A Monthly PS Principles Newsletter For Decision Makers [June 2022]
In this edition...
Views from the Summit: PS Operations
Success on many fronts comes from a good operating cadence.
We provide a suggested framework for developing that cadence.
On Belay: Fine Tuning Timecard Collection
Get ahead of the schedule.
React to revenue leak quickly if you can.
Free Climbing: Doing More with Less
It's hard to improve a business environment when the business is struggling.
A handful of suggestions to help potentially find a way.
Views From The Summit
PS Operations
For any manager, the simultaneous delivery of multiple successful outcomes is a challenge that can take a lifetime to perfect. Even with effective delegation, the manager is still accountable for the results. The tool I use to deal with this is Operational Cadence. It's a simple term that represents a well architected calendar of events and ensures that the manager's focus is evenly spread but also, has the flexibility to intently focus on ad hoc events when unexpectedly needed.
A framework that PS Managers can adapt to help in this area is the Three Horizons Model. This model was originally developed by McKinsey to look at how innovation can be generated while maintaining operational effectiveness. For our needs, I've adapted it a little to help us identify how to work at each horizon in a cyclical way so that we spread our time to where it is needed so that we can facilitate the completion of many outcomes at once while not letting outcomes fall through the cracks.
The model does not require that you have your delegation correctly tuned. You may still be the bottleneck for ll things, but of course, the correct use of delegation is always going to enhance how efficient you are able to make this model work.
Horizon #1: Imminent Impact Horizon #1 is the "now". In a professional services business we need to deal with those things that are going to cause us business disruption now. Otherwise, the impact of the problem gets worse. For a PS Manager, the areas of the business that need attending now are those most fundamental to achieving success in the immediate future, such as:
Customer Escalations. These have the highest likelihood of blowing your monthly number to smithereens so deal with them now.
Burned Out Consultants. If you can identify them, then you need to act now to prevent them from leaving.
Resource Optimization. In our business you only make the money that you are scheduled to make, hence you must ensure that you have maximized that schedule BEFORE the clock starts ticking.
Winning Deals. Tomorrow's revenue comes from today's closed deals. If you have a deal that needs to be inched forward, then push it now.
Hiring People. You don't know when your next resource will leave and if you have new work coming down the pipeline, then you will need new and trained resources before it arrives so move on the acquisition of good people now so that it doesn't become a blocker to your future success.
The "now" should be taken care of daily. In fact, you should schedule the start of each of your days to address the Horizon #1 issues. If you don't they just get worse. At some point in the day you will get to Horizon #2.
Horizon #2: Getting things "Done!" Horizon #2 is focused on how we make our numbers. We look at the elements of the business that are moving the needle on project progress and revenue so that we can make sure that we are doing what we said we would do for the quarter. For a PS Manager those things may include:
Forecasting the current and future quarter's revenue, cost and margin.
Tweaking resource plans to account for future needs.
Identifying and removing unneeded costs in the P&L
Working with Partners
Attending customer sponsor meetings
Having 1:1 Meetings
Working with the PMO or portfolio managers
Using Collective Wisdom
Maintaining compliance to our methodology
Marketing activities
Horizon #3: Securing the Future Horizon #3 is about making sure that in the future, we are better or more prepared than we are today. This means investing in areas such as:
People Skills
Technology & Innovations
Creating Collective Wisdom
Planning for Growth
Succession Planning
Marketing analysis
The general process for using this framework is to map it out over your usual 13-week quarterly cycle. Almost every day you should be starting it by looking at your Horizon #1 areas. You should then move into a weekly cycle for your Horizon #2 areas and then finally be scheduling wether on a monthly or quarterly cycle for your Horizon #3 areas.
Within this framework, you can also assign your delegation so that the people within your team are 100% clear that they own the achievement of specific outcomes that you will be checking in on regularly. As a great colleague once reminded me, "Inspect what you expect."
**Enjoy what you're reading? Feel free to forward to your colleagues!**
On Belay
Fine Tuning Timecard Collection
Now that we've looked at the 10,000 foot view of PS operations, let's consider some of the more tactical elements. The most tactical of all is how we hit our revenue targets.
In a PS business, the sale and delivery of people's time in order to generate revenue means that we are reliant on using relevant and fresh data. Being slow to react to our timecard data means we miss out on the opportunity to adjust and positively impact our use of time, which to us, is money. To hit our numbers, we must have a strong operational cadence that focuses on the use of fresh data to determine if we have our resources adequately assigned.
In a nutshell, the quarterly number needs to be crafted and forged from the backlog each quarter. It is rarely a layup that will be achieved simply because we turned up. It needs to be planned, fought for and then delivered. As such, we want a process that keeps us in tune with how the forecast becomes the actual and in a way that allows us to react in a timely manner when necessary. That process should look something, but not necessarily exactly, like this...
Thursday: - Team Revenue Forecast resulting in Next Week's Assignments
Friday: - Distribution and Adjustment of Assignments with the Consultants - Collection (but not analysis) of This Week's Timecard Data - Revenue Forecast for Next Week
Monday:
NOTE: This Week is now Last Week and Next Week is now This Week - Analysis of Last Week's Timecard Data - Identification of Last Week's Leaked Revenue - Immediate Adjustments as a Result of Revenue Leak Data
Tuesday & Wednesday: - Monitor Assignments and Adjust as Necessary
The general idea with this cadence is to twofold. The first is to ensure that resources know where they will be next week. Those needing to confirm travel will probably need to know earlier than the Thursday before, but in some businesses, that is about as much notice as you get. The second is to ensure that management can respond to the previous week's attainment of revenue. If the revenue was as expected, then carry on as usual, however, if the revenue exceeded or fell short of expectation then maybe we need to make some adjustments.
Some people I've worked with also promote the idea that Timecard Data should be entered at the close of business on Thursday. I kind of like this idea if you think your team can do it. How wrong can you be about tomorrow's billable time?
Regardless of the specifics, PS Managers need to think carefully about how they run their timecard data collection and resource assignments so that they remain nimble and dependent upon each other. Just like a sales professional, our ability to hit this quarter's number depends on us hitting this month's number, which depends on us hitting this week's number, which relies on us hitting today's number. When we take this approach, we tend to deal with missteps faster and in a way that helps us reach the number rather than miss it.
Free Climbing
Doing More with Less
In many environments, we are trying to find ways to improve the current situation despite not having the funds available to do so the way we would like. This creates a challenging struggle. How do we spend the resources to improve the environment, while not having that use of resources worsen the current state?
When faced with this situation, there are a few areas that I've focused on repeatedly to squeeze out efficiencies. Here are some suggestions that may help you do the same within your own environment.
Better! Not Perfect You might call this "the Opposite of Perfect is Done!", the law of diminishing returns or the Pareto Principle, but whatever you call it, the general idea is that the longer we take to improve or perfect a new process, the more damage the existing process causes. So, let's just get something in that is better than what we currently have and then we can deal with the issues that new process creates. In any environment that is crying out for improvement, any improvement will do even if it doesn't fix everything.
This can be hard to achieve in enterprise firms because everybody wants to have a say. In most situations, there is an owner for every area of the business that you are trying to change. Those people may not report to you, so you need to get them onside in order to get the change implemented. We can spend a lot of time chasing success (which ultimately results in failure) in this situation, hence we need to quickly determine if success is achievable.
First, try getting the gatekeeper on side with your idea for change. Show them what's in it for them. You'd rather have this be an amicable decision that both parties supported. The second is to garner the support of other senior people to gently force the gatekeeper to get on board with your program. Yes, this is not the preferred method, but your team is counting on your ability to make their environment better and if you don't, they will leave. The third is to simply circumvent and then ask for forgiveness. Again, it would be better if you didn't need to do this, but it is a tactic that has been used over and over again in almost every company to achieve results. Last of all, if none of of these options work, then move on. This initiative is dead. There are surely a raft of other initiatives that can help your organization be better, so review those and see if you can identify one that will receive less resistance.
Utilize Your Talent Pool When trying to do more with less, it is important to know what resources you have at your fingertips. Whenever I dig deep into a resource pool, I'm always pleasantly surprised by the calibre of people and skills that I'm able to uncover. People who want to help. People who have a burning desire to coordinate, participate, lead, collate or whatever it is that can help make us better.
An area where this is often true is that of the collective wisdom. There is always someone within the group that wants to collate it, catalog it and make it more usable for others. If you can find that person, use them. If you can't, offer an incentive, someone will stand up.
Let Some Stuff Burn When trying to operate an organization with less resources than it really needs, I have realized that selectively letting unimportant items burn is an effective way to get some of those resources focused back onto more important items. As logical as this sounds, these decisions can be unclear and very difficult to make. They are also rarely supported by everyone else around you because nobody wants to be the one to give you permission to let things burn. But yet, this is the only way a resource constrained business can get itself back on track.
Step 1 is to buckle down and focus on the immediate future (Horizon #1 items) in order to make sure that the immediate future doesn't get any worse. If we can reassign any Horizon #2 or Horizon #3 resources to help with this, then we can get the immediate future under control while admittedly not addressing Horizon #2 or Horizon #3. Clearly, the best approach would be to get these resources from Horizon #3 but you may not have that luxury.
Step 2 is to repeat this approach for Horizon #2. By eventually getting Horizon #1 and #2 running smoothly, the business results should begin to come in that provide you with the ability to refocus your effort onto Horizon #3.
Of course, it is never as simple as this but by using this process as a general guide you can determine an approach that lets the lowest priority items burn while you focus on the more immediate, higher priority ones. If the situation is so bad that you still can't get your head above water then maybe there is a serious need to re-evaluate either your approach or the business model itself.
Positive Attitude Finally, when getting yourself out of this situation, remember to keep as positive an attitude as you can. Usually, but not always, the poor individual trying to help us get out of this situation is not the person that got us into it. If that's the case then remember that you didn't create the current situation but eventually, you will be the one to get yourselves out of it. If you were the one that got your organization into this situation, then it becomes an imperative that you are able to openly accept your accountability for the current situation and be as positive as possible about how you are going to get out of it. Either way, positivity is the key. Expect that there will be failures. Expect that attempts to fix things may not go exactly as you had planned. Expect people to be upset with your decisions because ultimately, it is only you that sees and must remain accountable for the bigger picture.
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