There’s a long history of dramatic changes that are done in relative secrecy. Perhaps the most famous are the “skunksworks” projects from Lockheed Martin. An article from an issue of of Code One Magazine tells the story:

During early 1943, as a result of prescient jet engine design work by chief engineer Hall Hibbard and conducted by Lockheed’s Nate Price and the then little-known Clarence L. “Kelly” Johnson, the Army Air Force’s H. H. “Hap” Arnold drafted Lockheed to design and build a jet fighter to counter the rapid technology advances then taking place in Nazi Germany. On 17 June 1943, the Air Force formally approved what was to become Lockheed’s first jet aircraft-the US Air Force’s XP-80. That day is considered the birth date of the Skunk Works.

The security surrounding the project and the expeditious manner in which the aircraft was to be designed and built meant that most of the bureaucratic norms for new aircraft design and manufacture could be circumvented. Hibbard, Johnson, Willis Hawkins, Art Viereck, Donald Palmer, and a team that eventually totaled 128 went to work immediately constructing a jet fighter. The schedule was severe. The jet-powered aircraft was to make its first flight within 180 days after the project started.

The deadline was met. On 8 January 1944, Lockheed’s Milo Burcham piloted the XP-80 (nicknamed Lulu Belle) into the air for the first time at Muroc Army Air Field (now Edwards AFB) about seventy miles northeast of Los Angeles.

In all of the technical language about aircraft designs, there are three important facts:

• The “Air Force formally approved” the plan to build this plane to “counter…rapid technology advances in Nazi Germany”
• Jets had never been built at Lockheed before
• “Most of the bureaucratic norms for new aircraft design and manufacture could be circumvented”

The irony of this situation should be apparent. We all know that large companies have complicated procedures that enable them to complete large projects. The skunk works story, however, seems to imply something different. If you want to succeed in a mission-critical endeavor in record time, forget the official policy and ignore management.

Sometimes, the most interesting process improvements are the ones made without any official approval or by conforming to the rules. That doesn’t mean you should always flaunt authority. Rather, the reality is that positive change is often most effective when we do it on a small scale. The most revolutionary ideas, after all, often come from the bottom.

At Slaughter Development, we love helping companies and non-profits to become more productive, more efficient, more effective and more satisfied. We encourage everyone to recognize that management buy-in is often a myth. After all, why should you need to convince someone to allow you to make choices to improve the quality of your own work?

Sound interesting? Find out more. Contact Slaughter Development today!

In a story titled Facebook, Twitter Updates Spell Trouble in Small Workplace, Sarah Needleman writes:

These days, bad employee behavior is no longer confined to cubicle walls. Some workers are now sharing disparaging opinions and even proprietary information about their employers on social media – Web forums that in many cases can accessed by anyone, including a company’s clients, investors and competitors. Business experts say that kind of exposure could be particularly troublesome for small enterprises, though there are ways owners can cope and even turn the tables to their advantage.

“It’s much easier for a large company to distance themselves from the actions of one employee than it is for a small firm,” says Robby Slaughter, owner of Slaughter Development LLC, an Indianapolis consulting firm that specializes in workplace productivity.

And just one person can make a big impact on an organization.

Needleman’s article mostly covers the negative aspects of social media use. One particular quote in the piece identifies the reason that many small businesses experience so much trouble with this new technology:

Business owners may be able to protect themselves from similar employee snafus by instituting a written policy outlining what kind of content is and isn’t acceptable to post on social media, says Christina Stovall, a director for Odyssey OneSource, a human-resources outsourcing firm in Euless, Texas.

Ms. Stovall recommends discussing the policy with employees in person, and having them sign an acknowlegement form. That way, “You’re laying the groundwork for expectations,” she says.

Let’s be clear: a written policy is the among the worst decisions a company can make about social media. Such regulations have a tendency to backfire. Attempting to censor employees is more likely to sow discord and contempt than it is to successfully protect the company.

Obviously, no organization wants their employees to freely reveal trade secrets or make embarrassing details public. But what do these actions have to do with social media? People have always griped about their boss to their friends, complained about inane workplace procedures to their spouse, or casually mentioned top secret ideas to people in confidence. The problem is not that employees exercise this freedom. Nor is it an issue that modern technology helps these idle comments spread a little faster.  Rather, social media merely illustrates the sad state of honest communication in the workplace.

Strongly-worded policies usually limit productivity and satisfaction. We’re opposed to most of them, from social media usage requirements to snow day policies. We love the Netflix model, which suggests that growth should create more employee freedom.  This is a challenging philosophy, but one that appears in successful companies everywhere. James F. Nordstrom, late co-chairman of the famous Nordstrom department store chain, eloquently explained the real problem:

The minute you come up with a rule, you give an employee a reason to say no to a customer. That’s the reason we hate rules.

Improve your company by questioning the value of policy and refocusing on the value of people. Employees get the most work done when they have freedom and a free flow of communication. To learn more, contact Slaughter Development today!

An old management adage suggests that we should “hire slowly and fire quickly.” This advice assumes that the cost of keeping an employee is far greater than the cost of losing them. More often than not, the opposite is true. We need to find ways to retain and value the workers we have by empowering them to succeed.

Take a moment to think about your own employer, or a place you have recently worked. There is probably at least one person who seems to know all of the arcane details about the business. This “subject matter expert” is the one who remembers the unusual clause in long-forgotten agreements, the structure of old filing systems, and the workarounds needed to navigate key systems. If you lost this individual, your company would be in serious trouble. Firing should be the last possible resort.

Nevertheless, it is important to acknowledge that the march of progress creates a natural tension among some workers. After all, isn’t almost every change about doing more with less? Over a year ago, The Methodology Blog covered workplace improvements. To quote ourselves:

The words used in these old jobs seem antiquated: telephone operator, gas station attendant and book keeper. It might seem like our value as employees is dependent on the arrival of the next gizmo or software application to do our work for us. This belief creates fear, and that fear provides power for a resistance to change.

At Slaughter Development, we invite stakeholders to take a different view of themselves, their work and their organization. We believe that companies, non-profits and government agencies make hiring decisions because they believe in the capacity of individuals. You are more than the sum of your tasks and responsibilities—you are a force for creativity, a source of commitment and limitless potential. A machine might enable you to finish rote tasks faster but it cannot replace brilliance and instinct.

The reason we promote metawork is because we want to encourage stakeholders to actually think about the work they do. Continually improving yourself and business operations is the best possible job security. If your innovations make your job require less time, your boss should hand you more responsibilities, not a pink slip. If your reward for finding ways to work smarter is that you lose your job, take that as proof that you would be valued more elsewhere.

So what does that mean for readers of The Methodology Blog? Please don’t introduce us to managers and directors of companies and non-profits. Instead, help us to meet the front-line people who personally experience productivity challenges every day, so that we can help them to work smarter. Slaughter Development believes in the power of stakeholders to transform business from within.  Contact us to learn more.

[What stood out to me is] that people are predominantly scanning documents to get rid of paper file cabinets and archives – they’re scanning documents that are already “dead.”

Unfortunately, the real value from document scanning comes from those documents that are very much “alive” and that require action. About 57% of respondents identified “improve process throughput (productivity)” as an important business driver for document capture.

Yet, in reality only 37% of survey respondents are scanning over half of their inbound documents. Of those scanned documents, 57% are passed to archive rather than a business process.

Chalef is correct in that the advantages of digitizing paper is far greater with documents you are actually using. After all, if you’re scanning documents just to place them in an archive, you probably hope to never have to retrieve that data.

However, taking an active business process paperless can be incredibly difficult.  That’s because you’re asking stakeholders to make as many as three changes:

1. Acknowledge that the way you are working now can be characterized as a rigorous, well-defined procedure.
2. Trust that the proposed system will work at least as well as the way you are doing it now.
3. Learn and utilize the new approach and deal with any eccentricities that appear.

Unfortunately, many  improvement efforts try to force all three at the same time by issuing an order from above. What often happens, as Daniel Chalef notes, is a compromise. Instead of implementing a comprehensive document management system and resulting in dramatic productivity increases, the company ends up with a small change that is largely ignored.

These concepts don’t just apply to scanning systems. The reason business improvement is hard is because we often start with technology instead of with people. We should begin by empowering stakeholders, not forcing them to change. To learn more, contact Slaughter Development today!

Also seen on Dilbert’s official website, below is Scott Adams’ latest creation:

Obviously, judging by standards of professionalism, “playing dumb” is hardly a reputable—let alone believable—scapegoat in business. And though this comic strip may seem overly far-fetched, there is a hint of truth behind it. Perhaps in not such an extreme manner as seen above, but surely there have been situations in business where a lack of acknowledgment, understanding, accountability or honesty have jeopardized an entire company, a management team or even a single employee.

As ironic as it sounds, discovering failure should not be embarrassing. On the contrary, acknowledging its existence is commendable. Admitting to mistakes prior to implementation not only presents the opportunity to highlight ethical traits such as diligence, humility and forthrightness, but its simply the logical thing to do. After all, isn’t it better for everyone involved if the problem is rectified before it turns into an even bigger mess? If nothing less, it would certainly prevent the hot water that the employee is standing in from boiling over.

Allowing problems to spiral out of control in the office is more than just irresponsible. It can be expensive, contagious or even hazardous.  Don’t allow fear of failure to create problems in your office. Instead, contact Slaughter Development to learn more about using metawork to improve workflow at your business.

Wednesday’s presentation acknowledges the existing reputation unproductive meetings have, but speaks moreso about the progression of concepts that can be just the right way to create successful, efficient meetings.  Take a look and see what improvement suggestions were made (direct link):

Besides the usual complaints that meetings are just too long and waste too much time, there are other factors that affect a meeting’s environment such as forced collaboration, lack of agenda or direction, power struggles, absence of a plan or outcome, and stress derived from loss of productiveness. Experiencing one or a combination of these issues in a meeting is the reason why it fails. Yet, as was presented on Wednesday, identifying types of meetings and the ways in which they fail can assist in determining not only their value, but can help highlight tools for making them worthwhile.

A good rule of thumb when calling a meeting should be to ask yourself the question, “what is the purpose?” If it is something other than brainstorming ideas or making decisions, then its time to rethink the meeting altogether. After all, time wasted equivalates to more than just wasted money. It can result in loss of direction, creativity or even motivation; three areas that empower stakeholders and assist in achieving productivity and innovation.

The next program in the Productivity Series is Introduction to Workflow Diagrams. The event takes place Wednesday, April 7th at 2:00PM. Register today!

In basketball, the fans are often considered the Sixth Man.  In your business, Marketing is the “sixth man”. Would you hire an employee without a specific idea of what you wanted the employee to do?  Of course not. As a business owner, when you hire someone you want them to be productive.  Likewise, in order to put them on the right track you outline things such as goals, objectives, and performance so you and your employee know what is expected and how success will be measured. 

For many firms, the investment in marketing exceeds the salary you pay a single employee. If you are going to make that type of an investment, I think you need to have some clarity regarding performance objectives and success measures.

So where do you start?  

Just as you would with an employee, begin with your business objectives.  How many customers or sales do you hope to generate as a result of the investment?   Understanding what a single customer is worth will help you match the appropriate investment to a particular marketing activity. Then at the end of the program, campaign or promotion you can evaluate if the money was well spent. Calculating the ROI per customer can provide a helpful starting point for your budgeting process.

Compare Marketing Activities

Hold your marketing accountable.  Those activities which produce better results, such as more qualified prospects or simply more prospects in general, should get promoted while the investments directed toward similar programs should increase.  Those activities which don’t produce results risk being fired!  

Just as business owners will disagree on what qualities make up the perfect employee, they will disagree on what marketing is most effective.  Set your own criteria and measurements and you will enjoy a winning season!

Lorraine Ball is President of Roundpeg, a full service marketing firm in Indianapolis’ small business community. Visit them online at www.roundpeg.biz.

Why are we showing off  an old rotary telephone used for text entry on The Methodology Blog? It’s not because this is a brilliant idea that you should try at your own office. Rather, the hack is a good example of lateral thinking. Instead of creating something to increase productivity, this little invention actually decreases productivity.

Figuring out how to do the opposite of what you want sometimes helps to put the problem in clearer perspective. This might be good evidence that what you need instead is something like the following:

At Slaughter Development, we work to encourage clients to think in all directions. If you’re struggling to come up with ways to become more productive, try thinking of ways to become less productive. Great business processes arise when we are open to every possibility. Contact us today to learn more!

Interested in how doing it wrong can lead to doing it right? Watch for our forthcoming book, Failure: The Secret to Success,  coming out this Spring!

Every time Slaughter Development analyst Ashley Lee walks into the gym with her two children, two processes occur. First, the receptionist at the front desk scans her card. Second, she is handed a long, red tag entitled “Kids Zone.” Having never been told what to do with the tag, Ashley simply accepts it, heads to the children’s daycare and leaves it on the countertop.

Curious as to why the daycare attendants never ask for the red tag, Ashley questioned its existence this week.

Ashley: Excuse me, may I ask what this red tag is for?

Daycare Attendant: You know, I actually have no idea.

Ashley: Really? It doesn’t serve a purpose?

Daycare Attendant: Well, I figure its to show us that you have a family membership at the gym. Really though, none of us were told what its actually for.

Since little was known about it, Ashley proceeded to the front desk to ask the receptionist. Upon her arrival, she found the manager there instead.

Ashley: May I ask why I’m given a red tag every time I enter the gym?

Manager: The red tag symbolizes that you have a family membership.

Ashley: So bringing the tag to the daycare proves to the attendants that we’re paying for the service?

Manager: Well, sort of. Really, its not up to the daycare attendants to determine that. The front desk attendant is supposed to check your profile on the computer after scanning your card. They give you the red tag to confirm that you are paying for the membership.

Ashley: But, if the receptionist knows I’m paying for the membership and the daycare attendants aren’t responsible for knowing, why the red tag? Isn’t it kind of useless?

Manager: Pretty much.

All in all, Ashley ended her investigation with one conclusion: the process of the red tag has zero significance.

Be wary of any process that leaves a false impression of purpose. If its left unquestioned or goes unexplained, all that’s created—besides confusion—is incompetence among stakeholders. Submitting to a transparent, misdirected process is more than just wasteful. Its frustrating. After all, doesn’t that useless process increase costs to the customer?

To learn how Slaughter Development can help companies overcome processes that leave stakeholders running in circles, contact us today. We’ll do more than just provide a  fluid solution. We’ll assist in creating a purposeful and productive pathway for process success.

A press release offers some highlights:

“What the process manager does is it lets our customers automate these business processes by simply drawing that process just as you’d draw a process on a white board,” said Ariel Kelman, vice president of marketing for Force.com at Salesforce.com.  ”Our cloud computing platform will instantly run that process in the cloud.”

“Someone who doesn’t know how to write code can build sophisticated business applications,” through Visual Process Manager, which actually generates metadata.

That’s a pretty tall order, and customers should be aware that there’s far more to designing business processes than just doodling a whiteboard. As The Methodology Blog has noted before, business process modeling can be aided by software, but most companies need to adopt a process-centric perspective before diving into this solution.

However, SalesForce should be heralded for taking this step. Existing customers of their award-winning products will undoubtedly be introduced to visual process design, paving the way for companies to focus more on developing intelligent workflows based on diagrams.

In either case, however, your organization can likely benefit from learning how to design visual workflows. The whiteboard is the place to start. For more, check out Slaughter Development’s Business Process Modeling offering. We’d love to help you improve productivity and satisfaction at work.