Have you invested too much, too little, or just the right amount in people, key relationships, team development, leadership training and business intelligence systems? Compared to what?
How will you measure, monitor and modify these allocations over time … to keep current? How often do you re-assess?
Might it be time for a realignment — to close the gaps between what you espouse and what you actually accomplish?
Yes, we ask a lot of questions, but if you don’t ask, you don’t get. We all invest our time and energy, sometimes even put cash on the line, in what we expect will produce commensurate rewards. Organizations invest various types of capital — and determining such allocations are one of the main functions of management — with similar reasoning and intended results. Do you have the data you need to avoid guesswork? If not, how could you mobilize your team to devise a new system (involving them is key to gaining their true commitment to it) that makes optimal use of resources, keeps all stakeholders “eyes on the prize” and furthers whatever culture change or strategic imperatives that you know are key?
How about if you start here: What are the strategic investments that would likely have a multiplier effect … which ones will deliver the most benefit (“bank for buck”)? How can you figure that out quickly and easily?
You may be wondering how any boutique management consulting firm (such as this one) could “get all fiscal” and think/act/teach/coach/advise like an investor would? Well, that’s imply because we are also precisely that — impact investment partners in new mid-market projects worldwide, having teamed up with a US family office, and working with both corporate finance teams and early-stage venture capitalists, mostly in EdTech, CleanTech, and AgTech, since 1996. More on this at in3group.net. Short answer: we get it.
So, from 10k feet, questions to launch a self-performing review:
- How is your workplace investment portfolio? What’s going well, stalled, or fallen apart recently? Have you learned all you can from those results? (Results don’t lie.)
- What are your return expectations? Are they realistic?
- How will you measure progress? What are your core indicators of both progress made and of results (hint: measure what you need to know, even if not what , what is allowing or supporting change, any forces opposing (organizational, departmental, or individual change agent “resistance”), and results.
Some key in-house leadership development and organizational performance investment considerations:
- What performance gaps or new challenges is your organization now facing?
- Productivity goals seem even more difficult to reach in the current economy
- Access to social capital, a trained workforce, good customers …
- New competitors entering the market, driving down costs
- Regulatory changes or other external pressures?
- More on setting up systems of measures for performance management and analytics that serve never-ending improvement here
- How are the team’s people skills inspiring excellence or limiting performance?
- Who are the key leaders that, despite being technically strong, lack emotional intelligence?
- What would most help sales productivity?
- Are incentive systems designed to reward the “soft stuff” (teamwork, risk-taking, learning, recognition for committed effort no matter what the actual results) as well as a balance of fiscal measures?
- How well do people work across different styles and cultures, with regional or international counterparts? For example, has there been training in non-verbal communication?
- When we ask our people to commit (invest in the results they are held accountable for delivering), do we adequately support them in making those investments? How committed are we? What are the measures the indicate “success”?
- What strategic investments will likely have a ripple effect throughout the entire organization? What is the key that would unlock seemingly unrelated areas and begin an upward spiral of improvements?
Some might also call this a “critical success factor” … measured by key performance indicators.
Whatever you call it, asking this question of leaders has them digging deep for possible answers, setting a higher standard than status quo goal achievement.
Principal consultant Daniel Robin understands investment. Since 1996, he has built a successful financial services consulting firm called In3 Group (original name “Integrated Investments Int’l”). Now certified by Moody’s Analytics in finance fundamentals, Mr. Robin has advised and successfully invested his own capital in early stage ventures, assists private and institutional investors with their funding decisions, and has chaired international conferences, keynoted and taught popular programs in entrepreneurship and investment (see speaking history, or refer to description of Investing for Sustainability) at Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS; now Middlebury Institute at Monterey) in California.
MIIS offers a top-10 ranked MBA program (Fisher Int’l MBA) at the Graduate School of International Policy and Management, where Daniel has taught, as adjunct professor of management & strategy, since 2006.
Daniel brings this expertise to the full complement of services offered here (consulting, coaching, facilitation and training programs) to instill entrepreneurial acumen throughout the organization.
Consider a brief initial assessment conversation that itself can pay dividends: What investments are you now making? What new investments or reallocation might make a significant difference in the next few years? (If you really want to see transformation, step back even further and devise a strategic plan focused on a unifying vision for, say, 5-10 years. At times of change, this sort of planning effort, aligning and then committing as many leaders as possible to a shared vision, delivers lasting change, and if successful, benefits beyond what could be imagined.)
Contact us to take next steps.
