "tweet cloud" showing density of discussion topics and interests based on past cloud interaction

     

    * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

    There are probably a myriad of reasons that I haven’t named here, and certainly I invite you to add to my list. But these strike me as a good starting point in understanding how we can begin to translate these ideas back to the business setting  so that we can better leverage the investments we continue to make in our own performance improvement efforts.

-b

Author: Bob Champagne is Managing Partner of onVector Consulting Group, a privately held international management consulting organization specializing in the design and deployment of Performance Management tools, systems, and solutions. Bob has over 25 years of Performance Management experience and has consulted with hundreds of companies across numerous industries and geographies. Bob can be contacted at bob.champagne@onvectorconsulting.com

Superbowl XLV-More Data Overload?

Posted on by

 

Have we gone overboard with game-day statistics?

_______________________________

Perhaps. But as a “numbers and metrics” guy, I’d be remiss if I didn’t offer my humble contribution to tomorrow’s big game, and the plethora of little factoids that always emerge as game time approaches.

Here are a few statistics that I dug up, along with some conclusions I am inferring from that data. Full disclosure though: I wont be putting any money on these conclusions, as we all go a little “data happy” this time of year. But hey, at least it makes for good game-day conversation, right?

So with that, I’ll go ahead and add  to the already burgeoning wealth of useless facts to spice up your Superbowl Sunday…

I. The game-day experience (Eat, drink, and play ball…)

  • 14,500 tons of chips will be served by those at, or viewing the game
  • Over 8 Million pounds of guacamole will be consumed
  • The average number of people at Superbowl parties will be 17
  • 5% of viewers will watch the game alone
  • Superbowl Sunday is expected to continue its trend of being the biggest winter “grilling” day of the year (Residents in the Northeast must not be included in the sample group)

CONCLUSION:

I need to make adjustments to my New Year’s weight loss resolution before I get disappointed. Then again…I won’t be grilling (too damned cold!!)

————

II. Wagering on the game…

  • Odds of Fergie showing up dressed as a Cowboy’s cheerleader (5:1)
  • Odds of a punt hitting the stadium screen or scoreboard (10:1)
  • Odds of a Steelers player imitating Aaron Rodgers “belt celebration: (1:35)
  • Largest Lead of the game (Over/Under 13.50)
  • # times the word “lockout” will be mentioned by announcers during the game (Over/Under 1.5)

CONCLUSION:

Are you kidding me? Save your money.

————

III. Spectators and viewers…

  • The average cost of a ticket will exceed $5000 USD per person
  • The cost of a 50 yard line premium seat now stands at $15,946
  • 35% of ticket holders will “write off” the game as a Corporate Business Expense
  • An average of $59.33 per person will be spent on game related merchandise
  • There will be more alcohol related accidents than any other day of the year
  • 6% will call in sick the day after the game (I guess this means 94% wont be THAT drunk)

CONCLUSION:

Again, save your money! Drink more. Don’t drive.

————

IV. Predicting the winners and losers…

  • Packers have scored 12 Touchdowns in the NFC playoffs, 4 more than any other playoff team (skewed by the Falcons playoff collapse?)
  • Packers averaged 369 yards per game (double that of the Steelers)
  • Packers lead the series 18-14 in head to head competition
  • Steelers have won 6 Superbowls to the Packers 3
  • Packers scored more defensive touchdowns than any other team in the playoffs

CONCLUSION:

Inconclusive, but I’m sticking with the Packers.

————

V. The Commercials (Why we all really watch the game…)

  • Budweiser has spent $235 Million as the Superbowl’s premier sponsor over the last 10 years
  • 26% of viewers view Commercial’s as more important than the game itself
  • 75% are “entertained” more than “influenced” by the commercials
  • Average “sales uplift” in the month following the Superbowl is +11% (sales increase averages 250 times the ad spend)
  • Fox will bring in more than $200 Million in direct advertising revenue

CONCLUSION:

The 11% is reported by the CFO’s who approve the ads. I’m still skeptical.

—————-

There you have it. There’s plenty more where those came from. I welcome you to add to the list in case you have some little factoids that might change my conclusions, or simply want to add to this year’s  Superbowl data fest.

Of course, as the game approaches, we’ll see more and more ridiculous stats emerge- and perhaps even more so, when the announcers and statisticians take over between 6PM and Midnight tomorrow. No doubt, the data cubes will be in full swing, slicing and dicing every stat from the completion rate of Aaron Rodgers on artificial turf manufactured in Texas, to the the number of field goals that are missed in the opposing teams end zone by kickers with two or more siblings. Hell, we’re already placing bets on how many times the Fox announcers will mention the proverbial “lockout”.

Seriously though, while this is always a fun exercise, reflecting on this reminds me of a trap we can all get in from time to time. All of us know the brutal reality inside our companies …That we sometimes get so caught up in the data that we seem to lose the “bigger picture”. Simple facts that are “interesting”, and “convenient” to ground our internal hunches and beliefs, can also distract us and make us lazy to go after the real answers that are waiting there if we have the patience to process them a little  further.

That notwithstanding, I hope this post adds to your game-day enjoyment and I wish your team (or commercial) the best of luck tomorrow (as long as your team is not the Steelers!).

I hope the Saints are back next year!

-b

Author: Bob Champagne is Managing Partner of onVector Consulting Group, a privately held international management consulting organization specializing in the design and deployment of Performance Management tools, systems, and solutions. Bob has over 25 years of Performance Management experience and has consulted with hundreds of companies across numerous industries and geographies. Bob can be contacted at bob.champagne@onvectorconsulting.com

Putting the Customer back into Customer Service…

Posted on by

I’ve been spending some time lately with a new working group of Customer Service organizations to improve their performance measurement and management practices, and to better align these practices with the dynamics that characterize today’s Customer Service organizations. There were a lot of drivers behind why I initiated this working group, but the primary one was the frustration in watching the world around us change dramatically, amidst a measurement and accountability system that has remained largely unchanged for decades.

If you work in or around Customer Service organizations, and are a good student of customer behaviors, you know what I mean. Customer behaviors are always changing and adapting- thats not new. But in the last 12-18 months, that change is approaching lightening speed. The expansion of mobile applications, alternative transaction mediums, customer’s acceptance and use of social media, and the vehicles they use to acquire and distribute information have all changed radically in that timeframe. In fact, current research is telling us that we may be hitting a new threshold, where things that were becoming “common place” for the “early adopter ” community, are now becoming fully embodied by the mainstream. Yet many of our customer service platforms look strikingly similar to how they looked  almost a decade ago. Thats not to say  we haven’t changed our organizations and processes at all. Most of us have made changes that look and feel significant to our organizations. But in contrast with what has happened in our customer communities, they only scratch the surface.

So what needs to change?

  • WHAT WE MEASURE IS WHAT WE MANAGE-
    This is an age old adage in performance management and all of us have heard it throughout our careers. But are we taking it to heart as it relates to our CS processes? Take a hard look at what you measure, track and routinely benchmark in your business. What is the proportion between conventional metrics (e.g.”average” speed of answer, hold times, abandon rates, first call resolution, etc.) and metrics that align with the new customer dynamics we are seeing? Some of us have started this journey in measuring things like % paperless billing, self service transactions, and web usage. But this is really the tip of the iceberg. We need to think bigger and bolder. Social media interactions, mobile channel transactions, “near misses” on customer churn, and  payment behaviors are just a few areas where we have new ground to plow. But it starts with changing our perspective, and aligning it with how our customers have changed.
  • HOW WE MANAGE IT NEEDS TO CHANGE TOO!-
    As CS Managers and Executives, we know how to manage our conventional processes, and most of us know what behaviors WE would like t see change. Some of us have even begun adopting some of the measures I mentioned above. Take something like the percentage of self service transactions- our ability to steer customers from the call queue to the web, for example. We may have made it a priority OF OURS, and may have even added a new metric or two to our management reports and tracking systems. But have we changed our processes and activities in any material way to enable that to happen?
    I heard a good example of this from someone I sat next to on a flight last week that I’ll share to reinforce the point. He was having trouble with his new TV/Internet provider and had been procrastinating in calling them to inform them of the problem. He remembered this when he was on the way to the airport and decided to contact them from his car but didn’t have their number handy. He googled the term “”company x” customer Service phone #” (not something i advise doing from the car…and I sure hope he pulled over for that step!) and the top 5 hits were simply redirects to the company’s website- urgh!!!. Then the madness really began. He had to go 2-3 layers down into the site to find the number. At that point, he called them, but because he didn’t have his account info handy, he had to go through 5 IVR menus (no bounce out option) before he got anywhere. When he finally got to the agent queue, he was put into a hold queue for 12 minutes (something he remembered clearly because it sits at the top of the call screen on his smartphone!) before finally giving up. From the company’s viewpoint, he ended up doing “his part” to resolve  the issue later that evening with a trouble ticket on the website. But all of this clearly produced a pretty frustrated customer who ended up telling others about his experience (and i assume it was more than just me since he was an avid user of social media.) I am not certain about this, but I suspect all of this went unnoticed by the company, and to make matters worse, the company probably felt pretty good about things since it got another “self service” transaction to add to its performance stats. Changing the metric without changing the process is a sure recipe for failure.
  • DONT BE AFRAID OF RADICAL CHANGE- Dealing with situations like the one mentioned above is going to be a complex challenge. It will involve seeing things differently, listening to customers differently, and being brave enough to sometimes start over with a real “blue sky” thinking. Some of the best advice I ever got was to try and “see things from the customer’s customers eyes”. That means climbing into their world, understanding where they live, how they interact , and conforming our business model to that way of thinking. Those who are really doing that are finding that the changes they are making to their processes are not incremental, but rather “orders of magnitude” changes to their entire CS operating model.

While this may sound scary to a some of you, it can also be a new beginning- an opportunity to set a bold new mission for what Customer Service means to your customers and your organization.

If you are wrestling with this topic, I invite you to comment and join the debate. I’d also appreciate any thoughts you may have  on the subject, and anything you may have done to bring your CS measurement and management systems into better alignment with changing dynamics of your customers. You can also email me at bob.champagne@onvectorconsulting.com with any thoughts or perspectives you may have on the topic.

-b

Author: Bob Champagne is Managing Partner of onVector Consulting Group, a privately held international management consulting organization specializing in the design and deployment of Performance Management tools, systems, and solutions. Bob has over 25 years of Performance Management experience and has consulted with hundreds of companies across numerous industries and geographies. Bob can be contacted at bob.champagne@onvectorconsulting.com

Spare No Expense? – When spending more money actually decreases performance

Posted on by

Can you tell where the risk is in this picture?

I realize for some, any discussion of performance in the Safety and Security arenas may feel like touching the “third rail” in your business and process improvement portfolio. In fact, that may be exactly what it is.

Let’s be frank. We are all certainly appreciative of those who serve on the front line of keeping us safe and secure, and are certainly indebted to those who continue to deter or prevent efforts to harm us on the home front, particularly since 911. But as of late, it feels as if this “protective layer” of our society has taken on a life of its own. Safety and Security efforts, whether in public service or private enterprise, now appear largely “exempt” from the type of investment diligence or performance scrutiny that almost every other business process or function routinely endures.

No place is this more apparent than in the area of air travel. If you travel like me, week in and week out, you try to view the security around you as a “necessary inconvenience”, and if you’re lucky, sometimes you can make it fade into the background as more or less “white noise”. But at other times, it becomes almost unbearable, and makes you question whether we have gone too far and perhaps blown right past the point of what is rational…or what many would call the point of diminishing returns.

Last week, I traveled to Canada from the East Coast through Denver. From the start of the trip, you see security all around you. It starts with the almost inconspicuous. The handful of security officers outside the drop-off zone who essentially keep vehicles from getting too close to the airport for any length of time for the obvious reasons. Then there are the few security faces patrolling the ticketing area, although I see fewer and fewer of these of late. The real security doesn’t really begin until you enter the always crowded baggage screening area. And it begins in a BIG way. At any busy airport, there are multiple layers that emerge at this point of the process:

  • First there are those who guide you into the security line and make sure you have a boarding pass
  • Then there are the TSA ID Checkers (For lack of a better term.)- the ones that make sure you have a boarding pass and validate it with your ID or passport
  • Of course, there are those who tell you what screening lane to go to
  • …and those who guide your bag onto the belt and make sure things get into screener’s “black box”
  • There are those folks who apparently manage the “inventory” of the plastic containers that carry the laptops and other loose items over the screening belt
  • …and the agents who guide the passenger through the metal detector or body scan (the red light/ green light dude)
  • Occasionally, there is the added service of the person who guides you out of the metal detector/ body scan and toward your belongings (in case you forgot whether your conveyor was the one on the right or the left)
  • There are the screeners themselves (the ones behind the TV monitors, and in the case of the body scanners, somewhere behind closed doors)
  • …and those who make sure the items come out of their “black box” and keep the flow moving
  • There are those who collect the plastic bins so they can recycled and brought back to other end per the instruction of person #5 above
  • There supervisors at the end of the chain, who are always “at the ready” to handle any problems that may arise
  • …and of course, all of the other stuff we don’t see (People behind the scenes monitoring cameras, immigration and customs agents, people reading the body scanners, et al.)

Perhaps my sarcasm is bleeding out of the above list. But it’s not because I don’t value the job these people do. It’s because I have serious doubt in three things. 1) That we are investing in the right areas (proportionally)…steering resources to the the areas that have the biggest threat potential 2) That the investment in each area is commensurate with the risk (which conventionally is defined as the product of probability and consequence), and 3) that the overall processes are as efficient and effective as possible.

My take is that we haven’t really asked these tough questions largely because the areas of safety and security have been viewed like “blank checks” to most since 911. To answer the question, is to put ourselves dangerously close to assigning probabilities and price tags to human lives. So we kind of “exempt” these areas from the whole performance debate. We don’t challenge the investment. We don’t challenge the efficiency of the process. And we certainly don’t subject the outcomes or value produced by these investments to any real scrutiny. In my view, its very much how we treat the performance of educators and teachers in our public schools. The process is simply “too important” to subject it to the pains of proactively measuring and managing real performance accountability.

So back to airline security for a minute…

  • ARE WE FOCUSING OUR RESOURCES APPROPRIATELY? If so, why are nearly all of our visible security resources located “behind” the security entrance? In Denver, I encountered 59 (yes I actually counted them) visible security personnel from the time i walked in the door to the time i boarded the plane–53 of whom were located inside the screening area itself.I know I am not the first person to draw this conclusion, but if you were trying to inflict harm and terror on a large group of people, you would probably do so BEFORE you got caught up in the first layer of security (i.e. in the line itself amidst the biggest crowd). But that is not where their focus is.
    The majority of the 8.1 Billion dollars we spent in airline/ airport security in 2009 was focused on the 50,000+ TSA agents ( and the associated technology and equipment) that are situated INSIDE the boundaries of the screening area itself. Ergo- The nature of last week’s attack in Moscow should not have been a surprise at all.

TSA Agents at work

  • ARE OUR PROCESSES AS EFFICIENT AND EFFECTIVE AS THEY COULD BE? This one is easy. NO. Not even close. Those who defend the process sometimes steer the argument to “the deterrent value” that is achieved by the physical presence and show of force the TSA provides. Perhaps a little, but their argument falls apart quickly. To any reasonably educated person, the process on the surface simply LOOKS chaotic, uncoordinated and misguided. Anyone who has thought about this in a challenging way could probably tell you the top 10 ways they would beat the system. Instead, we spend over $8 Billion on a process that could very likely be pierced in a heartbeat. In my view, this is because we layer new processes on top of bad ones…never reverting back to the underlying value that each component activity or task contributes to the desired outcome. And this doesn’t stop with TSA. Look at Customs and Immigration and you’ll see the same thing. Last week I sat on a plane at the gate for 40 minutes in Denver (after landing almost an hour early) because of a new regulation that required passengers entering the US to remain on the aircraft until they were within 10 minutes of their scheduled arrival time. I’m no immigration expert, but its hard for me to conceive of a risk that warrants this type of policy guideline (I’m all ears if there is one!). Another example is the safety briefing on the aircraft itself. Other than the 15 or so references aimed at blackberry and ipad users (which is a whole separate debate in and of itself) , nothing materially has changed with this briefing in over four decades. We just keep “layering on” without ever pruning back. Come on…are there still people out there who don’t know how to buckle a seat belt??? .
  • ARE THE RESOURCES WE SPEND COMMENSURATE WITH THE RISKS WE ARE MITIGATING? This is the real question, isn’t it? But as I said before, answering it begins to place a value on the people and assets your are trying to protect. Again, we spend 8 Billion dollars that we didn’t spend before 2001. And that is really a small fraction of the overall investment, much of which we don’t see visibly. And since much of that is reactive strategies and tactics (dealing with the causes of events that have already happened), it is not likely to deter or prevent the NEXT real threat… be it mail rooms, baggage collection areas, biological attacks, railway threats, etc. Next time you travel (whether its by air, or just to the mall to buy something), look around you and ask yourself how much investment is being made in the spirit of “protecting” you, and then try and ask yourself how much of it really adds value. I continue to be amazed how much of it could be pruned back with little impact on the end result. The cost of getting to the “zero defect” solution- which is most likely not achievable anyway- would be enormous and would suck the lifeblood out of any industry trying to survive in the economic climate. (I’m reminded of Ralph Nader’s discussions of smoke hoods and air bags being mandated by the airlines (the latter is actually in testing as we speak!)). Simply speaking the “safety and security” has ostensibly given us a license to not challenge these investments and view the money pit as bottomless.

While I’d like to think all of this is just impacting the airline industry and travel community, most of us know that is far from accurate. Many of us can see this in our day to day lives. I am reminded of this every time I enter a client’s office building and see 2-3 guards at the guard desk badging and signing in visitors (a process that in its traditional application is of marginal value to begin with, and is often bypassed altogether by the people it is designed to protect!). And for most businesses, that is just the visible part of the process. There are the 24/7 parking lot patrols, grounds security, and those in the policy and admin part of the process; NOT to mention all of the security surrounding corporate and IT systems risks which often dwarf what we see on the surface.

Then there are the “first responder” type functions we all have in our local communities, which REALLY IS the “third rail” if there is one , and one that I would be best served to avoid (but not just yet). Take a State like New Jersey where we have literally dozens and dozens of small towns (some as small as 3-5 square miles in geography), each of whom have their own Police, Fire and EMS departments and management infrastructure. Layer on top of that the often restrictive policy and union guidelines (one of which actually requires sending two EMS units to every 911 call), and you have a recipe for gross ineffficiency, runaway budgets and little prayer of any future tax cuts.

The list clearly continues, and there is no shortage of examples like this. And while only a few of you may be directly associated with the management of safety and security functions in your organizations, all of us are in a position to initiate this debate, and perhaps even influence it.

The steps we need to take are not that different from what we would take in any business process. They revolve around the questions I’ve posed above: Are the investments commensurate with the outcomes we want to achieve? Are we effectively deploying these investments in the right areas? Are our processes efficient and effective? Does each activity make a contribution to value?

A simple start would be to begin measuring the function like we do many other business processes. Some benchmarking certainly wouldn’t hurt. But most importantly, look inside the the process itself with an eye toward the forensics. Begin by establishing a linkage between every activity and the outcome and value it produces. Without that, the layering of bad process on top of bad process will no doubt continue.

Its not rocket science. But we must start by bringing these area into focus and increasing the transparency of the issues. Continuing to exempt them from the debate will only delay the improvement that we all know is possible.

-b

Author: Bob Champagne is Managing Partner of onVector Consulting Group, a privately held international management consulting organization specializing in the design and deployment of Performance Management tools, systems, and solutions. Bob has over 25 years of Performance Management experience and has consulted with hundreds of companies across numerous industries and geographies. Bob can be contacted at bob.champagne@onvectorconsulting.com