Tips for Optimizing Organization

* For increasing the overall productivity of an organization, focus should be made on increasing the utilization, efficiency & effectiveness while dealing with resources.

* Management by objectives should cover following 8 areas:
1. Marketing objectives
2. Innovation
3. Human resources
4. Capital resources
5. Physical resources
6. Productivity
7. Social Responsibility
8. Profitability

* Organizations tend to focus only on needs of customers but one should remember that ratio of non-customers to customers is always much more higher. Even for large empires like Walmart its 87:13. To increase market share its very important to identify needs of non customers also.

* Theory of business is based on assumptions about environment, mission & core competencies of Organization. Unless its not enlarged, organization can't grow much.

* 90% of results of organization are based on 10% activities. Effective executives should try to identify that & take few important decisions which can cause impacts. He should know when it should be based on principle & when pragmatically.

* While making people decisions: 1. Think thru assignment 2. Look at no. of qualified people 3. Think hard abt how to look at each candidates 4. Discuss each candidate with several people 5. Make sure appointee understands the job.

* While dealing with idea: 1. must meet rigorous test of practicality 2. must have economic validity 3. meet test of personal commitment

* While making decision don't go for specific. go one step further & take generic decision & go one more step further & take preventive measure.... e.g. in restaurant customer tells waiter that salt is less in curry. Waiter coming & solving his problem is specific decision. Waiter informing to the cook & cook adds salt to whole pot of curry to correct problem is generic decision & cook changing the recipe book for that item is preventive measures.... This way of taking decisions will save lots of time.

* Don't go for changing any process without doing root cause analysis & studying about its implications. Try to pin point the flaw & apply correction there. Don't start any new process without giving much thought. It may eat up lots of time. Stop the processes which are not giving effective results. That will help in freeing up the resources which can be used some where else.

* Innovation is work rather than genius & effective innovations start small.

* Management needs to find better ways to increase productivity of knowledge workers. A country which will lead in that will be the next economic power.

* It costs just as much to do the paper work for a small order as for a larger one.

* Studies reveal that revenues & efforts allocates them to 90% of events that produce practically no results.

* Managers should concentrate their efforts on smallest no. of products, product lines, services, customers, markets etc. which will produce large amount of revenues.

* Channelize staff efforts on very few things that are capable of producing significant results.

* Apply effective cost control on very few areas which will have significant impact.

* Allocate resources to activities which provide opportunity for high economic results.

* The area of greatest potential for opportunity should be given the fullest resource support in quality & quantity before next promising area gets any thing.

* Source of wealth is something specifically human: KNOWLEDGE. If we apply knowledge to tasks we already know how to do, we call it "productivity". If we apply knowledge to tasks that are new & different, we call it "innovation". Only knowledge allows us to achieve those 2 goals.

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) on Time Management

Following are few of the FAQs on Time Management

* Whats the main thing which Time management stresses on?
Time mgmt. stresses on direction not on speed.

*From which paradigm I should carry out my activities?
Study shows that most successful man in the world operates from Importance paradigm not from Urgency
paradigm.

*Which are the four quadrants of TM & in which quadrant I should spend most of my time?
There are 4 quadrants of TM based on type of activities:
Q1 - Important, Urgent
Crises, Meetings, Deadline driven projects, Pressing problems
Q2 - Important, Non - urgent
Preparation, prevention, planning, Values clarification, Relationship building, True recreation, Empowerment
Q3 - Non Imp., Urgent
Interruptions, phone calls, some meetings, some mails, some reports, many proximate, pressing matters,Many popular activities
Q4 - Non Imp., Non - Urgent
Trivia, busywork, Excessive TV, Time wasters, Escape activities, some phone calls, Irrelevant mails
You should spend most of time in Q2.
Q1 : You can't ignore activities which falls under Q1 like meetings, phone calls & other important & urgent work but you should be smart enough in identifying your activity whether it really falls under Q1 or Q3.
Q2 basically comprises of all main activities like planning, prevention, controlling, learning, building relationships etc.
Q3 : This is the quadrant which comprises of activities which are urgent but not important. People who are urgency addicted they consider those activities as Q1 & by thinking these are first things (which are not first in reality) they spends unnecessary amount of time doing that. If you want to increase time in Q2 activities then you should try to get it by reducing Q3 activities.
Q4 : This is the quadrant which comprises of activities which doesn't help at all in our growth. So we should try to bring it down to 0%. When a person works more from urgency paradigm he tries to get relax by escaping to Q4 activities like watching T.V., reading & sending unnecessary emails etc. There are more better ways for renewal & we should follow those constructive renewals.

*How much time successful & non successful industries spent in each quadrant?
Successful -> 20-25% in Q1, 65-80% in Q2, 15% in Q3, less than 1% in Q4
Non Successful -> 25-30% in Q1, 15% in Q2, 50-60% in Q3, 2-3% in Q4

*What are the 4 basic needs of human being?
Physical,Social,Mental & Spiritual are four basic needs. In other way it means to live, to love, to learn & to leave legacy.

*What are the 4 endowments of human being?
Conscience
Independent will
Creative Imagination
Self awareness
Highest level of Q2 activities are those which nurtures & empowers your these 4 endowments.

*Which are the two keystones out of 4 needs & endowments?
Contribution (To leave legacy) & conscience - These are most important because they provide meaning to and energize the others.

*Which are the two stumbling blocks?
Discouragement - which comes as a result of living life on illusion rather than principles.
Pride - Pride in living, Pride in loving, Pride in learning & Pride in leaving a legacy. If you are doing activities just to nurture your pride then its just cotton candy satisfaction. When you are doing the things after finding real meaning to it then it will be long lasting.

*What should be the vision of my life?
As per fourth generation of TM, to live a quality of life you should have a vision which can satisfy your all 4 needs. As we know this we can not accomplish with a single role so you should identify your different roles in life & in all the roles you should have a vision which is based on values of principles.

*How can I acquire this final vision?
To acquire this final vision you should have weekly goals in your different roles. You should identify which are the first Q2 things I should carry out in next week which can lead me to my final vision in each role. Some of your most important roles are as personal development, As professional at work, As family member, As friend, Member of Society etc.

*What is the best vision out of all visions?
Raising vision in others

*Shall I go for daily planning or weekly planning?
Fourth generation TM recommends Weekly planning is better than daily planning.

*Why balance of roles is important & maximum around how many roles I should plan out my goals in a week?
Balance of roles help in reducing stress & it also helps in satisfying all 4 needs. It doesn't mean that you should plan out your weekly goals in each role but depending on circumstaces you should try to cover goals in all roles. You should not plan goals for more than 7 roles in a week.

*What are the three circles & where I should utilize my time?
Outer circle is circle of concern
Inner to that is circle of Influence
Inner most circle is center of Focus
Study shows that people who are most successful spends most amount of time in centre of Focus. Which automatically increses their circle of influence.

*Shall I spend time in producing or in increasing capacity to produce?
Society & People judges you from what you are producing. They are interested in final results. So you can't ignore producing but you should also realize that our ability of producing gets directly affected by the amount of time we spend in increasing our capacity to produce. So a proper balance is needed between two.
e.g. you are spending specific amount of time with people to build relationhips. This is an act of producing. When you spend certain amount of time in learning ways to win friends & influence people (An act of increasing capacity to produce) then you will be able to build reltionships with people in less time & more effectively.

*Shall I prioritize my schedule or schedule the priorities?
You should schedule your priorities to continue working from importance paradigm.

*Shall I treat people as interruptions & continue what I'm doing to stick to the schedule?
No. Fourth generation TM suggests to operate from paradigm of building relationship with people.

*How should I categorize my weekly goals?
You can categorize it as Determinant goals & Perhaps goals. At any cost you should try to accomplish your determinant goals to keep the commitments to your self & to maintain courage. Perhaps goals are the one which you may or may not achieve depending on any other higher priorities come in the week.

*How can I achieve multiple goals in short time?
By doing multiple activities in parallel.
e.g u identify Health improvement & building relationship with son as 2 goals of week. You can achieve both things together by taking your son along with you while going for exercise.

*Which are tools available for organizing my activities?
Digital Organizer (Sharp 128kb)
Software tools like MS Outlook, Week Planner ( http://app.weekplan.net ), MS Project etc.

*Related website?
www.covey.com

*Books on time management?
"First things first" by Stephen Covey (NY Times best selling book)

How to do Planning using Software Apps

Now a day, there are many planning related software apps available in market which can make your life easy. Most of us are aware of Microsoft Project which is good to do detailed planning of projects. Here in this article, I will discuss about doing your daily or weekly or monthly planning of activities using an online app which is based on principles of great author Stephen Covey’s book “First things first”. If you have read this book or related chapter from his other book “Seven habits of highly effective people” then you will be able to learn functionalities of this app quickly.

Software app http://app.weekplan.net stores data online on their server. So you can access your plans any where from internet. This app is free. After you do the registration & log on to the system, this is how screen looks like:

You can create roles, set weekly goals surrounding to these roles, create daily activity goals against those weekly goals & set its priority based on importance & urgency. App allows you to see weekly or daily view of the system. App automatically shifts daily activity goal to next day for unfinished tasks. You can even set email reminders based on your own preference of receiving frequency in this app. You can maintain daily journal & shift some of activities to pending list. There are many other features & statistics which app supports. So get tuned & start using this Week Plan app to get more organized.

Six Steps on Client Handling

1. Think & act as owner while dealing with client & not as employee: When you think as owner your whole perceptions of looking at client gets changed. Then you will start feeling need of establishing long term relationship with client & your focus will change accordingly. I’ve seen many a times even manager level people who are more project profitability focused misses this point of vital importance which leads to screwing up relations with most important entity of any organization named client. Core purpose of organization is to serve clients. That’s why you are into business. Managers have short term goals but no one would like to attain that at cost of losing client which can severely hamper future business.
2. Do enough analysis before interacting with prospective & existing clients: Take your clients very seriously & if you are purely into service business then make sure you train your employees in interacting with clients. Before approaching your prospective customers, you should try to get familiarize with what sort of business they are into, what are their needs, what are their pain areas, how you can add value to them, what are their preferences, their processes, who are the decision makers on their side, with whom they are engaged for similar services which you are providing, how can you prove your points of superior quality services etc.
3. Act Proactively rather than reactively: It is a good idea that you do follow up with your customers on regular periodical basis to collect their feedback about your services. Try to identify exact root cause of problem highlighted by them happening in your own process & apply fix there. If something needs to get corrected at client’s side process then gentle notification should be made to them. You should not try to force them. It should go as suggestion from your end leaving decision up to them.
4. Stick to key rules 1 & 2: Rule 1 says client or customer is always right & rule 2 says if customer is wrong then refer rule #1.
5. Try to read customer’s message between lines: Do not expect customer to mention their needs explicitly all the time. Many a times needs are implicit. So try to understand those needs as well by asking right questions. When in doubt, discuss with customers to get it clarified rather than leaving it on assumptions.
6. Talk in terms of what customer wants: That’s the only way to establish friendly relations with customer or any other human being. Life becomes really easy if you have good friendly relations with your customer. Many a times, you might have to go extra miles by putting extra efforts but at end of day it really pays off. You will enjoy your work & your job will always be more secured as your boss knows that customers like interacting & doing business with you.

How an organization should strategize for knowledge management?

While developing a strategy for knowledge management, organization should conduct brainstorming session with following relevant questions:

1. What should be the organizing approach w.r.t. knowledge base in different departments? Knowledge base can get divided horizontally across the departments based on subject areas. Further in each department, respective set of knowledge base can get divided vertically in different sub sets & access to knowledge material can be restricted using role based authentication. Designations can be mapped to roles. That can help in maintaining confidentiality of access to knowledge base to right people & will also help in preventing information overload.
2. What are the effective data formats of maintaining knowledge? E.g. few of them could be text documents, images repository, video library, power point presentations, screen recorded demos etc. At end of the day, all becomes part of knowledge.
3. What techniques an organization will adopt for knowledge creation, knowledge retention, knowledge transfer, knowledge explosion etc. buzz words.
4. Why training of knowledge management is so essential in organization to top, middle & lower management staff?
5. How an organization will implement knowledge management as process in the organization? How it will get linked with other existing processes? How to capitalize on improved efficiency after its implementation? How to promote this as value addition in eyes of existing & new clients?
6. Where can my organization get more information on this subject of knowledge management? Now a days enough information available on internet. One can just use google to find more on this.
7. Who will be in-charge for implementing knowledge management strategies in my organization? What will be his roles & responsibilities? Who all should get involved while formulating strategy for knowledge management?
8. When is the right time to start with knowledge management practice?  Ideally it is needed even if organization is as small as size of 1.