October 10-Managing COL w/Measurement

Jim Cardwell’s Educational Webinar: Managing Connections Through Measurement 

When organizations incorporate new work processes or procedures there is a definite impact. Sometimes, when things are going especially well, it is human nature to get a little complacent and regress. To mitigate that regression, it’s a good idea to periodically conduct check-ups and provide some focused coaching to ensure ongoing success.

This was essentially the theme of our educational webinar on October 26, entitled: “Managing Connections Through Measurement.” We provided some helpful tips to keep leaders, managers and organizations growing and developing. So if you missed the webinar, here’s our summary of some of the high points.

The Importance of Checkpoints

COL is a high performance work system made up of a set of closely aligned components that work together at the organization, department, project and individual levels. Once in a while you need to conduct a “checkpoint” (check up). Historically, we have conducted annual onsite checkpoints at each Connections client to review the team’s progress. The intent is to identify what’s working and what’s not working in order to provide targeted coaching for continuously improving the process.

To empower our clients to check up on their own COL performance, this webinar provided some helpful checkpoint tools that can be performed using one of two approaches: an open ended (interview-based) approach and a quantitative (survey-based) approach.

The Open-Ended Approach follows the standard consulting model of gaining information through a series of user interviews.

A sample of the interview questions includes:

·      Overall, how has Connections impacted your
    organization?

·      What’s working from an organization, department,
    project or people standpoint?

·      Why are those things that are working important for
    the organization?

·      What’s not working -- and what is the impact?

·      What suggestions do you have for process
    improvement?

Once the feedback has been collected, a summary is developed by categorizing the information into themes:

·      The things we need to positively reinforce

·      The opportunities for improvement

·      The recognition of Personal Best Practices

The ultimate goal here is to help the organization win. To move things ahead, it is important to bring the team together to discuss the feedback and identify appropriate follow-up actions.

The Quantitative Approach involves using a newly-designed, research-based instrument that aligns Connections with the factors that drive high performance.

From these factors, you get a report that shows organizational and departmental strengths, as well as opportunities for improvement.

Guidelines

Once you have compiled this data, it’s easy to see what needs to be done to ensure you continue on the road to success.

We hope this webinar was helpful in measuring your COL performance for the continued success of your organization. If have any questions or need assistance in this area, please don’t hesitate to contact us: Jim Cardwell or Karla Norwood at Cardwell – 1-800-395-1410 or info@connectionsonline.net.

Click here for a recording of the webinar