Entries by Nathan Ives

Organizational Accountability – Pillars of Accountability

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Building an accountable organization can be a long and arduous task; renovating an entitlement organization even more difficult. During this construction project, many able builders will be lost, the victims of a harsh environment that naturally exists between the competent who seek the rightfully earned rewards of performance-based accountability and the low performers struggling to hold on to their positions of power and the accompanying easy life organizational indifference and years of clock-punching bestowed upon them.

Resource Management Warning Flag 2 – Parkinson’s Law

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There exists a tendency among workers to use all of the time allotted to perform a task even if the work can be done in a shorter period of time. Some organizations, through high accountability and managerial engagement, minimize the amount of lost time caused by unnecessary work expansion. In other organizations, however, a lack of managerial oversight and reinforcement of high performance standards allows the Thieves of Time to rob the organization of precious productivity.

Resource Projection Best Practice 3 – Controlling Assumption Changes

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Standardized activity resource assumptions enable decision-makers to anticipate the quantity and type of resources needed to perform approved work; facilitating selection between competing alternatives, long-term resource planning, day-to-day scheduling, and performance measurement. Over time however, personnel, process, and business environment changes will necessitate reevaluation and alteration of the organization’s standardized activity assumptions. To accommodate these changes and maintain the benefits of using standardized assumptions requires establishment and use of a change control process.

Organizational Accountability – Evaluating Organizational Culture, part 1

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While it might sound cliche, there exists a significant truth to the phrase, actions speak louder than words. As individuals, we all hold certain values, beliefs, and biases which guide our decisions and subsequently our actions. So strong and yet so unperceivable are these convictions that on a day-to-day basis our reactions and responses to hundreds of seemingly benign situations are defined by them. Therefore, an individual’s values, the beliefs, and biases can be interpreted and understood by observing the individual’s actions.

Resource Management Warning Flag 1 – Frequent, Inaccurate Resource Needs Estimation

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All organizations face the dilemma of limited resources. Some organizations, through the use of deliberate work prioritization and sound resource needs estimation, ensure their resources are appropriately allocated to maximize the organization’s overall value. In other organizations, however, there exists an adversarial relationship between seniors and subordinates that results in inaccurate resource estimation and subsequently diminishes the overall value the organization is capable of producing.