At a macro-level, there are a lot of discussions about how to start relaxing lockdowns and the trade-off between health considerations and economic downfall, and the world is yet to agree on a trusted path forward. At business and organisation levels, most of our clients are now transitioning from understanding the impact to responding with a realistic recovery plan to minimise it. On this journey, we are encouraging clients to switch their thinking from ‘returning to old norms’ to leveraging this situation and recovering to a much better operational model.

Next, map each role to its leading KPI to ensure single-point accountability on every lever in the organisation; this is the fastest way to transform business culture and to focus on tangible success.

Finally, align on a timeline of success measures (target setting) and frequency of measure to yield bottom-line results focus.

2. Leveraging rapid technology adoption to make KPIs ‘real-time’ and transparent

In the business place, real-time KPI transparency and technology implementation initiatives are often met with challenges in workforce adoption and utilisation.

As we forcibly go through technology adoptions due to physical distancing, now is the time to rapidly implement a technology initiative and demonstrate the importance of transparency on leading KPIs, making it a core part of how business is done.

The delivery model will need to include a mix of proven technologies (wearable, GPS enabled and others) that can measure leading indicators, and customised real-time KPI visualisations (leveraging established platforms such as Microsoft Flow, Microsoft PowerBI, and PiPware CI). This ensures that daily activities are seamlessly linked to KPI updates without requiring users to do manual or additional steps.

Sample wearable and GPS enabled KPI dashboards

3. Execute a rapid business culture change using newly established KPIs

When implementing new technology, many businesses typically rely on it as the sole solution and do not focus enough attention on the human aspect of end-to-end organisational transformation; alignment, capability building, and what we call ‘Wiring’.

• Alignment has to start at the top, and then get cascaded vertically and horizontally so that the whole organisation has one view of what the new norm should look like.
• Capability building needs to be done via the right combination of on-the-job coaching and in-class training. This is to ensure people rapidly learn how to make the most out of the new transition.
• Wiring is the people behaviours, system, and processes that, put together, define the level of transparency and rapid decision making your organisation is capable of. To develop this, a detailed Management Operating System (MOS) needs to be deployed, focussing on cascaded recurring meetings to drive accountability through the business. This, in turn, allows for communication loops to be closed and corrective actions to be quickly applied. The MOS itself must be centred on real-time KPI performance and tracking. It must also be supplemented with the appropriate level of digital collaboration tools for effective action and communication tracking.

How accountability is driven through the business

Capability building using a mix of remote observation, coaching and training technologies

Example: Embedding real-time reporting

• Explanation: Online sessions to train employees to understand and leverage the new technology
• Example: Time with supervisors and managers one-on-one to prepare for key reviews
• Experience: Managers use new tools – online observation and feedback on improvements
• Exemplify: Training up the super-users to coach others to use the real-time data effectively

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