ACTION MANAGEMENT IN THE BUSINESS UPTURN

The business of business is momentum. Business is a race. Business is action. Managing action challenges managers and owners to re-calibrate thinking processes to account for the fact that every company goes through it's own stages of the business race. Each business and every manager encounters new competitive pressures, new global realities, and new customer demands constantly.

Action management is a skill that keeps companies, their investors and owners, customers, employees and communities thriving in any point on the business sine wave. Every competitive pressure, global reality and customer demand becomes energy for action. Developing the pragmatic thinking processes of action managers is a demand for today's business environment and a requirement in future successes.

In this current position of the business sine wave (the term business cycle is a false descriptor) where the general perception is sluggish revenues; business managers must adopt action management techniques to sustain their competitive advantage.

Those who coast through this time will find their market positions severely eroded when the business wave rises again. Vitalized competitors and aggressive new enterprises with action plans are, today, taking over markets others established. To doze, to wait for the next upturn is to give away hard won market share.

Four distinct courses of action are required of companies that will thrive in the next rise of the business wave.

The actions businesses must take are:

• Sprint
• High Jump
• Decathlon
• Marathon

A sprint is an activity of short duration and low complexity. Outsourcing a single function is a typical sprint. So is functional downsizing or bringing a new product to market.

A high jump is a rapid action made to improve business performance. High jumps are highly complex, of short duration and are decisive. High jumps include a merger or an acquisition, a radical restructuring or a project aimed at corporate revitalization.

A decathlon in business, as in track and field is the most grueling event of all - highly complex and of long duration. Everything has to be phased in over three or four stages. Decathlons include corporate enterprise transformations involving new structures, processes, products, markets and systems - complete overhauls. To win a decathlon, your vision must correspond with your abilities. You have to build on your strengths and expand your range.

A marathon is an action strategy drilling a long term orientation deep into the heart of the business. The key is persevering through many stages and all kinds of weather. The long run is paced and has established a rhythm by linking many small, similar actions to long-term goals. This is a deep injection of cultural shifts and developing new competencies in measured stages.

Be it a sprint, high jump, decathlon or marathon disciplined action leaders committed to achievement and accomplishment succeed.

The following is the wide scope of actions and commitments for successful action management.

The action plan for a sprint includes these statements over ten action challenges:

Plan for Action

• Set aggressive weekly and monthly milestones targeting quick wins to gain early credibility.
• accept some uncertainty in planning, so you can move right into action, learning as you go.
• Keep the scope of your action - and your action plan - clear and manageable.
• Plan for parallel actions where possible.
• Sweep your critical path clear and represent it in your plan.

  Allocate for Action

• Guarantee sufficient resources to sustain both the action program and normal customer service levels - customers have the least patience and you have the least time.
• Identify and redeploys people from non critical business activities.
• Acquire short-term experts or borrow from other areas of the company with previous action experience.

  Lead for Action

• Coach your action leader to develop a more decisive, directive leadership style. when stakes are high and time is short, people will expect to be told what to do.
• Establish the action leader as the single point of accountability for the action's success.
• Make sure the action leader devotes full time to the effort.
• when jobs are at risk, encourage the action leader to be honest and open about it from the start. "Speak sooner rather than later." should be the guiding principal.

  Strengthen for Action

• Set and monitor short-term performance targets for the action team.
• Watch for rising stars among middle managers - and bring them on board quickly.
• Focus on middle managers with a reputation for moving quickly.

  Mobilize for Action

• Focus all communication on excitement and speed of payoff.
• rapidly deflect or accept blame when employees target you instead of assuming collective responsibility for improvement or failure.
• Offer generous, time-based incentives.
• Give people frequent opportunities to express their feelings and air their grievances - there's no time to hold back.

  Clarify for Action

• The message: "We must catch up; we are behind." This is best communicated with "shock wave" presentations that starkly represent the gravity of the situation and layout the first, urgent moves.
• Continuously update progress - performance versus the target goal; break it down so everyone knows the weak links. Include contributions from everyone - from chief executive to frontline employees.
• Use e-mail for instantaneous , universal progress reporting. Reiterate urgency.

  Cultivate for Action

• Set recognition and reward programs in the context of rapid action.
• Make establishing and communicating people0deployed strategies (how people are selected from the old organization for the new) an early priority.
• Speed implementation by minimizing human-resource policy and cultural shifts.
• Reintegrate action resources.
• Retain key action resources during and after an action's implementation.
• Invest in training, so employees can upgrade their skills and move with lightening speed.

  Integrate for Action

• Determine the extent to which the action will cross cultural, business, and functional lines by weighing the importance of its doing so against the inevitable added time.

  Wire for Action

• Restrict information-technology project scope, customization, and new developments to assure timely and cost-efficient delivery of added benefits.
• Reduce development time by reviewing rapid prototyping approaches to system development.

  Re energize for Action

• Set - and keep - stretch goals.
• Establish precise monitoring systems to assess progress weekly.

The action plan for a high jump includes these statements over ten action phases:

Plan for Action

• Prioritize efforts based on speed of delivery and projected market impact, eliminating or deferring less important efforts.
• Use the plan to merge key actions into critical mass and stage an ambitious launch
• Plan for a single, early success within30 days.
• Use the plan to signal urgency and rally commitment.
• Identify which actions might be stopped or delayed.

  Allocate for Action

• Recruit experienced implementers rather than the concept people.
• Your people have allot to do and a little time to to do it in - maximize efficiency by helping them delegate line duties.
• Organize task forces dedicated to specific action areas - in a merger, for example, system integration, people selection, and organization design.

  Lead for Action

• Coach your leader to adopt a decisive, directive, hands-on style. as in the case of a sprint, when the stakes are high and time is short, people will expect to be told what to do. The issue here: Problems are complex. Give people one place to go for direction.
• Help the leader comprehend, and more important, communicate, the complexity of the action.

  Strengthen for Action

• Assign recalcitrant middle managers to task forces with strong leaders.
• put supportive middle managers in critical positions early in the program.
• Be prepared to deal decisively with resisters.

  Mobilize for Action

• Let employees know that short timetables means restricted consultation on planning and implementation activities.
• set up a central clearing house for action updates and information.
• Plan to communicate with a diverse audience about diverse issues - when complexity is high and deadlines are tight, nearly everyone needs, and deserves, a different answer.
• Deliver action-related news - good and bad - honestly and quickly.
• Keep everyone focused on key events and milestones - resistance rises when details distract.

  Clarify for Action

• Make communicating the action imperative the first challenge - why the move, why so fast?
• Use frequent e-mail and face-to-face communication devices, the system has to be faster than the rumor machine. Display a countdown graphic in prominent locations.
• Use numerous media repetitively; people rarely take in a message the first time, especially when things are moving quickly.

  Cultivate for Action

• Speed implementation by minimizing human-resource policy and behavioral shifts.
• establish and clearly communicate people-deployment strategies early, so employees will understand how they will be selected and treated.
• Implement existing employment policies without compromising or taking shortcuts.

  Integrate for Action

• Spot and avoid duplication of effort that results from integration. Save time and money by doing things once.

  Wire for Action

• Set up an in formation-technology task force to make an early assessment of the current system and how it relates to the needs of the action.
• Recognize that the first information-technology priority is business continuity and not systems improvement.

  Re energize for Action

• Use tracking to keep everyone aware of how the program is doing today.
• Prepare for organizational recovery by gathering stakeholders to discus personal issues.
• Manage dips in morale - different groups will experience lulls at different times.

  The action plan for a decathlon includes these statements over ten action phases:

  Plan for Action

• Define and focus on the areas of desired performance, and incorporate those insights into your plan.
• Simplify your plan and streamline implementation by breaking the larger action into a series of smaller ones.
• Set frequent milestones in a three- to five-year plan, linking sequential actions.
• Plan international, country to country, cross cultural and social rollouts carefully, expecting to encounter complications that will slow down progress.
• Use your plan to pilot innovative actions at headquarters to demonstrate that the action is under way and there is no turning back.

  Allocate for Action

• Deliver action-related news - good and bad - honestly and quickly.
• Pull technical people in and out as issues arise. Plan for team modifications as your project moves through different stages.
• Develop a network of long-term stakeholders and inspire them to lobby for your action when resources are allocated.
• Develop a cross industry/social/cultural network of skilled people to provide local support and leadership.

  Lead for Action

• Engage your action leader in reviewing and creating a short list of best practices before presenting them to the organization.
• Encourage your action leader to challenge sacred cows - complex, long term actions often require radical shifts in an organization's long-standing structure and culture.
• Be prepared for leadership changes. The need to modify behaviors will not be met by all of the current leaders.
• Prioritize actions into those required for short, medium and long term.

  Strengthen for Action

• Run middle-management workshop programs to generate ideas and support over the long haul.
• Encourage reluctant middle managers to seek inspiration and assistance both inside and outside the organization.
• Make middle managers accountable for local action.
• Involve middle managers in building the business case for action from the bottom up. Make sure contributions are specifically acknowledged.

  Mobilize for Action

• Keep employees reaching even higher. Preempt resistance by appealing to their pride in past achievements, then pump them up for the next event.
• Take ample time to ensure that employees understand the vision and implications of the action - in a decathlon, preparation is crucial.
• Allow for local customization - but not frequent debate or negotiation.
• Take the time to get the right bi. Use tracking to keep everyone aware of how the program is doing today. people in place - don't compromise; poorly placed employees are a prime source of resistance.

  Clarify for Action

• The message: "We have to run just to stand still; we have to run like hell if we want to get ahead." Use hard facts from market intelligence and customer feedback to overcome complacency and raise the urgency level.
• Use evidence from other locations to prove that the action is working.
• Make education part of the mix - take people to witness best practices or bring best practices to them.
• Communicate to each audience through a careful balance of local and company language.
• Reduce the action's vision to a single icon that can be understood globally.

  Cultivate for Action

• Take advantage of progressive human-resource policies promoting new career paths and skill development.
• Build a simulation of the action's endpoint to supplement training.
• Conduct early research on employment-legislation constraints in industries and locations where the action is being implemented.
• Let local teams customize training and communication.
• Leverage knowledge from one action to the next.

  Integrate for Action

• Launch the action in one area of the organization to jump-start the action team's effort business wide.
• Promote top-down acceptance of the b business case from top management at headquarters to local management.

  Wire for Action

• Review all cutting-edge information-technology solutions.
• Make sure momentum is sustained after new technology is introduced.
• Reconcile dependencies between information technology and all new processes.
• Take advantage of longer time scales to consider innovative information-technology solutions.
• Involve the information-technology department in the earliest stages of your action so as to facilitate the interlinking of systems.

  Re energize for Action

• Anticipate action-team fatigue, as well as pessimism about promised benefits, if past actions have been unsuccessful.
• Curb defections to "new and improved" solutions before the benefits of your action have been achieved.

  The action plan for a marathon includes these statements over ten action phases:

  Plan for Action

• Use your plan to check progress every six to nine months
• Mine the experience of other action managers and their teams, and incorporate their insights into your plan.
• Use your plan to sustain momentum - refer to it often, and publicly.

  Allocate for Action

• Launch your action with full-time people, then streamline activity with part-time employees.
• Select and recruit people with a lot of stamina, people motivated by ever-increasing performance expectations.
• Rejuvenate longer-term programs with fresh resources at midpoint.

  Lead for Action

• Coach your action leader to serve as a role model or target values and behaviors.
• Coach your action leader at regular intervals on the leadership behaviors required for the action's success.
• Keep your action leader from micro managing the action - it saps his or her energy over the long haul.
• Encourage your action leader to make frequent site visits to guide implementation. Remember, in a marathon, there's time.
• Help your leader develop clear performance expectations - then help him or her raise them periodically.

  Strengthen for Action

• Design and implement long term middle-manager training and development programs, using individual modules for each key element of the action.
• Monitor and test middle managers' behaviors with 360-degree feedback programs.
• Rotate middle managers through various jobs during the action's duration.
• Integrate the action-performance measures for middle managers into the organization's human-resource policies.

  Mobilize for Action

• Survey employees before project launch, then every six to nine months thereafter, about current values and behaviors introduced.
• Facilitate shared norms - and reduce resistance - by soliciting confidential upward feedback.
• Celebrate milestones, and progress in between.
• Periodically realign employee-performance measures.

  Clarify for Action

• Use periodic bursts of communication to raise the action profile and sustain interest; spot bonuses that reward desired performance are an effective way to do this.
• Design icons that capture the key elements of the action and use them throughout the organization.
• Have leaders and managers take symbolic actions that reinforce their commitment; if necessary, run a workshop with senior executives to select these actions.
• Get senior leadership out on the front lines talking about the importance of the action.
• Celebrate intermediate success.
• Have periodic spirit-raising events.
• Organize road shows to take the message out to all corners of the organization.

  Cultivate for Action

• Make the teaching or core skills to employees a progressive, ongoing activity.
• Align the performance-management system with business performance and behavior.
• Use human resources to maintain a focus on creating the culture the action requires with appropriate promotions.
• Reinforce new behaviors with recognition and reward programs.

  Integrate for Action

• Make sure the organization recognizes and values the integration behaviors of teamwork, process working, networking, and international collaboration.
• Topple functional barriers by striking first at top-team structure and membership.
• Encourage and reward network development.
• Use measures to drive behavior over the long term.
• Reward not just for producing results, but for developing ways to achieve them.

  Wire for Action

• Pilot new information technology extensively in two locations before rollout.
• Use live demonstrations to sell the new system.
• Anticipate local stress when integrating with other area's technologies.
• Defuse efforts to retain old systems.
• Deliver information technology on longer lead times to help dispel any management assumptions that it will solve a multitude of organizational issues.

Re energize for Action

• Keep the action team fresh by turning over some members at the midpoint.
• Assure that the final phase doesn't run out of steam.
• Build changing measures into action-assessment measures.

Action management is a skill that keeps companies, their investors and owners, customers, employees and communities thriving in any point on the business sine wave. Every competitive pressure, global reality and customer demand becomes energy for action. Developing the pragmatic thinking processes of action managers is a demand for today's business environment and a requirement in future successes.

The action plan for a marathon includes these areas of attention: Engage Dale Bruder to coach your enterprise through a sprint or high jump. Call 520-331-1956 for an enterprise conversation.

Action Management Workshop

Strong executive manager and a vibrant company culture are keys to creating a prosperous enterprise.

Dynamically address inertia using action management technology and pragmatic coaching.

Contact Dale Bruder at 520.331.1956 to begin the process of evaluating your company towards breaking the inertia.

A workshop will be designed for your decision makers and team leaders that will move your enterprise to a level of sustainable prosperity in good times and bad.

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Based on Action Management by Stephen Redwood, Charles Goldwasser and Simon Street