People
A systematic approach to management requires a
new level of thinking and responsibility from your people. For
management it means thinking through the analysis and design
of the business and all its parts. For non-management staff it
means periodically lifting themselves out of their role to improve
the process by which they undertake it.
But people don't develop these abilities
accidentally. They need to be coached and developed through planned
challenges and experiences. Each problem that the company faces
is an opportunity to grow your people's abilities.
The concept of 'People' is about actively
managing your people as an asset to be grown and utilised in
the best long and short term interests of your company.
People are our most important assets - so the saying
goes! So what about asset management - what are the most successful
investment strategies - how can the asset be best utilised?
Unfortunately there is a level of irresponsibility
in many companies and their approach to “their most important
asset” - unless of course the view is “people is
our most important asset” - because often companies seem
to believe in managing them as a whole - the sheep dip approach.
Unfortunately each people asset is a unique one, and there are
no easy collective answers as to how that asset is best managed.
But people are your greatest assets. And
there are some general principles that can be followed in managing
that asset. The
concept of asset management as applied to people, has a lot to
offer our thinking on our management of people. To start with,
how do you assess the value of your asset? One way is to determine
the confidence you have in the competence of your people - the
terms of reference you provide them in undertaking their work.
Do you know how much the terms of reference
of your people have changed over the last two years?
Terms of reference provide a good yardstick
for assessing the growth of this asset. It is, at the same time,
a measure of how confident you are in the competence of your
people, and the extent to which you are harnessing that competence
without the inefficiency of duplicated effort.
The information and insight that such an
analytical approach will give you will provide guidance about
how you develop growth of your asset through processes such as
empowerment, team development, training etc.
Perhaps the most important aspect of professional
management is the aspect of how the people asset is managed,
since therein lies the potential to effectively deploy a systematic
approach throughout your organisation. Although it can seem to
develop all by itself, with just the occasional slosh of training,
this is rarely the most efficient or effective form of people
asset management.
To understand more about 'People':
| Exploration | provides an understanding of the principles that underpin this aspect of the management process |
| Evaluation | provides a simple scale by which you might reflect on your own organisation's progress in this area |
| Tools | provides a brief overview of some of the approaches that are available to support further development |
Move on to 'Process'; Return to 'Systematic Management'
© Tesseract Management Systems Ltd 2003
(click below for an oversight)
Case studies of success
Managing by Design
- a handbook of
Systematic Mgt.
(purchase on line)
Transforming performance through QFD
(insight)
Testimonials on systematic management
(for People)
Principles
Self-Evaluation
Tools