Effective organisations, a quick self audit tool

Having spent 4 decades in product development I have cheered the successes and banged my head on the table from the failures. In technology no two projects are ever the same. This is driven by the pace of technology, speed of development of new tools and new methods and processes.  

Learning from mistakes is important, see comment below, but I have noticed that successful enterprises share some fundamentals. Despite the speed of change and regardless of the technology sector there are recurring themes that occur regardless of the methodologies that have been adopted.  

Clear vision, strategy and purpose. Understand how the business will make money and where the priorities are.  Align the workforce top to bottom

Leadership is there to facilitate and support. Leadership that engages to support will maximise the capability of the whole organisation

Ensure effective challenge.  Avoid silo thinking. Diverse inputs ensure the ‘best’ solution to each problem is found.

Make decisions. Plans inevitably face unexpected changes. Effective decision making is important when dealing with the unexpected.  

Learn and develop. Organisation need to be self aware and implement improvements from any learning.

Value behaviours. Focus on behaviours and culture are key to building a productive and effective environment.

Perform a quick self assessment against these foundation elements and you can identify areas of strength and areas ready for improvement. Even a simple analysis can be useful even if it is to get the most from that initial, free, call with an expert.

Setting good foundations facilitates the adoption of new methods, e.g Lean, Agile and also the implementation of new tools, e.g. Industry 4.0 and makes it easier to tailor the process and tools to benefit the business.