Some recent experiences – both personal and professional – are making it clear to me that there are critical partnerships that need to be built between those of us with many years of management experience (the Old Dogs) and the 30 somethings (Bright Young Things) that are emerging from a wide variety of graduate programs who are going to be the next generation of business and not for profit leaders.  I have been struck not only by the speed of their brains and their capacity to understand and analyse but also their work ethic. These are people who grew up being told that they could succeed at whatever they wanted to do and they are committed to do just that, whatever field of endeavour they tackle. While they can hardly wait for the Baby Boomers to move on and let them run things, the Bright Young Things also seem to recognize that they can learn something from us. And the dialogue that ensues is rich, and dynamic. In my encounters with a representative sample of these future leaders, I feel energized and excited to be supporting them to find their way. And I am learning new things which is always a natural high for a curious person.

As someone who worries about the coming crisis in leadership when the Boomer generation finally retires, I am revising my outlook on this transition as I can see the wonderful opportunity to infuse our corporate and non profit agencies with leaders who may be more creative, more self aware, and more confident than many of us were at the time that we assumed leadership positions. If we can forge partnerships where we can impart some of the wisdom we have gained through coaching and mentorship relationships, I suggest that the future could be very bright.

Jane Rounthwaite

Recently I was asked to conduct a Safety and Loss Prevention Audit for a disability support organization in the GTA. After spending time reviewing the organization’s Policies and Procedures for field programs and armed with a field audit questionnaire (that I had put together), I went out to one of the program operations in the field to see how compliant the actual operating discipline was to written policy. I was pleasantly surprised that, indeed, compliance appeared to be in place with the broad program design and that staff were very fluent with the organization’s safety and loss prevention requirements. However it soon started to go wrong after I asked some questions related to last minute changes made to programs while underway. Location changes, field trip protocols like staff ratios and contact information were not updated, driving up organization risk if something were to go wrong. Empowerment had hijacked policy, and compliance was no longer in place increasing risk to the organization in a significant way.

So what can you do to ensure your organization doesn’t face similar risks?  I will keep it simple and refer to someone who sought to bring common sense to government, Ronald Reagan. Known for many quotes he had a favourite…Trust but Verify. He insisted that although a program or process may appear to be compliant or look favourable, you need to verify that the actions and results in the field are indeed compliant to policy.

Today, with our sights focussed on profitability and growth, we can be distracted from ensuring field operating discipline compliance to policy. No matter what type of organization it is, Not for Profit or For Profit organization, whether its protecting the public, your customers or your organization reputation, these 3 words, “Trust but Verify”, ring true every time.

As a board member, senior executive or an organization’s stakeholder you should always take the approach to verify the written policies and operating disciplines in the field. Some quick points:  

• Help ensure measureable operating discipline is put in place to support your organization’s policies
• Make sure staff understand the organization’s policy, process requirements, and the background regulatory requirements
• Make sure follow-up and audit is a matter of routine to ensure the policy design is maintained in the field
• Reinforce positive compliance results and grow it this way rather than using a stick, it will become more entrenched

David Rankin

Whenever you are planning to make changes in an organization, one of the most critical and difficult-to-do-well components is to understand the business needs. 

You need to understand what happens in your organization from the perspective of what needs to get done, not necessarily solely on how it gets done.

Of course the people who are doing their jobs every day think about their work in the context of how they do it, so the analysis and synthesis work done in business analysis is really important to ensure you have perspective on what is going on.

Too much detail and you don’t get to take advantage of the opportunities that come from making changes, too little detail creates the risk that you don’t implement a rich enough new solution or process to accommodate the business needs, and risks business users feeling un-consulted and uninvolved in the process.

A common problem in business analysis is when a process or activity is done multiple ways in different parts of the organization. A good metric for understanding the complexity of an issue within an organization is the number of different names by which it is referred.  I find that the more names that are used to refer to something, the exponentially more complicated it is to unravel.

The relationship can be demonstrated using the following formula:

T = B*D*C^N-1

where

T = the amount of time it takes to resolve an issue

D = the number of different departments who are involved in the process

C = the complexity of the issue for a single department or product, and

N = the number of different names used to refer to the activity

Why is this so?

Different names indicate one or more of the following

a)    Different uses. This could be differences in what the process output is used for, including different levels of detail, and different levels of technical description.

b)   Different audiences. Different departments will have different objectives, points of view and issues that they wish to communicate.

c)    Different timelines. Information that is used strategically, tactically or operationally will differ on the time range of data used, as well as more or less detail on geography, product, client base, etc.

If you see these things in your analysis, you should be alerted that these areas may be contentious or complicated to understand and resolve. The formula I have defined above may be a bit of a math joke, but the elements it contains are all real considerations to ensure your business improvement plans really do improve the business.

Christy DeMont 

Almost all enterprises undergoing a change of ownership use a formal business valuation at some point in the process.

What are the uses for that valuation?

Firstly although a starting point in a negotiation to sell a business, the valuation is rarely the price at which ownership changes hands. Price is driven by any number of other variables including but not limited to, special synergistic value for the purchaser, potential distressed selling circumstances affecting the current owner, methods of financing the sale/purchase, and numerous others.

Generally the business valuation may determine the “fair market value” for which in Canada, an accepted definition (per the CICBV) is “ the highest price, expressed in terms of money or money’s worth, obtainable in an open and unrestricted market, between informed and prudent parties acting at arm’s length and under no compulsion to transact”. That is a mouthful and needs careful breakout into its constituent parts.  We can come back to that in another blog however its usage is often in the following  circumstances:

-        To develop a price in a non-arm’s length transaction where the business will never be exposed to an open market

-        To allow tax matters to be properly dealt with from the tax authority’s perspective

-        To support applications for financing at various financial institutes

Suffice to say that valuation is not solely an exercise in mathematics but requires the use of an accredited valuation expert such as a Chartered Business Valuator who will bring experience, informed judgment and adherence to standards for business valuation. Clearly it is never a one-size-fits-all process even for businesses in the same industry. A comprehensive valuation report will expose value not always appreciated by owners and also point to business weakness allowing correction by the current owner before hitting the market.

So if you are about to sell your business in any fashion, expect to seek out and use a formal business valuation preferably at the start of the process to avoid costly mistakes later.

John Bielby

As I get to indulge in my bi-annual Olympic madness (which for the record includes temporary Canadian flag tattoos and wearing red every day for two weeks, but I digress), I’ve been thinking about the notion of perfection, and how impossible it really is, and for many of us how unnecessary it is.

When a competition is won or lost by hundredths of a second or a thousandth of a point, I get that that first step out of the block or the amount by which you clear the hurdle can make a difference.  And don’t even get me started on the events that are judged. But there are about 10,000 athletes in the Olympics, which I estimate to be about 0.0002% of the world population. And from my point of view, for almost everyone else, done is more important than perfect.

It doesn’t matter whether you are writing a report, developing software, drafting a business plan, or painting a picture.  You have to start somewhere, and once you start, and then you get rolling, it moves along nicely.  Then towards the end of the process your productivity starts dwindling again as you spend more time with the finicky elements of whatever you are doing.  Finally exhaustion or boredom takes over or a deadline is reached, and you have to wrap up what you are doing and let someone else take a look at it.

Anyone tasked with reviewing something like this has a much easier job – it’s so much easier to edit and critique than it is to be an original creator of something.

(which, perhaps, is why writers (23 million hits) and artists (20 million hits) are described as “struggling”, and critics are described as “eminent” (10.8 million hits)).

So what’s the point?  Well, this.  Nothing you do is ever really perfect.  After every presentation I have done I wished I could do bits of it over again. Every book I have read has had a typo or a paragraph that just didn’t work. Every golf round I have played I’ve had shots that I’d like to have done better (usually lots of shots, as it happens).

None of these limited regrets means that the presentation wasn’t effective, or that the book wasn’t a work of art, or that the golf round wasn’t wonderful.  Things can be great even if they are not perfect. In fact, it’s the not perfect that probably makes it great.  It’s the fact that it’s hard and takes discipline and doesn’t come out quite right that makes it human, and that makes it great. 

And that goes for all our Olympic athletes as well.

Christy DeMont

We all do it.  We procrastinate, we put off making hard decisions, we conveniently put things aside to “deal with them later”, we avoid confrontation.   No one likes making hard decisions, especially those that might have an impact on jobs, on people’s lives, on organizations and their clients. 

Recently I have worked with two community-based Boards that were faced with difficult decisions.  The first Board made a dramatic decision that will have a definite impact on the agency’s future.  It is now up to the Board to steer the organization through very challenging times; but what is significant is that the Board decided the organization could no longer limp along, providing mediocre service at higher than average cost (and note that it took outside expertise to help the Board admit that the agency’s service was mediocre).  The second Board can’t bring itself to make a decision about its leadership and direction.  For sure it will continue to limp along (or worse). 

What makes it so hard for Boards to make difficult decisions?

Sometimes it’s

• Not getting the right information from management
• Getting information too late
• Not being objective
• Not recognizing the risk of not making a decision
• Not being well-informed about the environment
• Being more concerned about protecting personal relationships than ensuring the sustainability of the organization. 

While a good Board is indeed collegial and collaborative, it should also invite discussion and debate, and difference of opinion.  Being a good Board member shouldn’t be about popularity – it should be about asking the right questions, the tough questions, examining the answers, assessing and analyzing, and then providing leadership, oversight and stewardship through change. 

While Boards do need to make thoughtful, considered decisions, they also need to be prepared to act decisively when the situation warrants it.  Being a Board member requires integrity, objectivity, knowledge, and yes, sometimes courage. 

Melodie Zarzeczny