Work S.M.A.R.T.E.R. – A Miss Is As Good As A Mile
Welcome to 2016, from the SRM team we wish all of our clients the very best of success for this year. It’s a celebration year for us as SRM turns 10 years old and we are going to be giving gifts away to our clients to celebrate SRM changing SHEQ culture in many organisations on the African continent over the past decade.
Prov. Almost having done something is the same as not having done it at all, since in both cases the thing does not get done. We only missed the train by one minute? Well, a miss is as good as a mile.
I’ve heard another good one: “those who aim at nothing generally hit it with remarkable accuracy”. I can’t say this enough, I love my chosen profession, I truly love what I do. I love everything it stands for, all of its potentials. The opportunity of taking an organisation, helping them to become more productive, more profitable, whilst protecting what’s important to them (their people and the planet). In this blog, I want to talk about what it actually takes to improve a business.
Work S.M.A.R.T.E.R., Not Harder
It’s the beginning of 2016 and most people will be setting fresh objectives. I have observed over the past few years, how many organisations set great objectives, but fail to deliver on them. This is generally due to a multitude of reasons but the one I see most frequently is that they become so busy “doing the stuff” that they fail to monitor, measure and review performance against the objectives. At the end of the day, 1 Degree off-course over time can be a million miles off target.
Thus setting SMARTER objectives is a must, the key being Evaluated and Reviewed (Regularly)
S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Attainable
R – Relevant
T – Time-bound
E – Evaluated
R – Reviewed
Attached is an example of a management plan that we use to set objectives, targets and programmes. A brief overview is that objectives are the broad overview of what we wish to achieve, the target is the quantifiable time/date and the programmes are those mechanisms that we will utilize to achieve the objective.
For most companies, their vision and strategy are fairly clear, setting objectives to meet the vision is also quite clear, the periodic monitoring of those objectives is where the issue seems to come in.
As we have consultants in Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town, with joint venture partners in East London & PE, the team is spread wide and coordinating a review of objectives can be difficult, and so we have decided to start “mini-meetings”.
Mini Meetings
Mini meetings are a weekly 10 – 15 minute call from the management team discussing the programmes that we are using to leverage our objectives and how we are performing against them. This allows us to make adjustments as we progress, with a full performance review quarterly.
We have found that this level of monitoring works for us, what works for you? Additionally, we run our entire SHEQ Risk & Compliance system through our amazing software system called Mango. So basically we create events for the various staff reviews, Mango reminds us to hold the reviews and we can sign off the event and upload the evidence.
This is a great tool for ensuring we deliver on our objectives and have a clear audit trail that we are doing what we say we do.
The Big Question Is…
What are you doing to ensure that you deliver on your objectives for this year? Remember that those who do not learn from their mistakes may be destined to repeat them.
To all of our clients and prospects, all the best for 2016, we look forward to hearing from you on achieving your goals.
Use SHEQ Software
SRM and many of our clients use Mango Compliance Software – Mango makes it easier to get ISO 9001:2015 certification. By using a SHEQ software system, it will make it easier to implement Evidence-Based Decision-Making processes. Additionally, all quality data can be input into Mango and extracted in various reports and graphs.
