Organization Performance

Introduction

My first job was as a library page in my hometown, beginning in 1971. Over the next 46 years, my work encompassed a wide range of activities, from individual contributor to department manager. Over that same time, I worked in organizations large and small. I spent 20 years in the US Army after school and finished as a manager for a large regional bank.

As I moved between organizations and roles, I noticed large variations between organizations in terms of effectiveness and productivity. Equally important, individual levels of proficiency and satisfaction seemed tied to organizational effectiveness.

What I hope to do here is explore experiences from my work life and spell out what I see as important to organizational and individual success. Let’s start at the top with the organizations.

Organizations

Looking back on my career, I spent most of my time in organizations of 200 or less. At times I worked at higher levels, but they were mostly for 6 months or less. It’s important to understand that this colors my view on organizations and how to make them productive and efficient. The following is focused on businesses and organizations of 100-200 people. We’re talking about a small business or organization that’s part of a larger company.

Mission, Objectives, and Structure

 

Whether it’s a separate business or a subordinate department, they all share one thing. The organization operates with a mission, objectives, and structure. 

A business mission statement explains why a business exists, what it does, whom it serves, and its core values. Objectives build off the mission statement and spell out targets and milestones used to track progress and performance. The business, departments, and teams are structured to efficiently accomplish the mission.

Mission

Why we exist, what we do, whom we serve, and our core values. Here are a few examples:

• • LinkedIn –  “To connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful.”
  • Patagonia –  “Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.” 
  • Nike –  “Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.”

Objectives

Once we have a mission statement, we build from that. Objectives describe the discrete targets and milestones needed to meet the mission’s purpose. Key elements of objectives are their timeframe, measurability, and application.

Timeframe: While objectives can have a long-term focus, those are generally relevant at the executive level. Most objectives are operational or medium-term. Operational objectives align daily and weekly activities with larger goals. Quarterly sales targets, meeting budgets, or annual cost-savings targets are examples of operational objectives. Launching new products, expanding markets, and other lengthy projects are medium-term objectives.

Measurability: SMART is an acronym used in several organizations where I worked. It stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely. SMART objectives are trackable and quantifiable. This makes them easy to tie to performance objectives for both teams and individuals. 

Application: Objectives flow down — departmental objectives support company objectives, and team objectives support departmental objectives. An objective that isn’t relevant to a given team isn’t imposed on that team’s objectives. 

Structure

Functions in an organization are normally structured for efficiency and common purpose. For example, sales and marketing may be one department, while accounting and administration are another. Managers and supervisors operate within a scope defined by their departments’ objectives. Some common objectives may flow down to all departments, but each department will normally have a set of unique objectives.

In my experience, once mission, objectives, and structure are set, the real test of an organization is whether it can turn those objectives into consistent day-to-day proficiency. That’s where department responsibilities, essential task lists, and team and individual task and skill lists come in.

Organizational Proficiency

Organizational proficiency is built from the top down and validated from the bottom up. Senior managers define what each department must be able to do; department managers translate those responsibilities into essential tasks; and supervisors break those essential tasks into the team and individual tasks and skills that people are trained and evaluated against. This cascade — department responsibilities, essential task lists, and team/individual task and skill lists — creates the foundation for the goal and objective setting that follows at each level of the organization.

Department Responsibilities

• • Senior managers define the core responsibilities of each department, based on the organization’s mission, strategy, and the capabilities it must deliver.
  • Department responsibilities describe the outcomes a department is accountable for, not the specific tasks used to achieve them. As such, they serve as the starting point for essential task list development.
  • Because priorities shift, senior managers periodically review and adjust these responsibilities as the organization’s mission, market, or resources change.  This ensures that essential task lists, team and individual task and skill lists stay aligned to current priorities rather than historical ones.

Elements of Organizational Proficiency

Once department responsibilities are defined, proficiency is built and measured at three levels: the essential tasks that define departmental capability, the team tasks that require coordinated effort, and the individual tasks and skills that make up each role.

Essential Task Proficiency (ETP)

• • Essential Task Proficiency is achieved when a department executes its essential tasks to standard; it is the measure of whether the department can deliver on the responsibilities assigned to it.
  • From there, department managers develop an Essential Task List (ETL) tailored to the department’s assigned responsibilities and the organization’s broader mission.
  • In turn, supervisory-level leaders identify the team and individual tasks that support successful accomplishment of the ETL, ensuring every task performed below the department level ladders up to an essential task.
  • This direct connection between the ETL and team- and individual-level tasks keeps the organization’s performance and training efforts focused on what matters to mission accomplishment. As a result, it steers effort away from tasks that are easy to measure but not essential.

Team Task Proficiency

• • Supervisors identify the team tasks required to support the department’s essential task list. Team tasks are defined and measurable, and require coordinated teamwork — rather than any single person’s performance — to accomplish.
  • Team proficiency is rated on a three-level scale: Proficient, Practiced, or Untrained.
  • Proficient teams execute the task to standard with only minor, correctable shortcomings.
  • Practiced teams can perform the task but require additional, targeted training and coaching to meet the standard consistently.
  • By contrast, untrained teams cannot yet perform the task to standard and need dedicated training before supervisors can rely on them to meet it.

Individual Task Proficiency

• • Supervisors also identify the individual tasks and skills each team member must master to support team and essential task proficiency.
  • Individual performance management focuses on developing and sustaining skills that are observable and measurable, so gaps can be identified and closed.
  • Throughout, leaders are responsible for observing, evaluating, and recording each individual’s proficiency on assigned tasks.
  • Individual task proficiency is measured on a GO/NO-GO basis against a defined standard, leaving no ambiguity about whether the standard was met.

Development of Subordinate Leaders

• • Senior managers invest in the development of subordinate leaders through mentoring and performance-oriented counseling, so the leaders responsible for building ETLs and team and individual task and skill lists are themselves capable of doing so.
  • Coaching, training, and goal setting ensure leaders and supervisors are competent and able to manage others — a prerequisite for accurately identifying and evaluating the tasks described above.
  • A top-down, bottom-up approach to training fosters effective communication and resource synchronization: direction and priorities flow down from senior managers, while task-level realities and training needs flow back up from supervisors.

Managers’ Role in Training

• • Even with capable leaders in place, managers still face constraints in resource allocation and time management when training the tasks identified at the department, team, and individual levels.
  • Managers develop long-range plans to prioritize the most critical tasks first, based on organizational goals, timelines, and available resources.
  • Because resources are limited, managers must continually weigh ETL, team, and individual task priorities against one another to ensure the organization’s overall proficiency keeps pace with its mission requirements.

Looking Ahead: Goal and Objective Setting

With department responsibilities, essential task lists, and team and individual task and skill lists in place, the organization has the foundation it needs to set meaningful goals and objectives at every level. The next section defines how department, team, and individual goals and objectives are derived directly from these task and skill requirements. This way, performance targets stay grounded in what the organization actually needs its people to be able to do.