International Leadership & Management Workshops & Seminars – Dubai & Nigeria

By rapidbi - Last updated: Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Leadership & Management Workshops & Seminars

Following the success of our recent international workshops in leadership and change management, RapidBI are in the process of scheduling international seminars for senior managers and leaders as well as professional officers.

Over the past year, we have run a number of successful workshops for officers, senior managers and leaders from Nigeria, Italy, UK and India. Mostly from the worlds of finance, public sector and professional services.  This need has promoted us to join in a strategic alliance to be able to provide the following training workshops being run in Dubai:

These workshops are 5 days long and suitable for middle to senior managers, Heads of department etc.

Fees for these courses are just £4999 per person or £7450 for up to three participants and include:

Why price for 3 people?

We have learned over time that many public or open courses for leadership, change and management get canceled due to low numbers. This strategy we have found effective as it is cost effective for two people, but helps to ensure that we never cancel a course once scheduled.

Small Sizes

We believe in quality programmes so limit numbers on the program to 12 maximum. Unlike some providers that pack the room out, we use quality venues and ensure high levels of trainer/ participant/ learner interaction.

Our Course Schedule & Program

Our course schedule typically follows this programme:

Why Dubai?

As in international centre, Dubai is both accessible and welcoming to the international community. Obtaining visas is easier than many other locations. It is centrally located and it is easy to access from Europe, Africa and Asia. The training centre and facilities we use are just 15 minutes away from the internationally renowned shopping malls, with state of the art facilities and customer service.

For more information please contact us using the contact us page. We can also offer these workshops in-plant if required

© RapidBI.com This article has been written by Mike Morrison or one of the RapidBI team. We welcome your comments. If you wish to use any text you are free to do so, however please credit us and link to our site.
PLEASE RT – Help us by tweeting or adding this post to your favourite bookmark service. Feel free to add this page to your favorites (bookmark)

Filed in Date, News, products • Tags: , , , , , , ,

Hidden Dangers of 25% budget cuts

By rapidbi - Last updated: Monday, July 26, 2010

In tough times we need to make tough decisions

How to cut 25% budget without spiting your face.

With public sector organisations all over the UK (and others) facing mandatory cuts of 25% budget cuts across the board, many are going to make mistakes they will live to regret.

Whether we like it or not the target has been set. The goal for leaders now is to make appropriate cuts.

A couple of weeks ago I ran a leadership and change management programme for a group of senior leaders in Dubai from the Central Bank of Nigeria (don’t ask!) and while discussing change I heard a phrase from my past which struck fear in my heart – “Project EAGLE”.

What is “Project EAGLE”?

This was a change project which was led by a major consulting firm which resulted in losses of jobs – many inappropriately and in an ill conceived way. Now I had come across this approach “Project EAGLE” many years ago in the private health-care sector, now in the banking industry in Nigeria, and research has shown that there are many other such projects around the world. I cannot be sure if they are all from the same stable – but it looks like it.

Project EAGLE was said to stand for:

And note the total lack of focus on ordinary people!  No wonder why that so many times when people talk about change management or change strategy, they do so with dread. Indeed, in the health-care company it took many years and a dedicated (people based) change strategy just to recover from the “trauma” that was left behind.

Managing change is more than project management

If less than 50% of you plan is about people, the impact on people and the psychological changes individuals are expected to make – then your change programme is bound to failure.

Shortly after running this leadership programme I was facilitating a Train the Trainer course for the NHS and found out that due to cuts they were closing a dedicated meeting and training venue. NUTS! This venue was close to running at cost recovery with less than 20% of its activity from outside the NHS, with just a small about of growth this could have been an income generator. Unfortunately the managers saw this as an easy cut in spend – without looking at the whole picture. Worse – they were planning to put the resources and furniture in storage costing many £100s a months for the foreseeable future.

Making cuts in budgets is one thing, but looking at this in a holistic way must happen if UK PLC is not to throw lost of time, effort and money down the drains. Who are these incompetent managers that lack vision and basic business abilities? I hope that they are the first to go in any cuts. Services which can stand on their own are potential income generators, while they may not make private sector style margins, they should be at cost recovery plus – so that the facilities are available but without the cost.

Threat or Opportunity?

I honestly hope that all senior managers don’t just get the accountants in, but actually use people with good solid business/ entrepreneurship experience to help identify the real short and medium term threats and opportunities, and build on internal strengths – not just further develop weaknesses.

© RapidBI.com This article has been written by Mike Morrison or one of the RapidBI team. We welcome your comments. If you wish to use any text you are free to do so, however please credit us and link to our site.
PLEASE RT – Help us by tweeting or adding this post to your favourite bookmark service. Feel free to add this page to your favorites (bookmark)

Filed in Business Article, Change management • Tags: , , , , , , ,

The 5 Traps to Avoid – Increasing Trend for People Going Freelance

By rapidbi - Last updated: Tuesday, July 20, 2010

How to have a sustainable business model

With the economy showing little in the way of recovery, every day there seems to be more and more people looking towards self-employment, in particular in the freelance or contracting markets.

This is having a strange impact on the supply and demand in the profession. People are often despirate for work, so set low rates – custonmers like the thought of saving so hire at the lowest cost… but what is the real cost?

When contracting or freelancing, it is not about generating an income – its about running a business. This means creating reserves for when there is no work. Driving day rate lower and lower does no-one any favours in the longer run. Customers want a reliable supplier (if you charge too little you wont be there in 12 months time), customers get used to low rates and poor quality (or hidden costs) and this damages the sustainability of the industry. Worse, some sites claiming to support the freelance and contracting market accept adverts for roles that are clearly un-sustainable – driving the profession into the ground.

Rates should be based on value and business aspirations not just cost. This works well for all parties in the medium to long term.

In the past we have written a number of articles on freelancing and setting sustainable rates and business approaches – links are included below.

If you are considering setting up on your own make sure that you dont fall into one of these 5 traps:

  1. Starting a price war – you will lose
  2. Undervaluing what it is you can do for your clients
  3. Selling on price rather than value
  4. Believing that the client really cannot afford to may that little bit more – just look aroud the carpark! (or on notice boards announcing their latest contract win)
  5. Giving discounts – you will never raise the price for that client again – always add value – not reduce costs

http://rapidbi.com/management/going-freelance-in-training-or-hr-how-much-to-charge/

http://rapidbi.com/management/going-freelance-in-training-hr-or-as-a-coach/

http://rapidbi.com/management/tips-going-freelance-training-consultancy/

http://rapidbi.com/management/going-freelance-independent-trainer/

http://rapidbi.com/management/going-freelance-in-difficult-times-consulting-and-training/

© RapidBI.com This article has been written by Mike Morrison or one of the RapidBI team. We welcome your comments. If you wish to use any text you are free to do so, however please credit us and link to our site.
PLEASE RT – Help us by tweeting or adding this post to your favourite bookmark service. Feel free to add this page to your favorites (bookmark)

Filed in Business Article • Tags: , , , , ,

What is Jelly? – co-working for lone workers

By rapidbi - Last updated: Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Jelly – A Semi-Weekly Work Together

Today I received an interesting tweet about “#Jelly”. This got me interested and I stared a little research. In essence, Jelly is a way for people that work on their own to have a social connection – work colleagues if you like. The site that co-ordinates groups (http://jellynyc.pbworks.com/) says this:

What’s Jelly?

Jelly’s a casual work event where everyone’s invited. It’s for anyone who’d like to work alongside other creative people in a welcoming environment

Some Jellies are in people’s homes (that’s how it started), others are in coffee shops and businesses.You bring your laptop and some work, and Jelly provides wifi, a chair, and smart people to bounce ideas off of and collaborate with.

What a fantastic and wonderful idea. It is so easy for those working alone to “under perform” and miss opportunities as they lack the social interactions and ideas of colleagues. This I suspect is the way forward as more and more people work from home and work in a freelance capacity.

Having a regular opportunity of working together with like minded people, share thoughts, get ideas, solve problems will I am sure make the difference for some individuals in the decision “stay working on my own or go back to employment?”

What coffee chain will be the first to set up regular Jelly events in all their outlets? It will make good sense for them, and increase their customer base – Starbucks, Costa Coffee, Coffee Republic, Caffè Nero, McDonald’s, Whetherspoon etc… In marketing its all about being first – so who will be first? Come on marketing people, if you like my idea run with it (I will only want free coffee for life ;) )

Read more at – http://workatjelly.com/

Twitter – if tweeting about Jelly – use the hashtag #jellyWT (Jelly Working Together)

United Kingdom

See the site for details of other groups & their meets

© RapidBI.com This article has been written by Mike Morrison or one of the RapidBI team. We welcome your comments. If you wish to use any text you are free to do so, however please credit us and link to our site.
PLEASE RT – Help us by tweeting or adding this post to your favourite bookmark service. Feel free to add this page to your favorites (bookmark)

Filed in Business Article • Tags: , , , , , ,

Business Intelligence

By rapidbi - Last updated: Wednesday, June 30, 2010

What is Business Intelligence (BI)?

RapidBI strategic data outputs for decisionmaking & Business PlanningBusiness Intelligence ranges from data about an organization’s performance, through to customer purchasing habits, industry, market and/or competitor analysis.

Once a strategy for Business Intelligence data collection has been developed, the systems provide a rapid approach to having this data for business focused decision making. Measure the wrong things or fail to take into account changes or trends and the data you have is worse than useless – it can lead you down a path which could have a significant impact on your business. One only needs to look at Airbus & Boeing – Boeing thought that the market was changing for smaller shorter journeys, while airbus thought there was a market for larger capacity planes. Airbus’s strategy was to develop a large plane, Boeing’s was to “downsize” to smaller, short hop jets. The Airbus A360 is currently one of the fastest selling jets. Boeing have gone from being “the only game in town” to having to play catch up. Having the data is one thing – accuratly using it is quite another.

History of the term “Business Intelligence”

The term “Business Intelligence” is believed to have been made popular by the Gardner group in a report in 1996, The report said:

By 2000, Information Democracy will emerge in forward-thinking enterprises, with Business Intelligence information and applications available broadly to employees, consultants, customers, suppliers, and the public. The key to thriving in a competitive marketplace is staying ahead of the competition. Making sound business decisions based on accurate and current information takes more than intuition. Data analysis, reporting, and query tools can help business users wade through a sea of data to synthesize valuable information from it – today these tools collectively fall into a category called “Business Intelligence.”

Other definitions include:

This is all very well but it assumes that all business intelligence is software driven and software managed.

The Future of Business Intelligence (BI)

In 2009 a Gartner research and survey paper predicted the following developments in the business intelligence market.

Larry English proposed that a future definition of Business Intelligence be:

Business Intelligence: “The ability of an enterprise to act effectively through the exploitation of its human and information resources.”

This is for the team at RapidBI the most appropriate definition for all working in and around businesses to improve sustainability and (if required) growth. having the data is one thing, knowing how to use it and in what priority order is quite another!

Business Intelligence in SMEs

Many larger firms almost drown under the weight of the data that they collect, so what does this mean for the millions of smaller firms? Is BI still relevant? – of course yes , but we need to be smarter about what we capture and how we use it. One simple but effective strategy is how visitors to our website act and behave, other things include asking our customers and really listening. At an operational level using tools like RapidBI’s BIR can help an organization understand how they are performing. Identifying the correct CSFs and KPIs will also make a considerable impact.

The advantages to an organization by implementing an effective business intelligence strategy are:

  1. Increased sensitivity of the needs of the customer
  2. Understanding of customer needs and demands
  3. Ability to respond to market and customer changes
  4. Improved performance and efficiencies within business operations
  5. Effective use and saving of financial resources
  6. Ability to increase conversion rates with future prospects
  7. Appropriate and optimum utilization of all organizational resources (PRIMO-F)

Summary

During the course of running and doing business, the following questions must be asked if we want to be sustainable and competitive. The functions of monitoring, analyzing, and planning are derived from these questions.

If you cannot answer these questions, especially the last, then the business is progressing without knowing the environment in which it operates, and sooner or later will crash off the road.

NOTE: Increasingly firms in the BI market place are calling or labeling their products “Rapid BI”, meaning quick methods of collecting and analysing data, where our use of RapidBI stands for Rapid Business Improvement – with the focus on action rather than data.

© RapidBI.com This article has been written by Mike Morrison or one of the RapidBI team. We welcome your comments. If you wish to use any text you are free to do so, however please credit us and link to our site.
PLEASE RT – Help us by tweeting or adding this post to your favourite bookmark service. Feel free to add this page to your favorites (bookmark)

Filed in Business Article • Tags: , , , , , , , ,

#ConnectingHR – Networking, Beer and Red Knickers

By rapidbi - Last updated: Friday, June 25, 2010

Social Networking In the Real World

The morning after the night before…

Last night saw the second ever ConnectingHR “Tweetup” or networking event in Central London. The event was again organised by @joningham and @garelaos and like the first was a great success – both in terms of numbers and atmosphere. The event was sponsored by @courtenayhr

Over 80 people had registered for the event, and despite the searing London heat the majority were in attendance – and some that did not register!

The format of this was much like the first where most of the time it was free networking, with an informal “presentation” by our hosts (less than 5 mins) broke the pattern. This time the organisers did a couple of new things a tweet wall and they asked two of us to “lead” discussions:

I was invited to lead the session on Twitter and we had a small but vocal group of about 7 people. This was in a small way a leading to another event being planned… the Unconference in the autumn. This looks promising and I will look to both inform when it is happening and blog about it when it does.

TwitterWall

One new innovation at this event was the introduction of a “twitter stream” projected onto one of the walls in the room we were using. This was set to capture the #connectingHR tag. This had the impact of encouraging more people at this event to tweet ‘live’ than did at ConnectingHR#1. Was this a good thing or not? In many ways it was a distraction, however as the event is open to people not involved (yet) on Twitter it allowed them to see one aspect of the platform in use. The tweet wall certainly held attention at times and was itself the attention of focus on occasions (see http://bit.ly/connectHR2010 

It all happened at a networking event

I found out about this on the twitter wall, and apparently (we were in a basement room of the pub near the toilets) and a woman walked into the room we were in (she had been drinking for some time) stood, wet the floor and walked out! I heard from another source that a pair of red knickers were seen in the ladies loos! so it all happens at a HR networking event! Needless to say most of the attendees of our event were better behaved!

Better Behaved – or were we?

One of the interesting things about twitter is the perceived anonymity and freedom it provides. last night I noticed on several occasions that some people had tweeted profanities and made (perhaps) inappropriate comments on to twitter using the hash-tag (#connectingHR). Twitter is an interesting environment, and personally I like to remember that whatever you put there is on the net for good. Any use of language etc will be there for people to see. If using twitter for business, what will potential customers thing of our “drunken” ramblings? or if an employer look at us as their next recruit…?

What makes this event special?

This networking event unlike many others has a great unique selling point – the majority of people that attend are “employees” – the number of “suppliers” is strictly limited. This means that it is a true social networking event, no sell, no pressure to sell. For those that are nervous or dislike “networking” (CIPD members look at this thread on networking for introverts http://bit.ly/as5Cqd) it is the ideal environment to become comfortable just talking to with people.

A big thank you

I spoke to sooooo many people – new and old contacts, if you are reading this you know who you are (too many to list here) great to catch up last night – until next time in the twitterverse or at another #connexctingHR event!

© RapidBI.com This article has been written by Mike Morrison or one of the RapidBI team. We welcome your comments. If you wish to use any text you are free to do so, however please credit us and link to our site.
PLEASE RT – Help us by tweeting or adding this post to your favourite bookmark service. Feel free to add this page to your favorites (bookmark)

Filed in Date, Social networking • Tags: , , ,

Innovation – new or coming of time?

By rapidbi - Last updated: Thursday, June 24, 2010

Innovation the missed management element?

While looking at some references for a post on objectives and objective setting, I discovered an interesting entry by Drucker in his seminal work “The Practice Of Management”.

In my version (p53 1963 Mercury books ) Drucker identifies eight areas for an organisation to have strategic objectives (in this order):

  1. Market standing
  2. Innovation
  3. Productivity
  4. Physical & financial resources
  5. Profitability
  6. Manager performance & development
  7. Worker performance & attitude
  8. Public responsibility

 

Given that this was written in 1955 some 55 years ago, if I had seen this in a publication new this year I would not be surprised. The only real changes we would see today is Worker=Employee and Public Responsibility=Corporate Social Responsibility.

Interesting, so why in the last 50+ years have we in the main ignored Innovation and Public Responsibility as primary developmental areas? Sure there have been many firms that have embraced these – but many business improvement tools and strategies look to incremental change rather than innovation and innovation in terms of research and development rather then management practices.

Drucker takes this further. In his book he sets out what should be covered by these eight objective areas. What he says about innovation is especially enlightening:

“There are two kinds of innovation in every business: innovation in product or service and innovation in the various skills and activities needed to supply them. Innovation may arise out of the needs of the market and customer; necessity may be the mother of innovation. ….. management must not forget that innovation is a slow process. Many companies owe their position of leadership today to the activity of a generation that went to its reward twenty-five years or so ago. many companies that are unknown to the public will be leaders in their industry tomorrow because of their innovations today” (p59)

Drucker realised that there were two areas where organisations could innovate – product and process. If you Google “Innovation” you get over 100M results. Scroll down these results and many focus on product or technology. Nothing wrong with that but its not where 95% of your employees operate. We need to look at the factors which we can engage the majority of our work force and look to make changes and improvements across the whole of our organisation.

In the current economic climate the saying “if you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always got” – true for interpersonal relationships and actions, but this statement does not hold true for business and market share. We now need to focus on innovation as a management behaviour and skills as well as a product development process. We need to look at the innovative capacity of our people.

What are you doing in your organisation to improve the innovative capacity of your structures, people and culture? In much the same way that Meredith Belbin identified different team working behaviours and preferred styles of working, and suggested that the best performing teams were those that contained a balance of different styles, so it is with innovation. For a team to be effective and innovative over the long term, it is important that a balanced range of behavioural approaches are present.

How innovative is your organisation?

You may like to reflect on what innovation projects and actions are you involved in at the moment? And do you have a balanced team that can contribute to the various phases required of the innovation process?

  1. On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your organisation’s ability to generate or recognise good ideas (1= what ideas.. 10 = world class, others look to us) ________
  2. On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your organisation’s ability to put ideas into action and into “the way we do things here” (1=implement – what does that mean? 10=always implement quickly)? ________

Now multiply these two figures together = ________

If you score:

To find out the actual level of innovative capacity you have in your organisation have a look at http://rapidbi.com/creatrix/ where the drivers of innovation can be used to help change the innovative capacity of individuals, teams and organisations.

© RapidBI.com This article has been written by Mike Morrison or one of the RapidBI team. We welcome your comments. If you wish to use any text you are free to do so, however please credit us and link to our site.
PLEASE RT – Help us by tweeting or adding this post to your favourite bookmark service. Feel free to add this page to your favorites (bookmark)

Filed in Business Article, Innovation, creatrix • Tags: , , ,

10 Tips for Setting SMART-er Goals and Objectives

By rapidbi - Last updated: Wednesday, June 23, 2010

10 Tips for Setting SMART-er Goals and or Objectives

SMART Objectives imageGeorge Ambler has a good post on SMART goals at his blog The Practice of Leadership.

It’s title is the “10 Steps to Setting SMART objectives” and references an article by Andrew Bell whose title is also “10 Steps to SMART Objectives” (.pdf).  His 10 steps are repeated below, with my emphasis.

Some of the tips may seem like no-brainers, but I find it’s usually the simple things that get forgotten or overlooked:
1. Understand the difference between objectives and aims, goals and/or targets before you start. Aims and goals etc relate to your aspirations objectives are your battle-plan. Set as many objectives as you need for success.

2. SMART usually stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely (See SMARTER Objectives for variants)

3. Don’t try to use the order SMART, often the best way to write objectives is: M-A/R-S-T

4. Measurable is the most important consideration. You will know that you’ve achieved your objective, because here is the evidence. I will know too! Make sure you state how you will record your success.

5. Achievable is linked to Measurable. Usually, there’s no point in starting a job you know you can’t finish, or one where you can’t tell if/when you’ve finished it. How can I decide if it’s achievable?

6. If it’s Achievable, it may not be Realistic. If it isn’t realistic, it’s not achievable.You need to know:

7. The main reason it’s Achievable but not Realistic is that it’s not a high priority. Often something else needs to be done first, before you’ll succeed. If so, set up two (or more) objectives in priority order.

8. The devil is in the specific detail. You will know your objective is Specific enough if:

9. Timely means setting deadlines. You must include one, otherwise your objective isn’t Measurable. But your deadlines must be realistic, or the task isn’t achievable. T must be M, and R, and S without these your objective cannot be top-priority.

10. It is worth this effort. You’ll know you’ve done your job well, and so will others.

Uses of SMARTER Objectives

Remember the SMART or SMARTer approach is a TEST to be carried out after writing the goals or objective to test its validity – it is not an order to be followed or a constraint to be applied when developing goals or objectives.

SMARTer Objectives can be used in a wide range of setting including – performance management, project management, program management, appraisals, management by objectives , personal development plans, personal learning logs and a wide range of other applications

 

For more information:
See our documented History of SMART Objectives and related pages on Key Performance Indicators KPIs and Critical Success Factors CSFs

© RapidBI.com This article has been written by Mike Morrison or one of the RapidBI team. We welcome your comments. If you wish to use any text you are free to do so, however please credit us and link to our site.
PLEASE RT – Help us by tweeting or adding this post to your favourite bookmark service. Feel free to add this page to your favorites (bookmark)

Filed in Business Article • Tags: , , ,

History of SMART Objectives

By rapidbi - Last updated: Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Introduction to SMART objectives and SMART Goals

SMART Objectives imageManagement by Objectives is often credited to Peter Drucker in his 1954 book “The Practice of Management”, from this claimed history and approach the use of the acronym SMART(er) has grown. Having said that, for those that have bothered to read the book – there is NO DIRECT reference to SMART by Drucker in this publication.  While it is clear that Drucker was one of the first to write about management by objectives, the SMART acronym is harder to trace the documented origins of.

Read about our investigation into the history and origins of the SMART objectives acronym.

 

History and origins of the SMART objectives acronym

There are many that claim to know the true history of the SMART objective acronym, however there is little documented evidence.

What I have found to date (June 2010) is the following – it will be corrected and updated as I gain new information.

Many believe that Drucker is the originator – I have researched this and cannot find any inclusion in any of his books, nor have I found a publication by him containing the term.

During the 1940s and 1950s there were many engineering and educational publications that started discussing the merits of “specific and measurable” goals or objectives. Interestingly the term mostly used in the very really days was that of goal setting rather than objective setting, even within technical environments. The fact that specific and measurable have been used almost since the beginning of the era of management and educational publications suggests that the foundations for SMART goals or objectives was widespread. Indeed reading many of the original pieces I have found that language like realistic, relevant, resourced etc have accompanied much of the early texts, so the ‘leap’ to the acronym or mnemonic was perhaps an organic one rather than one of innovation in its true sense. The use of specific and measurable goals was just as prevalent in the educational world as it was the business world.

So with that said who used the SMART description and in what publication…

Blanchard includes references to SMART in “Leadership and the One Minute Manager” (LOMM). In leadership and the one minute manager Blanchard uses the SMART objective acronym on p89. This book was first published in 1985. No references are noted and copyright is assumed. here SMART is used to mean - Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Trackable. This appears to be one of the first books to use the acronym.

In their books Blanchard and Hersey use the term SMART goals. it is in the 1988 version (5th edition of Management of Organizational Behavior
). It is not in any earlier editions of the publication, and no references to the term exist. Again like Blanchards LOMM book the acronym is the same (p382). in this chapter the authors claim that much of the content is based on their work since 1981 (p377).

The Real Beginning?

Some claim Paul J. Meyer used it in his work “Personal Success Planner” in 1965, although there is no documented evidence before November 1981 for this.

From Jim Moore – the Meyer family archivist -

“Mr Meyer first used the acronym in 1965.  However, the 1965 usage was in instructional text and was not then copyrighted as an acronym.  .

As you may be aware, John Haggai attributes the acronym to Paul (in Mr Haggai’s book, Lead On! – 1986) but without specific citation or other documentation.”

This is interesting as this publication date co-insides with the writing of the Blanchard book. The earliest printed evidence that Meyer used the term is on a goal planning sheet from 1986. This is a shame, as there is anecdotal evidence to suggest that Meyer was using the term “SMART” for some time, but without documented proof confusion still reins.

Meyer and Blanchard have collaborated on projects so this could explain why it is included in Herseys and Blanchards seminal work.

The original version used by Meyer was:

Meyer users the term Tangible , however the most common version uses time bound – the Blanchard/ Hersey version.

Some claim that George T. Doran, developed the concept of S.M.A.R.T. goals in the discipline of project and program management and cite – George T. Doran, “There’s a S. M. A. R. T. Way to Write Management Goals and Objectives”, Management Review (AMA Forum), November 1981, pps. 35-36

Doran, George T. “There’s a S.M.A.R.T. way to write management’s goals and objectives.” Management Review 70.11 (Nov. 1981): 35. Business Source Corporate. EBSCO . 15 Oct. 2008.

Therefore Doran used the term before Blanchard. These certainly appear to be the first published articles documenting the SMART Objective as we know it today, however all this appears to prove is that there is an earlier source.

One of the earliest publications applying goal setting directly to individuals performance is in:

GOAL SETTING AND SELF-CONTROL. By: RAIA, ANTHONY P.. Journal of Management Studies, Feb 1965, Vol. 2 Issue 1, p34-53, 20p; EBSCO . 31 Oct. 2008

And while this does not list the full SMART format it does talk about specific and measurable as well as requiring goals to be:

So the elements are there – but not tied into the SMART formula. Incidentally this document also explores what may well have been one of the first individual performance appraisal approaches.

In this document for me there is an enlightening paragraph:

“… Planning the Use of Resources — One of the most important aspects of the program is that it takes the manager away from the daily operations of the plant and forces him to plan the use of his resources. The process of goalsetting involves translating short-term company objectives into specific goals which are tied to a completion date. This helps to integrate the work of the individual with the overall objectives of the enterprise.”

We are continuing to work on establishing a record based on printed use of the acronym – and will keep this page updated. Indeed when the truth is proved we will re-write this pages and include all appropriate references.

If you know of an earlier source we would love to know (to be honest it is driving me nuts attempting to get to the bottom of this, we are close but not there yet - MDM).

*please note this is origional research and has been ongoing for 3+years and while a new post it is not the first time I have written about this topic. Any other sites referencing Doran have gained there references from our research.

© RapidBI.com This article has been written by Mike Morrison or one of the RapidBI team. We welcome your comments. If you wish to use any text you are free to do so, however please credit us and link to our site.
PLEASE RT – Help us by tweeting or adding this post to your favourite bookmark service. Feel free to add this page to your favorites (bookmark)

Filed in Business Article, Models + Theories, Training Trainers • Tags: , , , , , ,

School Improvement Review – SIR

By rapidbi - Last updated: Tuesday, June 15, 2010

RapidBI is Looking Back to School

In the last few weeks we have been approached and asked if we have a BIR suitable for the education market. One of the problems with the BIR in this context is the structure of the organisation and its relationship to its customers (the students). While the BIR will work well for the management of the education establishment, it will not be as successful at looking at teacher and student engagement. Nor will it take into account the limitations on “marketing” and communications that this sector faces.

To this end we are considering a development project to take the BIR and to adapt it to this market. For this to be effective we will need to run a small number of focus groups with senior people in schools and colleges, refine and develop new content, and then identify a number of establishments to be involved in a pilot project mid next year.

We would anticipate like the BIR that we have external feedback, in this case student & parent. These instruments would need to be developed from scratch and existing research in the field to map to the BIR/SIR

This will be a medium term project and we expect it to start in September 2010 and continue for 6 months.

If you or an establishment you are involved with are interested please get in touch through our contact form.

Please note - to be in the focus groups your establishment should be within traveling distance of London or Manchester (UK). For the pilot, if you can identify a competent consultant to facilitate the process you can be anywhere in the world.

This project will follow the principles of the BIR and our Social Economy version and not look at country specific factors, just the strategic and cultural elements of the running of the organisation itself.

Our commitment back to you

We would love to have you involved in this project. All participants will be entitled to use the SIR for life for free.

Background

The BIR is a holistic organisational diagnostic tool, variations have proven successful with large and small organisations as well as the not-for-profit sector. We have confidence that with some minor adjustments the BIR can be adapted to fit suitably in the education/ school environment. At a time in the world when all organisations are facing economic pressures, the SIR will be in a position to help Heads/ Principles of establishments to ensure their organisations are both sustainable and high performing.

We have provisionally called the instrument the School Improvement Review – SIR, this is a working title and may change after work with the focus groups.

We look forward to hearing from you.

© RapidBI.com This article has been written by Mike Morrison or one of the RapidBI team. We welcome your comments. If you wish to use any text you are free to do so, however please credit us and link to our site.
PLEASE RT – Help us by tweeting or adding this post to your favourite bookmark service. Feel free to add this page to your favorites (bookmark)

Filed in products • Tags: , , , , , ,
« Older Entries

train the trainer — developing the developers — executive coaching — peer to peer advice
site map — terms & conditions — consultant access


BIR Diagnostic - Creatrix Innovation - Coaching - Mike Morrison - Management Articles - Employee Engagement Surveys - Management Development - Health and Safety - Site Map

Copyright © 2010 RapidBI-Mgt, Leadership, Business Improvement Articles

© RapidBI 2000-2010 all rights reserved © Mike Morrison 2010

The BIR, EESS, the diamonds and the term RapidBI is © & TM Mike Morrison
Creatrix is © and Trade Mark of the Richard Byrd Company. All other TM & © acknowledged

RapidBI Limited Registered in England number 5446351


Template Credits: Matteo Turchetto | Inspired by Andreas 08 Template Andreas Viklund Adapted By Mike Morrison & Christopher R. Mihm 2009