Many thanks to Joseph Aranki (pictured right) of the Mayer Group for inspiring the title of this particular post. I am often asked “What is Measurable Management and how does it differ from other approaches”?
Simply put, Measurable Management is ‘E’ harmony meets ‘E’ fficiency. It is the missing link that organizations have long been searching for to engage employees in a “people focused” approach to organizational change.
For a long time organizations have invested in one flavor of the month after another only to see improvements fade away and initiatives falter in a search for the “holy grail” of sustainable change.
The problem with all of these flavors of the month has been that “led by industry” they focused on processes and the tools to improve these processes and they forgot the most important thing of all, people. You can give someone the best equipped workshop in the world but they will still do a poor job if their heart’s not in it. People need to be enthusiastic about change they need to embrace it as an opportunity and they need to take ownership of it. Implementing someone else’s ideas is never done with the same enthusiasm as implementing your own and furthermore what works for industry is not necessarily going to work for Government or for Education. You don’t use a cross head screwdriver on a slot head screw.
So when these “business led” approaches fail to fully engage the people, the improvements from them are like one night stands, exciting at the time but quickly forgotten.
Measurable Management takes the time to engage people. Like a real life engagement it is an opportunity to explore what’s good and what’s not so good and ensure that the foundation is rock solid and ready to build upon. By evaluating their Resources and Relationships first, they develop a "listening and involving style of leadership" long before evaluating the way we do things, the Processes. Using this approach the participants learn that “people work better when enthused than they do when they are bruised”. When those who have to implement solutions are involved in crafting them they do not resist the change, they don’t have to be bullied or dragged kicking and screaming to the altar of continual improvement. They walk down the aisle with a smile.
Ergo 'E' harmony meets 'Efficiency'.
This discussion is refreshing in its focus on the fact sustainable business results are achieved through the quality of our relationships--and the integral role they play. It dovetails with an incredibly insightful and effective book I'm reading, Influencer: The Power to Change Anything. What you've discussed is analogous to Nobel Prize winner, Muhammad Yunus's requirement in the granting of micro-loans, helping millions achieve business success and get out of poverty. He's key on "social capital" where a loan can only be made if four of your friends vet your business plan (and co-sign). Through this process they all have emotional ownership of each other's success. In the same way, Measurable Management creates the "social capital" needed to sustain continuous improvements, with continuous bottom-line results, by creating a structure where the people responsible for the results have fully bought-in, and helped create the "how".
ReplyDeleteG. Scott Purcell
The R2 Group
A fascinating extension of your 'E'harmony article theme that has haunted our engagements resides at the executive level. All to often we find that "engaging" employees seems to be a fractured concept frequently not practiced in the front office. Consequently, when the key sponsors do not have a shared concept of what true engagement really is, there seems to be a tendency to keep the focus on process and resources. The power of the change process is diminished or lost.
ReplyDeleteThe beauty of Measurable Management is that the structure virtually forces a balanced approach that refuses to ignore the engagement ingredient. In fact, we are considering proposing that key sponsors participate in a parallel program while the selected supervisors/managers proceed. At the minimum, we need to find better ways to align the sponsors and their understanding of all of the embedded elements of Measurable Management with those that will be experienced by the targeted participants.
As a side note, Joseph has committed to becoming certified as a Measurable Management facilitator and is now leading our renewed marketing effort.