How can we get management involved in Business Change and Management Improvement
Top management takes an avid interest in the core of their business to deliver goods and services to customers. Financial, business, and capital development investments in the core area are considered strategic and management gets involved.
This usually does not happen with major business change, where top management does not have the same experience and confidence. Top management often delegates business change, such as solution or system implementation. They do not consider the change as strategic and do not perceive impact on the way they work. The cost often is perceived as a departmental expense. They usually are called on to “support” the project, but rarely get deeply involved. The change team or consultants are given the responsibility to effect change, while the line management chain is free to accept or reject the change.
Management often does not see the need to change their own style or leadership qualities to use improved processes or systems. They do not perceive themselves as a system user. They prefer to retain their management style, their time perspective for decision-making, and traditional controls on people. They will often resist change themselves, while calling for change in the rest of the enterprise. They may even resist executive information systems or strategic enterprise management systems, designed specifically for their use.
In addition, second and third level management tend to resist change. Perhaps, they were involved in establishing the current methods and gain advantage from the existing situation.
Change is to contrived structures overlaid on the business
Conventional management improvement overlays organization, process, system, reporting, and other management structures on the business. The business changes continually, while overlaid structures remain rigid. Conventional business change is not business change, but alignment of rigid overlaid structures with the changed business.
All business change creates a need for management improvement, but most change does not address management needs. Change is to contrived management structures overlaid on the business, rather than to the business itself, requiring that management learn new terminology and definitions of the new structure. Many contrived business changes increase management problems and information complexity, rather than introducing management solutions. Separate structures such as KPIs or scorecards may be introduced to compensate, but also introduces additional definitions and information entities. Since each change is an overlay on the business, it makes it more difficult to understand business reality. Reports are for centers, processes, objects, activities, departments, regions, etc. rather than what is actually happening in the business.
The enterprise must directly organize and manage the business
Business change must be undertaken through an approach that management understands. Business change must simplify, rather than complicate management, and reduce, rather than increase, information complexity. The business change must have direct improvement on the day-to-day management and make managers more effective.
Result-performance Management (R-pM) organizes and manages the business directly, without contrived overlaid structures. R-pM develops a business result-performance structure with result and performance measures, goals, and expectations. The business structure is one integrated solution used to plan, organize, direct, and report the business. R-pM organizes and manages the business, so that all conventional overlaid structures can be removed. R-pM reduces information complexity and manages the enterprise through six basic information entities.
R-pM puts managers in direct control of the business
Managers quickly understand the value of having enterprise results defined, measured, and improved. Managers can understand the results they are responsible for and their new goals. Result value is calculated and all costs are known, enabling management of result value-added. Managers understand operations and development in terms of value-quality results and cost-effective performance.
Management and business change is justified by the itemized return on the change investment from the added result value-added. Change is substantiated by new result goals at all management levels over the payback period that, when achieved, provide value-added greater than the return on investment.
R-pM provides one integrated method for organization, strategy, planning, reporting, and governance, so managers see their part in executing a strategy. R-pM integrates management information, knowledge, and intelligence for strategic decision support. R-pM introduces a Result-performance Management System to report the business and provide details on result costs and value creation leading to approved strategic result value.
R-pM is the final business change
R-pM is the final business change to organize the business into one integrated business structure that is employed for 21st Century Management.
Once the business is organized with R-pM, business change is a change to specific results and performance solutions, in the business structure, so change is part of the routine. Professional performance managers, who specialize in the performance solutions support management for new result and solution implementation. Managers for improved results have new goals and managers of new solutions have specific expectations, so they must be involved. Result managers do not change just because somebody says so, but because they understand how to improve results and meet goals. Management has the specific support services needed for 21st Century Management.
Learn how to organize and manage the business with R-pM
Visit Result-performance-Management.com to learn about R-pM and to download “Management Summary of R-pM” to inform and assist managers involved in enterprise business change through R-pM. Learn more about organizing your business with R-pM for 21st Century Management in the R-pM Toolkit, your 21st Century Management Manual.
