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Article:
Implementation Procedures for Building Effective Management Systems: Phase IV by: Chris Anderson Part One of Series: http://www.bizmanualz.com/articles/01-13-05_Systems_Discovery.html?src=ART42 Part Two: http://www.bizmanualz.com/articles/01-18-05_Systems_Planning.html?src=ART43 Part Three: http://www.bizmanualz.com/articles/01-27-05_Systems_Development.html?src=ART44 Next Week: Re-Discovery Before we discuss Implementation, let's do a quick recap: In Phase I, we learned how your organization specifies the project mission, objectives and effectiveness criteria. Phase II entailed setting requirements for project tools, budgets and schedules to manage your project. Phase III taught us about identifying and testing processes within the system. With all of that behind us, next it's time to learn about learning. Management Process Implementing an effective management system is much like the first day of school. When young children walk into that big new classroom for the first time, the effect can be intimidating, even overwhelming. New students are like blank slates: intelligent, capable, but completely untested and unschooled in the challenges that lie ahead. By the time the final bell rings on their academic careers (many lectures, raised hands and exams later) those same students have grown into talented experts in their chosen fields. The difference between 'before' and 'after' is training, testing and time. In the same way, implementation is all about information and assessment. Your class must be educated, indoctrinated, tested, and graded in the ways of your management system in order to graduate to effectiveness. No one ever said it was easy, but with studying and hard work, your organization is sure to score straight A's. Process Training and Assessment The first assignment for Effectiveness 101 is a pop quiz to see exactly where the focus of your improvement efforts will need to be. A preliminary assessment of your employees' skills and competencies will help determine the training gaps your people need to close. Once you have identified your training needs, then your lesson plan can begin in earnest. Your training program will introduce your employees to the job descriptions, processes, and procedures that compose the management system. Just as importantly, your employees must be trained on the relationships between themselves and your objectives and effectiveness. Once the coursework has been taught, it's time to do some grading. A top-to-bottom audit should be conducted of your entire system against your objectives and compliance requirements. With this audit completed, you will be able to graduate from where you've been to where you want to be. Processes and Procedures to Implement a Stable System No one goes from kindergarten to college overnight. You are working toward a stable system, and it will take time - roughly 50% of the project's total time, in fact. While implementation usually takes a three- to six-month 'semester' to complete, the exact amount of time you'll spend will depend on how many employees, locations and processes you have. You have permission to publish this article free of charge, as long as the resource box is included with the article. If you do run my article, a courtesy reply to sean@bizmanualz.com would be greatly appreciated. This article is 516 words long including the resource box. Thanks for your interest. About The Author Chris Anderson is the managing director of Bizmanualz, Inc. and co-author of policies and procedures manuals, producing the layout, process design and implementation to increase performance. To learn how to increase your business performance, visit: http://www.bizmanualz.com?src=ART45 sean@bizmanualz.com This article was posted on February '03
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