​Whenever companies are trying to save on their Operating Budget, one of the first things they consider is down-sizing. So, before you consider re-structuring or down-sizing your Division, consider doing this instead…

Obtain clear understanding of what exact work each person in a certain position performs on a planned basis. Also, obtain information on typical unexpected activities they are asked to perform. Now, it is true that this becomes easy to measure when the groups in question conduct a measurable service or manufacture components which can easily be measured.

But when it comes to internal service functions such as IT, HR, Finance and so on- such clear understanding of an individual’s daily work function along with performance metrics is usually not available. Though it is not difficult to identify or measure. There are several ways in which it can be done for internal service Functional areas. 

​Sandhya Bhat MSc, CSSMBB, CSSE ​has developed several new (under patent filing) and enhanced existing strategic methodologies to improve technology and human capital utilization, produce greater ROI on investments and streamline service delivery. She is an acclaimed author, speaker, a sought after thought leader and an avid world traveler.

​#workforceplanning #saynotolayoffs #organizationaleffectiveness #humanresources #humancapitalmanagement #layoffs #downsizing #laborrelations #workforce

​There are many organizations, where employees resist providing clear and detailed information about their work. This usually stems from their belief that if they are the only ones knowing about certain critical work item, then it will secure their position within the team.

This is extremely detrimental to the organization, not just from Business Continuity standpoint, but also by creating a toxic work culture! Lack of information causes further confusion, stress, and delays in scheduled timelines! This creates lot of waste which not only consumes operational budget but can also cost the organization in diminished output and lost revenue. 

Simple 3-Step Plan to Break Out of a Clique-Organizational Culture: 
​
1. Reward team workmanship with special recognition.
2. Make proactive attempts to break internal cliques and ‘corporate gangs’. Deter such behavior by calling out bad practices and where required, follow-up with strict warnings and even disciplinary action.
3. Make process and procedural documentation, a mandatory work activity. Provide clear directive on how they can complete this work along with realistic timelines. Provide support and mentoring services (where required).

​Sandhya Bhat MSc, CSSMBB, CSSE has developed several new (under patent filing) and enhanced existing strategic methodologies to improve technology and human capital utilization, produce greater ROI on investments and streamline service delivery. She is an acclaimed author, speaker, a sought after thought leader and an avid world traveler.

​#organizationalculture #leanorganization #organizationaleffectiveness

​Growing up most of us loved to read comics- they were entertaining- not just for the stories but also their presentation. They had us captivated! But then as we grew older and had to read those drudging scientific journals- it was hard to inspire "fun reading" (can't you tell, how I have had to read my fair share of not only reading but also writing for those boring journals! :-)).

​Over the years I have heard from many friends and colleagues that they find it very difficult to feel engaged reading a book without pictures. Because of it, they read on business topics only when it is absolutely necessary but typically don't feel inspired to read for "personal development".

Yes, it is true- pictures do paint a thousand words and illustrations add so much value by visually engaging our readers. So we at Macro2Micro Learning decided to bring an amount of "fun" to how business/ corporate learning information is shared via our micro learning portal, by introducing Info-Comics!!

I helped introduce this concept and design our first info-comics- a Corporate Wisdom series, which conveys key, informative and helpful concepts in an engrossing comic-style presentation. The first one is on Kaizen for Manufacturing Competitiveness & Organizational Effectiveness. There are several more in the working and should be ready and available on the portal in the days to come...

#kaizen #continuousimprovement #DrShrutiBhat #businessprocessmanagement #businessprocessimprovement #manufacturingeffectiveness #organizationaleffectiveness #manufacturing #serviceorganization

Definition: What is a Process?

A series of actions or steps taken in order to achieve a particular end result.

The next question that comes up is, what are some of key attributes of a Process. 

So, here are four key aspects of a process: 

1. Clear definition of tasks (i.e. performed actions)
2. Detailed sequence of how these tasks take place, i.e. in what order
3. Identification of all the resources that perform these tasks/actions (these could be people or technology-applications)
4. And finally, the Business Objectives which we are looking to achieve by conducting and completing that process.

​At the very minimum, an individual process should show WHO is doing WHAT and in WHICH sequence to accomplish a particular aim or goal- which is the objective of the process.

If we need to make a decision which determined further course of action, then it needs to be included within the process. Any reasoning for choosing a particular action-path should be indicated as reference details within the Process documentation.
​
Also, it is important that we “normalize” Processes that are too complex, so that they are represented in a simplified, easy to understand manner. This will help in properly adopting the documented processes; as not all action-players are going to be comfortable with long-winded and complex process maps!! 

​More on normalization in another post…

​Sandhya Bhat MSc, CSSMBB, CSSE has developed several new (under patent filing) and enhanced existing strategic methodologies to improve technology and human capital utilization, produce greater ROI on investments and streamline service delivery. She is an acclaimed author, speaker, a sought after thought leader and an avid world traveler.

​#processarchitecture #processmapping #processdocumentation #businessprocessimprovement #BPI #BPR #BusinessProcessReengineering #normalization #decisionpoints

Interdependency of the People, Process and Technology triangle is fairly well-known. If you are not familiar with this concept, then you can read more about it here. 

​The overlapping areas of the People, Process and Technology triangle indicates that all three i.e. People, Process and Technology flow together where technology empowers the functioning of a group (people) by following well-defined processes. 

But when we are developing business processes, there is one more dependency we need to consider- and that is between the given business group, rest of the business of that organization and of course technology applications. This becomes even more important for Corporate Functions, since unlike line divisions, these Function teams service all of the organization in their respective areas.

​For e.g. the Human Resource division will provide HR services to the entire organization. It is similar with other Functions such as IT, Facilities, Supply Chain and so on. 

Such an interdependency diagram will look like this​:

Any given team or group cannot and should not be working in silo. Teams within an organization are supposed to work in a collaborative manner so that all other teams that conduct any preceding or succeeding task are well informed of what is coming into their work pipeline. 

Organizational Business, Core Team and Technology helps to identify these dependencies.

Key benefits of conducting such a core analysis is to:

1. Identify dependencies between a certain group and other activities conducted by a bigger group or by rest of the organization.
2. Identify dependencies on various technology applications- these could be applications used by the core team under consideration or by the organization at large such as their internal employee portal, external website, exchange network (email) and so on.

​Sandhya Bhat MSc, CSSMBB, CSSE has developed several new (under patent filing) and enhanced existing strategic methodologies to improve technology and human capital utilization, produce greater ROI on investments and streamline service delivery. She is an acclaimed author, speaker, a sought after thought leader and an avid world traveler.

​#processarchitecture #processmapping #processdocumentation #businessprocessimprovement #BPI #BPR #BusinessProcessReengineering #organizationaldevelopment #technologyinterdependency #processanalysis #organizationaleffectiveness