Our approach is to keep things simple and use good judgement. In general, we use a 10 step approach. I’m a believer in empowering clients to be self-sufficient rather than making them dependent. One way to empower you is for me to be transparent, so I’m sharing this brief overview with you as a first step.
Clearly define what you want to achieve.
Assess where you are now using the most objective tools available. That’s why I like to use professionally designed, rigorously tested, and scientifically validated assessment tools like the Benchmark of Organizational Emotional Intelligence Survey, the EQ-i ² º series of assessments, and the RiskType Compass. There’s no making stuff up with these tools. They’re the real thing.
Evaluate your existing resources and capabilities, including your people, processes, and systems in an effort to explore the most cost effective way to move forward. By involving your people, processes, and systems in the project, your organization retains as much of the knowledge as possible, in addition to keeping the costs down.
Agree on a path forward that will achieve your goals using the best combination of internal and external resources. Get it down in writing. By continuously referring to this document throughout the project, everyone can stay on track. We’ll need this memory aid because it’s far too easy to get side tracked after we dig into things.
Clearly identify and maybe even invent the monitoring metrics that your organization will use to gauge its ongoing success. I say invent because if you want your organization to be more than the status quo then you have to do things differently from all the rest. A great example is “gate turn-around time” that Southwest Airlines developed. That one metric changed the entire industry.
Execute the plan, staying in constant communication with everyone on the team. Making certain that milestones are met and everyone is meeting their commitments.
Monitor and measure ongoing efforts.
Adjust ongoing efforts as necessary to stay on track with the project goals and objectives.
Keep an eye open for ways innovation can create leapfrog opportunities for your organization. Suggest potential stakeholders that may be good partnering relationships that could add value to new and existing customers that you may not have thought about. Encourage your team to continuously seek and follow-up on customer feedback.
Bring the project to conclusion. Evaluate the results. Make sure that you have everything you need to continue moving forward. Receive feedback on our performance. Determine the appropriate follow-up
Hopefully, this overview gives you some insight into my approach and takes out some of the mystery. If you’d like to visit further or have questions, click here to contact us.