What is Results Management White Paper 9-15

a whitepaper from

Results Management: A Primer What It is. Why Now. And How To Get Started.

Performance Management

Goal Setting & Strategic Planning

Business Intelligence

Project Management

Document Management Collaboration

Results Management : A Primer2

Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

The Quest to Achieve Management Excellence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Results Management Emphasis by Organizational Role . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

What is the Process to Implement Results Management? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

The Results Management Cycle: Plan, Execute, Monitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

How Pervasive is the Practice of Results Management? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

What are impediments to Results Management? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

The Solution: A Dedicated Platform for Results Management. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

The AchieveIt Results Management Platform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Conclusion: The Time is Right for Results Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Results Management: A Primer

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IntroductionThis whitepaper discusses the business philosophy of Results Management. As a discipline, Results Management is the culmination of thought leadership in multiple areas—goal setting, execution management, objectives and key results (OKRs)—among other avenues of business research. It is time that a more explicit picture of this key emerging managerial concept be set forth.Moreover, there is a pressing need for Results Management right now. To understand why, it helps to gain some historical perspective.

In the late 1970’s and into the 1980’s, Japanese auto manufacturers were taking the US market by storm. Among their numerous advantages, they could produce things cheaper and better than their American counter-parts. This revolution was led primary by the Toyota Production System (TPS). Interestingly, TPS was not a revolution in industrial manufacturing processes. Rather, it was a redefinition of how physical work occurred and was managed. Visual cues were used to regulate jobs. The interrelationship among tasks was made incredibly clear. Employees could stop the pro-duction line if they suspected that quality was off track. Ultimately, these practices were largely adopted by all automobile manufacturers, leveling the playing field once again.

Since that time, economies in all developed nations have become increas-ingly based on services. From the most low-skilled services to the most sophisticated knowledge worker service product, these elements of the economy are directly delivered by people. Managing people to deliver services has become an incredibly important com-ponent of strategic advantage and competitive differentiation. Unfortunately, no overriding methodology and supporting mechanism has arrived that allows managers to consistently get results through their teams of people. Results Management presents an answer to this pressing problem.

Unfortunately, no overriding methodology and supporting mechanism has allowed managers to consistently get results through their teams of people


Managers are the primary articulators of resources required to propel an organization forward. Consequently, performance levels of organizations with “great” managers differ significantly from those that have average or sub-par management staffs.

The Quest to Achieve Management Excellence. Where Results Management Begins.Organizations all over the world realize that a primary lever for their success is achieving a state of Management Excellence. The need is simple to under-stand. Managers are the primary articulators of resources required to propel an organization forward. Consequently, performance levels of organizations with “great” managers differ significantly from those that have average or sub-par management staffs.

As proof of this belief, there are thousands of business schools and hundreds of thousands of executive coaches whose mission it is to create better managers.

Researchers have even established a proven link between management excellence and actual organizational performance. For example, McKinsey & Company partners Scott Keller and Colin Price demonstrate in their author-itative book Beyond Performance, most organizations are “managed for mediocrity”. In fact, according to their research, only a third of organizations that reach a level of excellence are able to maintain it over a decade or more while an even lower percentage are able to navigate successful transformation or change management programs.

Business scholars agree that Management Excellence is composed of several characteristics. For example, Henry Mintzberg, a seminal scholar in the area of management traits, lists key attributes of managers in the following table:

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Key Attributes Found in Leaders Exhibiting Management Excellence

Category Roles

InterpersonalFigurehead Leader Liaison

InformationalMonitor Disseminator Spokesperson

Decisional

Entrepreneur Disturbance Handler Resource Allocator Negotiator

Source: Henry Mintzberg, The nature of managerial work, and The manager’s job: folklore and fact

Others define the attributes of Management Excellence differently. For example, the Canadian Civil Service defines management excellence by breaking it down as follows:

• Action Management – Design and Execution

• People Management – Individual and Workforce

• Financial Management – Budget and Assets

Finally, we have a quite cynical quote from management guru Peter Drucker. “Most of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to get their jobs done.”

Regardless of how you break down the definition, we believe that the common threads that tie excellence in management—or management excellence—together can be summarized into two major buckets of activity:

Management Excellence = Inspirational Leadership + Results Management

That is, there is a personality aspect of leadership related to being able to articulate a vision of where the group is headed and motivating individuals to perform. At the same time, there is a core aspect of managing teams of people to consistently achieve results. Results matter, and managers are the primary drivers to achieve them.

So it is with the quest for management excellence that results management truly begins.

The E xecutive Guide to Goal Setting6

Results Management Emphasis by Organizational RoleIn an organization with just one person, the individual is both leader, manager, and doer. The person identifies where the organization needs to go from a strategic perspective, organizes the work that needs to be done, and ultimately does the work that moves the organization forward.As organizations get bigger, they have more human resources to deploy to move an organization forward. Thus, layers of management are intro-duced to help coordinate these human resources. At the Fortune 500 level, they may have tens or hundreds of thousands of line workers and thou-sands or tens of thousands of managers. These managers are necessary to coordinate the action of line employees in pursuit of organization goals. In turn, these managers may have managers as well who help coordinate their activities, and so on and so forth all the way up to the CEO.

Looking at an organization, the required mixes of Inspirational Leadership, Results Management, and Doing (Task Execution) change depending upon an employee’s level within an organization. The CEO may spend much more time Leading than a manager close to the line level. A line manager will spend proportionately more of his or her time Doing than the CEO. However, both of them have responsibilities in each area – Leadership (determine where to go), Management (coordinate and facil-itate resources), and Doing (complete individual work items).

Results Management Requires Different Things From Different People:1. CEO’s provide more

leadership

2. Line of Business Leaders will do more managing

3. Managers will focus more on doing

But everyone provides a mix of them all.

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The following chart shows a possible distribution of time for an organization with three levels of management:

In this diagram, it is apparent that the bulk of time spent by anyone in the orga-nization who is not a line employee is dedicated to Managing resources. That is because managers are critical to ensuring that all resources are appro-priately deployed towards organization objectives. They ensure that there is visibility to activities up and down the organization and that resources are coordinates to achieve the organization’s objectives.

Management and leadership expert F. John Reh theorized that “A Manager is the person responsible for planning and directing the work of a group of indi-viduals, monitoring their work, and taking corrective action when necessary.”

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a manager as “A person responsible for controlling or administering an organization or group of staff.”

Given that managers direct resources for the benefit of their organizations, the definition of a manager, in essence, is this: Managers are responsible for getting results through groups of people. Managers are expected to deliver results.

This is the discipline of Results Management.

CEO

Function VP Function VP

Department Mgr Department Mgr

Line Employee

Line Employee

Leading

Managing

Doing

Key: Time Spent

Time Distribution By Organizational Role


What is the Process to Implement Results Management? As discussed thus far, some managers are better than others. They more consistently deliver results than their peers. Much of that success can be attributed to following a pattern of behaviors and actions that are universally required in the execution of plans, initiatives, and projects.We divide this pattern for the execution of plans, initiatives, and projects into three phases that managers need to follow to be successful into three steps; Plan Execute, Monitor.

These steps are required regardless of plan or project size. Clearly, to execute a strategic plan or annual operating plan, it must be carefully planned, executed, and monitored. So too must a quality improvement, cost reduction or change management initiative. In order to effect change, planning, execution, and monitoring must exist. Even at the level of week-to-week activities or projects, successful managers employ this pattern of activities to ensure that their teams deliver results.

Consider these examples of targeted results for different types of leaders:

• COO – Ensure all new customer installations occur on time

• VP of Customer Support – Maintaining customer satisfaction of 95%+

• VP of Marketing – Reaching lead gen targets across multiple marketing channels

• CFO – Closing the books on a monthly basis

• VP of Product Development – Ensuring that all products are moving successfully towards launch

Steps for Successful Management:1. Plan

What is it that needs to occur in what timeframe using which resources?

2. Execute How are actual activities going to get done? Who is going to help, and how will progress and final results be documented?

3. Monitor Is the plan being executed towards a successful conclusion? Where does the manager need to intervene in order to get things back on track? How is performance assessed at the plan and individual level? How do I feed key learnings back into the next plan, initiative, or project?

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The Results Management Cycle – Plan, Execute, MonitorEach of these targeted goals (or desired results) must be planned, executed, and monitored. Thus, the Results Management cycle—Plan, Execute, Monitor—is required for both Change Management (big plans, initiatives, and projects) and Steady-State Management (small plans, initiatives, and projects).

Applies to Both Steady State and Change Management Initiatives, Plans and Projects

Change Management

Steady State Management


How Pervasive is the Practice of Results Management?Unfortunately, even though the principles of Results Management are clear, and the need for it is certain, they are not widely practiced on a formal basis within organizations today. Here are just a few examples of research on the topic, and why the need for such a process is steadily increasing:

• “ 90% of organizations fail to successfully implement their strategies…” (Kaplan and Norton, Creators of Balanced Scorecard methodology)

• “ Organizations realize just 60% of the potential value of their strategies…” (Economist Intelligence Unit)

• “ 50% of respondents…indicated that their project failed to consistently achieve what they set out to achieve…” (KPMG)

A University of Michigan study sought to determine the causes of failing to consistently achieve objectives. They addressed major strategic projects in four different categories/types of organizations:

1. Repeat Performers Organizations attempting to execute the same strategies and initiatives

2. Direction Changers Organizations attempting to pursue new strategies using existing practices

3. New Tools Organizations pursuing existing strategies using new practices

4. Brave New World Organizations pursuing new strategies using new practices

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As show in the chart below, management was blamed in three out of the four catego-ries for failure to execute. In the fourth category (Brave new world), management was still the second highest ranked source of failure.

Barriers to success/cause of failure of organization to achieve objectives as reported by managers themselves in four types of organizations

Success Barrier

Repeat Performers

Direction Change New Tools Brave New

World

External Factors 2.4 2.4 2.3 2.4

Leadership 2.5 2.7 2.7 2.2

Process 2.0 2.4 2.3 2.1

The takeaway from this study is essential to our own findings. Despite the fact that leaders and managers are smart, driven people, the evidence points back to a lack of effectiveness in management with respect to driving organizations forward.

All of which makes the need for a process such as Results Management that much more important.


What tool does the COO use to keep the trains running on time? What is his or her management operating system? How about the CFO? The VP of Marketing? In most cases, the answer is generally individual office produc tivity software plus email.

What are impediments to Results Management?The main impediment to success in consistently executing Change Management and Steady-State Management initiatives is the lack of appropriate tools.

With so many kinds of business software available, this may be difficult to believe, but it is true. Results Management may be one of the very few facets of management where this is the case. Consider this. The staff accountant has a general ledger system to keep track of entries. The customer support agent has a ticketing system to direct his or her work. The sales representative has a Sales Force Automation (SFA) or Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to keep track of contacts and activities.

What does the COO use to keep the trains running on time? What is his or her management operating system? In most cases, the answer is generally individual office productivity software plus email.

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In some cases, these individuals try to leverage disparate tools designed for tasks such as goal setting, strategic planning, project management, collaboration, document man-agement/sharing or business intelligence. Unfortunately, none of these alternatives are designed to help coordinate the efforts of teams in support of common objectives. Nor are they designed to work together.

Current Tools Used to Plan, Execute, and Monitor are Siloed from One Another and Don’t Provide an Integrated Solution to Address Results Management

Upon closer inspection, it becomes more obvious why these tools do not adequately address the challenges of Change Management and Steady-State Management. Generally office productivity tools only cover actually completing tasks within the plan, initiative, or project. Other alternatives only cover a small portion of the Results Management cycle.




Project Management



The Solution: A Dedicated Platform for Results ManagementClearly, leaders and managers would be much better positioned for success if they had a dedicated enterprise platform that helped them repeatedly conduct the Results Management cycle. Rather than trying to leverage tools that were intended for individual work productivity or enterprise systems that only address a small portion of the Results Management cycle, a complete platform would make executing both Change Management and Steady-State Management activities easier and more consistent.AchieveIt has built the world’s first Results Management platform that intel-ligently combines functionality from multiple software domains to create a management operating system environment dedicated to enabling man-agers to take their performance to the next level.




Project Management


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The AchieveIt Results Management PlatformThe Operating System For Management Excellence

AchieveIt Combines Key Functionality from Disparate Software Packages to Create the First Purpose-Built Platform for Results Management

It is not surprising that our mission at AchieveIt is to “Revolutionize the way that businesses drive results through innovative technology”. We believe that technol-ogy is a key part of the next wave of management innovation.

Just as CRM has changed how sales organizations accomplish their objectives, AchieveIt’s Results Management platform is enabling managers at all levels to consistently deliver results by supporting all phases of the Results Management cycle, and the achievement of management excellence by leaders and their teams across a full range of departments within an organization.

•  Integrated plan , initiatives, and projects •  Dependencies/Gantt View •  Completion Tracking

Project Management

•  Team or Individual Objectives •  Visual plan construction and

relationship mapping

Goal Setting

•  Document Sharing •  Version Control

Document Management

•  Contextual Discussions •  Real-time tasking •  Email Workflow

Collaboration

•  Performance Tracking •  Individual and plan-level assessments


•  Custom Dashboards •  Drill-down •  Attribute Reporting



Conclusion: The Time is Right for Results ManagementIt is time for a revolution in how organizations enable their managers to consistently deliver results. Management Excellence has long been recognized as a component of organization performance. Now, more than ever, businesses, governments, healthcare organizations, educational institutions, and even non-profit organizations need to elevate the level of performance of their managers to compete and be relevant in the modern economy. Results Management is a concept that is a natural outgrowth of studies of what constitutes Management Excellence and how managers drive plans, projects, and initiatives to success-ful conclusions. Managers can be empowered by software in support of the Results Management Cycle.

AchieveIt’s Results Management platform is the first in the market to address this vital need.

About AchieveIt

AchieveIt is the leading platform in the emerging space of Results Management. Our cloud-based platform ties the creation of strategy to the execution of the business plan. It also provides powerful reporting tools for executives to view, track, and manage organizational progress towards the achievement of results. This new way of approaching execution—Results Management—is empowering organizations across industries to achieve new levels of success.

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What is Results Management White Paper 9-15