Replace Random Management Practices With These Pillars of Work Management

Management requires a lot of thinking on your feet. Multiple things can go wrong on any given day and the responsibility of putting out all those fires falls to you. Delayed payments, mismatch between purchase orders and products supplied, leave requisitions overdue for approval–the list is endless.

While all organizations must be able to manage some amount of uncertainty, the folly lies in treating them like a whack-a-mole contest. Plenty of errors and roadblocks can be avoided and the inevitable can be handled with minimal disruption with the help of structured systems. This capability becomes more urgent as the business grows and work burgeons.

Ghosts of businesses past

Organizations previously structured work with endless paper-based systems. Columns of paper and files lining office corners were a common sight. With the advent of computers, that system was eventually upgraded to a digital one.

Digital systems, however, are still terribly behind on the needs of organizations today. If you wish to stay relevant and ahead of the competition, merely using emails and spreadsheets is not going to cut it. Data gathering, transfer, and analysis are still significant hurdles for digitized work systems.

What businesses need today are systems that understand current work patterns and are capable of scaling to accommodate the future. You need systems that can recognize the difference between projects and processes as well as how to manage them.

What is project management?

Projects are usually one-time events with clear end dates. They are not predictable or regularly recurring events. They can also be predictable workflows, but where the assignments need to be handled manually.

With project management, the emphasis is on transparency, flexibility, and quick actions.

What does project management entail?

Project management usually follows a standard sequence of steps with variations based on the nature of the project and the industry in question. The stages are briefly described below.

Concept

In the first stage of a project, teams ideate to come up with a concept and outline its purpose. Feasibility is discussed at this stage along with the value the project is expected to bring to the business. The concept is then pitched to heads of department for approval.

Definition and planning

Post approval, the details of the project are worked out. Budgets, projected costs, timelines, scope, required resources, and contingency planning are all determined. Goals and plans of action are drawn out.

Execution

The project plan is put into action at this stage. Teams in charge of execution agree on what the deliverables are, who is assigned to the tasks, and deadlines. Briefs are distributed and the work begins.

Performance monitoring

Once the project is up and running, the project manager begins to monitor performance by comparing current status to the project plan determined earlier. Key performance indicators (KPIs) are used to measure performance.

Project closure

When the plan is accomplished and desired outcomes are achieved, the project is considered complete. Evaluation is carried out to understand how much was achieved vis-a-vis the project plan and what roadblocks and difficulties arose.

What is process management?

A business process is a predictable, recurring event that follows an identical sequence of tasks.

With process management the emphasis is on automation, visibility, and incremental improvements in efficiency. You build systems and structures so that you can step back and focus on the big picture rather than being involved in minute details. Instead, you trust the system will assign the work properly.

What does process management entail?

Steps involved in business process management include the following.

1. Design:

A data collection form is built and a workflow is designed to process it. Performers are identified for each task in the workflow.

2. Model:

Visual representations of processes are created. Along with the flow of tasks, conditions and deadlines are added for greater clarity.

3. Execute:

Processes are tested before taking them live. This helps identify and fix obvious errors before execution. This is also the right time to ensure data protection measures are in place for sensitive information.

4. Monitor:

Dashboards customized with relevant KPIs provide real-time insight into process performance. At this stage, bottlenecks and errors can be fixed quickly before they affect process performance in a major way.

5. Optimize:

Based on analytical reports from the BPM software, corrective measures are taken to enhance and improve business processes.

The perfect business model of improvement

Proactive management models with a focus on incremental improvement are the ones that will thrive. In order to keep growing, organizations need to future proof their businesses by adopting digital workplace systems. Digital workplaces foster a forward looking, scalable, unified approach to managing projects, processes, cases, and collaboration.

Don’t stay chained to the past. Transform to a digital workplace and race ahead to the front of the pack.