Managing Results by Defining “Deliverables” Early On

As professionals, we all are responsible for shipping stuff to our customers (internal or external). The stuff that we ship is commonly referred to as a “deliverable”.

As a manager, it helps if you can clearly define what deliverable means. The first step to get something right first time is to define it accurately in the beginning.

You can ask your team member to perform a task or you can ask them to complete a deliverable (complete with all product and process requirements). Defining a deliverable clarifies purpose and sets expectations on “why” rather than “what”. Most of the times, in quest of “what”, “why” is missed out. Clearly defining deliverables for all your team members helps them gain additional clarity and accomplishing things first time right.

I believe that most people want to do a great job, but they don’t know how to do it. Defining/assigning a complete deliverable instead of tasks can really help you in tapping full potential of your people and ensure that they are effective in whatever they do. When you review progress, you can review the accurate status of a deliverable (results), if it is defined early on. Monitoring deliverables is far less daunting than monitoring tasks.

Johanna Rothman says, “Discuss Results, Not Tasks”. Deliverables define the results you are seeking.

Have you ever experienced a situation where all your tasks were accomplished, but the final deliverable was not qualitative? If yes, you will exactly know what “defining a deliverable” really means!

Have a Wonderful Wednesday!

Note: My book ‘#QUALITYtweet – 140 bite-sized ideas to deliver quality in every project’ explores the people, process and leadership aspects to build a constantly improving organization culture. Check it out if you haven’t already!

Bonus: QAspire Blog was recently featured on Community of Program and Project Managers (PPM Community). Check out the feature.

Innovation, Quality & Entrepreneurship at Akshaya Patra

Akshaya Patra Foundation in India is a shining example of how social entrepreneurship combined  with power of innovation can make a HUGE difference.

First, some background information. Akshaya Patra is an Indian NGO that provides mid day meals to about 1.2 million children across India on all school days. These meals act as an incentive for these kids to come to the school and study. Even more amazing is the fact that for one kid, the cost of a nutritious mid day meal for one full year is only Rs. 600 (or ~$13). How do they achieve this sort of scale at such low cost? I wondered too, till I visited one of their kitchens in Ahmedabad recently.

• Innovation in Delivery: Kitchens are specially designed to meet the scale and quality requirements. They use technology to cook more food in less time. When we visited the kitchen, it was no less than a highly advanced factory with machines for everything including grain cleaning, cutting the vegetables, preparing the chapatti (breads), boiling the rice and loading the containers. These machines cook food that meets the defined nutrition requirements and taste. Many of these machines are indigenously modified to meet their unique requirement.
• Focus on Quality: When we went into the office, I could see some well defined checklists. On further inquiry, we found that their kitchen was ISO 22000 (Food Safety) Certified. They collect some key metrics including cost per meal and constantly look for ways to optimize it. They have built their own standard for supply chain right from procuring raw material to delivery of these meals in schools across. Truly remarkable!
• Entrepreneurship: Akshaya Patra’s mission is “No child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger” and that is no small one. But after visiting Akshaya Patra, I can only say one thing: If you really want to do something, you always find ways to do it. At the core of entrepreneurship is the ability to see a gap and more importantly, do something about it. Their website says,

“The surest way to break out of the cycle of poverty is through education. Education can significantly improve the quality of life of a family for generations to come. When the basic needs of a child, such as food are not met, education often becomes the last priority. The meal is an incentive for them to continue their education. It helps reduce the dropout rate to an enormous extent and increases classroom attendance.”

For many children who are beneficiaries of these meals, it is probably the one and only meal that they get in the day. President Obama lauded their efforts and recently, Akshaya Patra was also featured at Harvard Business Blogs.

Akshaya Patra is a great example of how entrepreneurial spirit combined with focus on innovation and quality can overcome all roadblocks and bring about a big difference to our society and our future.

The Pursuit of Getting It “First Time Right” (FTR)

Building quality involves cost. You spend efforts and energy on preventing the errors (prevention cost) and then checking your work (appraisal cost). These are positive costs, or rather investments that ensure that you get it right the first time.

The cost of rework when you or customer identifies a LOT of defects(internal/external failure costs) is huge and highly damaging too. It can have a direct impact on your business bottom lines.

So how do you maximize your possibility of getting it first time right when you deal with projects? Here are three most important things I could think of:

• Clarity: In projects (or in any initiative), when you shoot in the dark, the bullet comes back to kill you. Most projects fail because of lack of clarity. Project team needs to be clear of the purpose, business need, specific requirements of the customer and other implicit expectations. Clarity also demands a clear visibility in process, setting up right rituals, monitoring practices and responsibilities of the project team. Clarity means openness in communication.
• Discipline: Execution demands discipline to do right things consistently. It demands emotional labor. The plans you established needs to be followed. When you decide to review early and often, you should. Discipline, in simplest terms, is your ability to fill the gap between what you know and what you actually do. 
• Constant Improvement: You planned, you did and then you also reviewed. Based on your experiences, you should be able to improvise your processes. Change the tracks for better efficiency. Inculcate better habits. Fine tuning and alignment that happens in this phase not only helps you in this project, but also in subsequent ones.

I do not undermine the need to make mistakes and learn from them. When we research or try to innovate, we essentially do that with the objective of learning. But what about applying our lessons well? We can always get that right the first time, only if we decide to!

P.S: On a second thought, you can only innovate when you don’t have to worry about doing the routine stuff right. That is where processes and FTR approach can really help.

In Pursuit Of “Customer Delight”: Getting The Basics Right

A lot of companies have the phrase “delighting our customers” in their well-crafted mission statements and quality policies. I see “customer delight” as a cherry, with the cake being “solving their problems and meeting the expectations” – so when we say “cherry on top of the cake”, the cake has to be right. Customers don’t get delighted by cherries alone, or by cherries on wrong cakes.

Here is the thing. To be able to reach a state where you “delight” your customers, you have to first “know and meet” customer’s basic expectations consistently. That is the core of your business – the reason why your customers come to you. Your products/services have to first meet the basic criteria of delivering the value that client is seeking.

So when you think of delighting your customer, think of the basics first.

• Does your product/service meet the core expectation of the customer? Does it solve their problems? To what extent?
• Do you have a method to accurately identify customer’s real/unique expectations? Their unique context?
• Do you have right set of processes, people and technology that will help you deliver up to customer’s expectations consistently?
• What is missing and how can you scale up to ensure consistency of delivery? What are the gaps that need to be filled?

Once you have these basics right, your efforts and investment on delighting your customers through various innovative and inclusive programs will yield the right returns. Right cherry on the right kind of cake is a delightful combo! Isn’t it?

Customer’s loyalty and further, advocacy only comes when you know how to deliver the basics right. Merely trying to delight customers when your core offering does not solve their real problems is an effort in vain. It may only help you keep a customer for now, but not on a long run.

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Metrics: Are They Mapped With Your Business Objectives?

You can measure almost anything in your business, but if those metrics don’t serve a real business objectives, they are just numbers with no real meaning. Measurement is a means to an end, not an end in itself.

I have seen extreme cases where organizations either measure so much or they don’t measure anything at all. Both extremes are dangerous, because it de-focuses people from doing the right things.

A lot of business leaders. quality consultants and improvement experts are obsessed with fancy metrics that may not have direct relevance to the business objectives. Whether measuring a project or a business, here are a five steps to map your metrics with your business objectives:

• Know your goals: Identify what are your strategic, tactical and operational goals. Understanding your business challenges and goals is the first most important step. If you don’t know why you are measuring something, you will get numbers and you won’t know what to do with them. It won’t help.
• Identify metrics: What metrics can effectively help you meet your goals? For example, if you reduce your defect rates, you can keep your customers happy. Reducing overrun on your project can have direct impact on your bottom lines. You get the point.
• Identify impact: Some metrics directly impact the goal, while others may have an indirect impact. Identify whether identified measurement has direct or indirect impact. A great way to do this is to draw a two dimensional table with business objectives horizontally and measurements vertically. Map the impact and you will have a great view of your business goals and impact of those metrics.
• Establish operational procedures: You can now establish processes and methods to collect the data, frequency and consolidation mechanism. This is also a great way to ensure that all your operational processes are aligned to perform in a way that it satisfies at least one or more business objectives.
• Don’t forget the “invisibles”: My earlier post “The Invisibles in Business Performance” touched upon one of Deming’s seven deadly diseases - “Running a company on visible figures alone” and listed out some areas of your business that cannot be measured, but can have direct impact on your business. Striking balance between managing these invisible aspects, managing by visible numbers and focusing on people seems to be the optimal route to manage the business.

As I mentioned in my earlier post - “With visible figures alone, a business is run. By managing the invisibles together with the visible figures, a high performance, sustainable and scalable organization is built.”

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Note: My book ‘#QUALITYtweet – 140 bite-sized ideas to deliver quality in every project’ explores the people, process and leadership aspects to build a constantly improving organization culture. Check it out if you haven’t already!

Bonus: Read my post (How to) Have a Great Monday! – and have a wonderful start into the week!

Quality & Improvement: From “Experience” to “Advocacy”

Consider the following scenario:

You go to a new restaurant for the first time. You evaluate quality of food and quality of service. Your first visit was about experimenting with a new place and getting an experience.

A few weeks later, you go there again. You get a similar or a better experience this time. They have added a few new items to their menu. Service is better too. You loved their Italian Pizza. You now believe and trust that this restaurant is really good.

The third visit a few months later, you again get a similar or better experience. New recipes on the offer. The service staff is even more cordial. The ambience, decor has improved. You again ordered their specialized Italian Pizza. After this visit, you are now a “loyal” customer. Every time you want to eat that special Pizza, you visit the same restaurant.

Beyond this point, you start advocating this restaurant to your friends for specialized Italian Pizza. You recommend their food, service, ambience and overall quality. You become an evangelist.

Now think about your organization. How many customers are still experiencing you. How many of them really believe in you. How many customers are loyal? Do they advocate your services to others?

A common mistake organizations commit is to deliver great experience first time and then take the customer for granted. The moment there is someone else who is better and delivers a higher quality experience, a customer is lost!

So, quality is a moving target – each time a customer comes back to you, you need to deliver similar or better quality (of products, services and experience), you need to demonstrate improvement, care enough about them, stay on top of market trends and keep changing the rules of the game (innovation). When you consistently focus on delivering value, your customers move higher up in the value pyramid from “experience” to ‘belief & trust” to “loyalty” to “advocacy”.

Delivering great experiences through people, processes and leadership comes with a cost, but that cost is far less than the cost of losing a customer and then acquiring a new one all over again.

Note: My book ‘#QUALITYtweet – 140 bite-sized ideas to deliver quality in every project’ explores the people, process and leadership aspects to build a constantly improving organization culture. Check it out if you haven’t already!

Ideas to Avoid ‘Planning Trap’ and Focus on Execution

A lot of organizations fall in what I call “planning trap” – a lot of planning in the meetings, lot of decisions on improvement areas and eventually very little action.

One of the simplest measures of team/organization effectiveness is to keep a close watch on how much is decided in a meeting versus how much actually gets done. It is very easy to get distracted by other issues (and surprisingly, these ‘other issues’ always exists) within your area of work.

Two main reasons why this happens:

• Executives loose focus on key actions (and focus on other issues)
• Executives get impatient for results (specially for improvement actions where an organic approach is needed.)

Here are a few ideas to get over the planning trap:

• Conclude every meeting with action items, deadlines and responsibilities. Keep a log.
• Measure the progress and celebrate ‘quick wins” to keep everyone motivated. Show them the evidences of success.
• Set the context right, so people understand the importance of actions and how it solves real business problems. They need to see the purpose of improvement actions.
• Recognize their effort and provide direct/indirect rewards for participation.
• Persistently monitor how much is decided versus how much actually gets done.
• Involve top management in demonstrating their commitment towards improvement and underline the importance of execution-orientation.

More the gap, more you need to work on it. Do you remember that quote? - “A simple idea executed brilliantly is far better than a great idea executed poorly.”

Success in any long term improvement initiative depends largely on two factors : Doing right communication to keep everyone motivated and keeping the score.

Here are a few bite-sized ideas from my book #QUALITYtweet that underline this fact:

#QUALITYtweet: “If you don’t periodically review the progress of your quality initiative with your team, you are  giving them a reason to slow down.”

#QUALITYtweet: Critical question: are the results of your improvement initiative visible enough to keep everybody engaged and encouraged?

Bottom line: If you don’t communicate enough and fail to keep a score of actions/deadlines/key objectives, you may fall in the ‘planning trap’ – and trust me, it is not a nice place to be in because little actually gets done!

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P.S: My post “Training and Development – A Holistic View” is featured in Carnival of HR at “HR Observations” blog. If you are looking for fresh insights on HR specific issues, posts in this carnival are a must-read. Check it out!

99Tribes by ActiveGarage – Building Valuable Relationships

Today, I would like to congratulate my friends at ActiveGarage for launching their flagship project  - 99Tribes which is a people discovery engine for Twitter.(See the announcement)

In real life, we quickly build connection with people who share common interests. 99Tribes allows you to discover people on Twitter who share your interests.

Consider the following:

Based on the patented Rawsugar technology, you can start discovering people by typing what you are interested in (popular examples being: marketing, sales, blogging etc.)

Like any directory, 99Tribes will show the search results. What happens next shows the power of discovery.

On the left column, you will notice a set of tags. These tags show the “other” interests of people displayed in the search results.

For example, marketing may be your interest and you search on Marketing. Looking at the tags on the left you may notice that a set of people interested in marketing are interested in music too. You click on music and now the search results are updated to reflect people who are interested in Marketing and Music. It does not stop there. The tags get updated and you may notice that there are number of people who are interested in Music and Marketing are also interested in Fashion and Art. Or Camping or Hiking.

This is a brilliant concept because it allows you to connect to like minded people.

The world of Twitter is magical world because it empowers you to build meaningful connections by having authentic conversations. It is no more about just building ‘connections’ but about building ‘valuable relationships’ – 99Tribes is a brilliant concept and also an opportunity to find more like minded people whom you can connect with to build meaningful relationships.

Check it out at 99Tribes.com

Bonus: Also check out why my friend Becky Robinson (at Mountain State University’s School of Leadership Development) loves social media – and what it means for leaders.

You might also like revisiting a series of 14 Quality and Improvement articles I wrote at ActiveGarage as a part of #QUALITYtweet series.

#QUALITYtweet – Video Review

Simon Young at iJump reviews my book “#QUALITYtweet – 140 bite-sized ideas to deliver quality in every project” and other books in Thinkaha Series. You can also watch this video at iJump TV website.

I resumed my article series on ActiveGarage with my 13th article titled “Reviews Can be Fun (if done right)” published a few days ago. You can read previous 12 articles here.

Here is an excerpt from my latest article at ActiveGarage:

Success of any process depends on 2 E’s – Efficient and Enjoyable. Same holds true for your review processes. Review is a control mechanism, and hence the focus on getting it right the first time is still very important. A good review is just an internal quality gate that ensures that internal customers (reviewers) are happy with the final product. If your internal customers are happy, your external customers will be happy too!

Have a great Wednesday and a wonderful remaining week ahead!

Quality and Quantity – The Conversation Continues

On 8th Jan, 2010, I wrote a post on Quality and Quantity – Compliance and Excellence. The post resulted in some very interesting conversations in form of comments and in-person conversations. The gist of my post was:

Quality is to first ask “Why are we doing it?”, “Is it worth doing it at-all?”. Quality is to first seek the purpose. Once purpose is clear, numbers can help you measure progress.

It is almost easy to figure out “What” and “How” of processes once you have addressed “Why”.

On 11th Jan 2010, Harvard Business Review’s blog featured a post titled “Why Good Spreadsheets Make Bad Strategies” by Roger Martin. The ideas presented in the post complements my views. Here is an excerpt of some key ideas presented in the post at HBR.

We live in a world obsessed with science, preoccupied with predictability and control, and enraptured with quantitative analysis. We live by adages like: "Show me the numbers" and truisms such as "If you can’t measure it, it doesn’t count."

The fundamental shortcoming is that all of these scientific methods depended entirely on quantities to produce the answers they were meant to generate. They were all blissfully ignorant of qualities.

Adding up the quantity of credit outstanding won’t tell us nearly enough about what role it will play in our economy. Adding up sales won’t tell us what kind of a company we really have. We need to have a much deeper understanding of their qualities — the ambiguous, hard-to-measure aspects of all of these features.

We must stop obsessing about measurement so much that we exclude essential but un-measurable qualities from our understanding of any given situation.

Spot on! 

To me, this is the power of social media. You take a subject to explore, think and write about it. On the other side of globe, someone else is thinking about the very same subject, but in a different context. Different views come out, complement each other and just take the subject forward. It is also a great validation of your thoughts.

Hat tip to my friend Tanveer Naseer for pointing me to the HBR post via Twitter.