Too many people in charge cause waste

Q: I know my people are good and their hearts are in the right place. There’s a real desire to get work done. Unfortunately there’s confusion as to who should do what. That keeps turning into work hours we can’t invoice because we duplicated effort. That’s costing me both revenue and profit.

Thoughts of the Day:

Avoid the common mistake of having too many people in charge, which ultimately means no one is in charge. Set up standards, accountabilities and chain of command. Practice using the tools and refine them until it’s a waste-free operation.

Overlap of duties and areas of responsibility can be a real profit waster. Defining who does what eliminates overlap and leads to accountability. That translates into less duplication and ultimately lower costs and increases profit.

Figure out the organization chart from bottom up and top down. Try to address the following questions:

 

  • Do individuals understand their assignments?
  • Is everyone fully trained for the job they’re assigned to do?
  • Where do individual responsibilities stop and start?
  • Are people clear who they report to, who’s in charge?
  • Do people report to managers who understand and can properly oversee what’s going on?
  • Who’s responsible for setting standards, measuring performance, reporting on results?
  • Who does training and remediation?
  • How do people come together to work on solutions?

 

Look at production breakdowns. Why are problems cropping up? Are there re-dos due to errors? What about excessive production due to lack of awareness that some task had already been completed?

Ask for a written diagram of how work flows. Publish the diagram in places where everyone in the organization can refer to it. When issues or questions crop up, refer to the diagram to determine who should be involved.

Set standards for what’s acceptable. Set up rules about chain of command and accountability by answering the following questions:

 

  • For each task, what is the standard for acceptable completion?
  • Who do people go to when they have a question or a problem?
  • If there’s a dispute, how does that get routed through the organization?
  • Who gets involved to recognize over or under performance?

 

Once rules and job flow are set up, it takes practice to make things work smoothly. Ask managers and employees to work through the details. Encourage people to try new ways of doing things. Get your people to grow by holding them responsible for figuring the best ways to do their work.

Set up meeting times for people to work together on making improvements throughout the organization. Insist that people attend and participate. Set an agenda for the next meeting at the end of the preceding meeting. Keep energy flow up by asking people to focus on how they want things to be in the future and working backwards from that to where they are at present.

Hold people accountable for learning and changing as well as for reporting to the organization on the improvements they’re achieving.  Use meetings to recognize good performers as well as to work out problems.

Show managers and employees how cutting out waste turns into higher overall profits. Get people focused on the bottom line results of making improvements. Build a program through which people share in some of the additional profits.

Decide how you’re going to reward people; will it be with cash bonuses, events, activities, gifts, etc. Consider the value of building up team pride by recognizing and bringing together groups of people who produce improved results. Consider a dinner of the month club or a quarterly offsite. Combine that with individual performance improvement programs, where people have more choice over the kinds of rewards they compete for.

Looking for a good book? “Getting Organized: Improving Focus, Organization and Productivity” by Chris Crouch.

Andi Gray is president of Strategy Leaders Inc., www.strategyleaders.com, a business-consulting firm that specializes in helping entrepreneurial firms grow. She can be reached at (877) 238-3535. Do you have a question for Andi? Send it to her via email at AskAndi@StrategyLeaders.com or by mail to Andi Gray, Strategy Leaders Inc., 5 Crossways, Chappaqua, NY 10514. Visit www.AskAndi.com for an entire library of Ask Andi articles.