"Productive insight; clear (often sudden) understanding of a complex situation." Free Dictionary
"Pop the bubble" of conditioned thinking and emerge into the creative realm of "no absolutes," continuous change, uncertainty and unlimited possibilities.
Then, there can be innovation, adaptation and performance excellence.
Inauguration
Beginnings set the stage for successful outcomes.
Globally, I am hopeful that we are inaugurating not just a new U.S. president but an era of clear thinking and a commitment to effective action. Hope implies some valued goal. For me, the hope is for a process founded on compassion and practicality that works well and sustains itself through self reflection and continuous adaptation to change.
This is the inaugural issue of Breakthrough. As we travel through time Breakthrough will offer thoughts on a variety of subjects linked to optimizing performance. The theme of open-minded mindfulness weaves itself through many topics. It represents a foundation for skillfully navigating change to optimize performance.
May people work together to bring prosperity, peace and general well being to all. May we be open to accept the diversity and uncertainty that characterizes our world. May we be mindful of our thoughts and actions so that we do no harm and, where we can, we add value and benefit.
The underlying theme of this newsletter is breaking through barriers to achieve sustainable performance excellence. Process is the key to performance improvement. Defined process lays a foundation for benchmarking, process assessment and improvement. Overly heavy process wastes time, money and lowers productivity and effectiveness. Too-light process fails to comply with regulatory and due diligence standards and leaves insufficient documentation for knowledge transfer and reuse.
According to Wikipedia "A process is a naturally occurring or designed sequence of changes of properties or attributes of an object or system." In a business process the changes are steps or actions to achieve a result. Note that a process may be naturally occurring or designed. It may be efficient or inefficient, repeatable or not. In human behavior process is the intrapersonal and interpersonal mechanism through which change occurs.
There is always a process whenever any result or change occurs. There are always causes (steps, actions, events) under a set of conditions (environment, attitudes, etc.) So, "Why do we care about process?" We care about it because by changing the process we can change the outcome. Einstein, in one of my favorite quotes, said that it is insane to expect results to be different when doing the same thing over and over again.
Since process is the means for explaining the past and changing the future. Look to the process to perfect the outcome.
Infrastructure has two parts: the physical (roads, telecommunication and information management, facilities, etc.) and the cultural (how people relate to one another, management styles, how decisions are made, the esthetics, open-mindedness, etc.) As managers, professionals, executives, etc. we need to understand, address and integrate both parts. Infrastructure enables optimal performance.
Commonly, in financially difficult times organizations are not in a position to invest in infrastructure because revenues are low and costs must be cut. Of course, except where executive management is relatively enlightened, organizations are often too busy to invest in infrastructure when times are good. The perception may be that "infrastructure investments take too long to pay off. We need profits this year'' or "we're up to our eyes with current work, who has time for infrastructure".
In the public sector we are hearing that the government will invest heavily in infrastructure. The roads and bridges will get better, communications faster and more secure, waste and water facilities safer and more efficient; we will have the foundation for greener operations, education will be improved, etc. On a macro level this not only delivers results but also stimulates the economy by putting more money into circulation and employing people.
In private organizations and in individual government agencies, where there is a financial bottom line and no ability to print money, there is much less of a current payoff for investment in infrastructure. Someone must make a hard decision about how to allocate scarce resources.
So what to do?
Well for one thing have a long term strategy and a vision of how the organization will work, look and feel going forward six months, one year, five years or more. Use this as a basis for deciding how best to allocate current expenditures across current operations, R&D, infrastructure maintenance and renewal, competency development, process improvement, and other categories.
Make sure that the infrastructure category gets what it needs or you will be paying for it overtime with suboptimal performance and possible disruptions (for example, falling bridges and over burdened communications capabilities).
Plan and work to incrementally implement improvements and renewed infrastructure in order to accrue benefits as quickly as possible.
Make sure the cultural infrastructure is taken care of by promoting open-minded attitudes, healthy models and mindfulness and by cultivating the core relationship management and thinking skills that enable success.
The underlying theme of this newsletter is breaking through barriers to achieve sustainable performance excellence. Process is the key to performance improvement. Defined process lays a foundation for benchmarking, process assessment and improvement. Overly heavy process wastes time, money and lowers productivity and effectiveness. Too-light process fails to comply with regulatory and due diligence standards and leaves insufficient documentation for knowledge transfer and reuse.