Tag Archives: process

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Which comes first

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I often run into people seeking answers.  My counsel to them is unlike the popular game show, Jeopardy, it does not make sense to start with the answer.

The answers we seek cannot be uncovered without a clear understanding of the question.  That is where to begin.  Spending time and effort seeking to find answers is a much more efficient process if it is focused.

Clarity of Purpose

Taking the time to fully understand the question is an effort well worth undertaking.  It helps us avoid responses that are not really relevant to what we seek, but appear to be.

Sometimes digging into what the question really is can provide answers.  For example, consider the simple question “Why is the sky blue”.

Are we really trying to determine the reason for the sky’s color or is it what the sky is composed of (which results in blue color) the answer we seek.

Or do we want to understand why the region starting from land and reaching outer space exists, that is what is the purpose of the sky and why does it exist and do we need it, can we use it for something?

Solid Foundation

Research into a topic is best conducted when the object of the research is well defined.  This process of determining what we are actually trying to answer, that is creating the question is not only a critical beginning but also time-consuming.

The value equation, spending time up front to think through and clarify the question more often than not results in clear and high-quality answers.

Without understanding the question we really cannot arrive at an answer.

 

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Who, What When

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Through experience I have come to believe accomplishing a goal requires three things, at a minimum.  Of course you need to be clear on what the intended outcome is be you start.

The three simple things are:

  • What do we need to do in order to attain the objective?
  • Who is involved in executing the “what”?
  • When will it be done?

Anticipating Failure

Whether a very simple or complex task unless what, who and when is clearly defined I am never surprised by failure.  Failure is more likely than success when clarity of purpose, approach and accountability is not present.

That is not to say you cannot stumble upon success miraculously (often called luck) but even with luck, intent is usually present which implies some level awareness of the objective being sought.

While being very clear about the steps to achievement, how they are executed, by whom and when does not guarantee success it does increases the likelihood.

Guaranteed Results

Understanding how to achieve the results you seek  is certainly a best practice it does not mean you are guaranteed to reach your goal.

If that were the case, this practice would be universally employed.  We simply decide, I want that, here is how I can get it, with these peoples help and this is when I want it.

If this approach was always assured of success everyone would, after all if what I want is guaranteed just by making the attempt, what barrier to trying?

Sadly it is not that simple and good planning and preparation do not equate to absolute achievement (the possibility of failure is omnipresent).  Still good process is more likely to lead to success so well worth undertaking.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Options

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Often, the path you are following presents several options.  For example, if you are out for a walk and come to a fork in the road the obvious questions is do I proceed left, right or turnaround and go back?

After consideration  you conclude which option to select.  Based on your resolution the journey continues.  The outcomes may lead to your questioning or applauding the choice, in hindsight.

Of course the quality of the outcome (good or bad) can be a result of luck, your decision or a combination of the two.  The aspect within your control is the decision.

Making Decisions

Your approach to determining how to proceed is often impacted by environmental factors.  For example an element of urgency may be present limiting the time you have to analyse possible outcomes and associated risks.

Or you might have lots of time to gather information about each option; however, this can lead to analysis paralysis (overwhelming data stalemating the decision process).

Start with a plan

The best decision making begins with planning.  The planning effort needs to be tailored to the impact of the decison, priority and available time.   Whether high or low impact, quick or slow duration, considering how you are going to decide is invaluable.

The plan can be documented or just thought out in your head with the steps and timing remembered.   The key is to outline what considerations you want to make to  enable determiation of  effort, risk and expected outcomes.

Utimately the best decisions are formulated with an understanding of what it takes to achieve the desired results and what could go weong.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Achieving clearly understood, cost effective, quality products and services

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Many distain process and governance as bureaucratic practices which have more cons associated with them then pros.  This could not be farther from reality.  It is very dependent on your perspective.

Organizations, even households have a common generic objective.  That is to provide clarity to all stakeholders  (e.g., employees, volunteers or family members) so outcomes are cost effective and high quality.

Processes are:

Through the practice of simple, repeatable, well communicated and easily understood steps, the results will be consistent (repeatable), and assuming the practices are designed to be easy (cost effective) and of course the activities are formulated to ensure the highest quality.

The combination of executing  multiple practices or steps becomes the process.  By following a process everyone is clear on what to do, or what they get or how to get it.

The outcomes ( product of the process) are therefore never a surprise and since, clarity is practiced throughout, problems which may arise are identified early on and so can be resolved before they become too impactful.

In the Real World

MacDonalds operates a hugely successful restaurant business.  Their success is soundly based on consistent, repeatable, clearly communicated and understood processes.

When you go to MacDonalds you know upfront what you can get (consistently every time, anywhere in the world) when, how and at a low cost.

The companies sales and ongoing longevity are pretty good indicators that their seemless execution of well defined processes works.

So if you think process is a bad word, if you have visions of bureaucratic slowness and wasted effort on unnecessary tasks, get over it, processes are a powerful way to guarantee you can reach the  objective.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Balancing performance and process

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How well you complete the execution or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function can be measured.  This measure is often refered to as a performance appraisal.

The appraisal can cover performance across a specified period (e.g., six or twelve months) or it can be for a specified task or series of tasks.  (e.g, how well you performed in a soccer or baseball game.)

Process is how you completed the task.  That is a defined series of actions or steps required to achieve the goal.  Often for repeatablility and consistency of performance, process steps are documented.

Achieving Results

The focus of this post is the synergy between performance and process.  Taken together, leveraging both competence and skill  associated with high performance and consistency and quality associated with defined process, the  likelihood of high quality results produced with minimal effort is much greater.

The key is to balance both these concepts.  A clear, simple process will enable a high performer to excel.  It positions medium and low performers for success as well.

Overall, documented processes that are easy to understand provide the framework for performance.  That is not to say high performance cannot be achieved without clear process, but the opportunity for exceptional process is increased.

Another feature of defined process is sustainability.  One characteristic of the North American economy is a higher percentage of employee turnover than 50 years ago.

As employee turnover,  the training effort is lowered  and consistency of results is stable when the processes (how a task is performed) are well defined.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Investment Basics

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Investing –  expend money with the expectation of achieving a profit or material result by putting it into financial schemes, shares, or property, or by using it to develop a commercial venture.

Whatever you are using as an investment vehicle (stocks, bonds, mutual funds , etf’s, property or a business to name a number of the most common vehicles) the process and the principles are the same.

House Flipping

While watching a TV show about house flipping the other day it occured to me how walking through the process (step by step ) would be a great way to illustrate the common generic investment practices.

These practices can be leveraged to make positive investments consistently.  That is regardless of the investment vehicle.  Whatever you are expending your money on for investment purposes, these things apply.

The Investment Process

1) Decide what to buy  –  In the case of house flipping, you are seeking a property.  Before selecting a house you need to understand your goals.  Are you seeking to buy, repair and sell in a short time (active investing) or buy and wait for the price to rise while doing nothing (passive investing) or rent and earn income while expecting the price to remaim at least flat (income investing).  Or some combination of these?

2) Monitor, hold improve or get out – For a house flip of course adding more money to make the investment attractive is obviously the object of this step.  For financial investments this may involve actively participating as a shareholder, attending meetings, voting questioning company management and so on.  Or if this was a passive investment or income investment this could mean waiting, watching, costs being ready for the next step ( or a quick exit if losses loom)

While repairing the house unexpected problems may cause you to dump the reno plans (its getting too costly) take a loss or smaller profit than your goal because it seems safer than getting in deeper and loosing more.  Similar logic can be applied to your financial investment

3) Sell for profit – In the case of flipping, you put the home on the market for more than you paid plus reno costs.  For financial products ask more than you paid plus costs (fees, taxes, etc.).   In the case of income investing you might never get to this step, as long as you have an income stream with little cost to maintain, why bother.