qualityg says ... "CUT COSTS ---> NOT EMPLOYESS"

Enough already, it is time for Management to start earning their money for the remainder of 2009 by developing or benchmarking ways by which to improve the bottom line by cost cutting as opposed to cutting their number one asset --> people.

You hear it almost everyday – a company laying off part of its workforce - to improve profitability or as the last resort to stay in business. Why does it reach that point? Why do leaders resort to this method? Why can’t companies reduce costs without getting rid employees? The answer is they can. But it can’t be in response to short-term thinking or a crisis. It must be hands-on approach, it must involve "Hands On" leadership. Cost cutting must become an on-going objective that is as important as any other Accounting or Finance effort.

It is so easy and shortsighted to cut employees regardless of what Management will tell you or what you read on-line, magazines and newspapers. So-called leading experts from top rated business colleges do studies and research on the best ways to remove people from the bottom line with little impact on the organization. They are full of crap and when they do instruct (instead of just research with no application) they fill the next generation of leaders and managers with the same crapola. It has been going on for years, I am a product of that schooling and I’m just lucky I found the teachings of Dr. Deming to help set me straight in 1980.

I have personally been involved and had to make decisions as to how many and what employees should be let go. Each and every time I fought for other ways by providing examples of other companies, ideas and probable solutions other than cut people. The problem with my input was it took too much time according to other decision makers and the charge to get rid of heads was to be done soon, quickly and above all quietly. Do not let employees and the most feared of all “The Media” get wind of what was in store for the company. Again, a bunch of crap, “GUTLESS” is the optimum word for these type of managers and leaders.

What I propose you do for the remainder of 2009 is to form a cross-functional team that represents all departments under the “Active” leadership of a decision-making Vice President.

The type of cost cutting will be Discretionary and Headcount related (not cutting employees but may involve different jobs, movement, reporting structure, etc…).

Here are some examples and ideas that if looked at closely can save a company large amount of dollars and not lose efficiency or effectiveness of operations. Some may seem harsh but I’m betting the majority of employees (don’t say NO until you ask them) would rather keep their jobs with some signed assurances and agreements with the leaders of the company.

· Freeze all Salaries (until you no longer have to cut people)
· Renegotiate and cancel consultant agreements (trust me, you have the
knowledge inside your company, look for it, use it, trust your people)
· Your employees will always make better company decisions than 99% of
business consultants out there. Why – because they care and LISTEN!
· Reduce Company Picnics and Parties
· 2 Week - Month Vacation w/o Pay
· Giving up monthly Reimbursement Perks (i.e., phone cost, car allowances)
· Use Internet as source for cheaper fares (car, plane, train) and hotels
(cancel contract with travel agencies)
· Turn in all unnecessary pagers and cell phones
· Revisit who needs cell phones and update cell phone plans to best provider
· Reduce Travel Per Diem allowance unless dining with customers
· Discontinue company-paid annual dues for professional organizations.
· Give employees the option to work 37 1/2 hour workweeks, which allows a 20%
reduction in salary. Work in combination with flexible work arrangements
· Discontinue funding for all Business Resource Groups (including registration
for annual conventions, travel fees and annual gala balls)
· Remove unused and outdated Telephones and Lines (computer, fax)
· Renegotiate supplier contracts to single-source suppliers
· Remove all copiers (and contracts) and use local printers
· Return all unused equipment to vendors and free up space
· Reengineer Work Stations to save on space (sell or lease free space)
· Carefully look at an effort to move towards virtual office to realize real
estate cost savings
· Re-negotiate cost of leased space (if applicable)
· Cancel Coffee and Bottled Water contracts
· Cut out goofball training by consultants
· Prioritize work place upgrades (i.e., cafeteria, gyms, conference rooms)
· Change Sales Compensation Plan to pay at in-effect with additional incentive
for Sales to sell high margin
Allow employees to work from home 1-2 days a week saving on energy costs.
· Revisit Procedure staff guidelines / Processes / Contract. Too many mistakes
occurring and nothing can be corrected and we the company is paying for the
consequences - we pay people to make mistakes (poor processes/machines) and we pay other people to fix them with no prevention for the future

The above items are just the beginning … C’mon do something good for the remainder of 2009, give your employees a chance to determine their own destiny, don’t punk out and take the easy academic bottom line management way.

"Quality Leadership"

I'm always asked about Leadership and I have written much on the subject (Click on Leadership Label in Left Sidebar).

It is just as important to know what happens when Leadership does not exist and what is the result.

qualityg says:

No Leadership

means

No Aim

means

No Plan

means

Chaos

means

Absolute Power

means

Stagnation

means

Ultimate Failure

No where is this scenario more prevalent than in government and our secondary and

higher level education systems

What are the qualities and characteristics that a
Dream Mentor should possess?

I developed the following graphic to explain it best:

Click on Picture to Enlarge

To read all posts on my Dream Mentor Program click here: http://qualityg.blogspot.com/search/label/Dream%20Mentor

To see my website on Dream Mentor Program click here: http://dreammentorprogram.com/

"WIIFM" The most popular radion station in the United States needs to be cancelled!

Over the past 20 years I believe this is the most popular radio station in the United States. Unfortunately I don’t mean this in a positive way.

It is worse than any station you can imagine because the results are selfishness, dishonor and no loyalty to anyone or anything except oneself.

It has caused what Dr. Deming said is the “Demise of the American Management System.” It also ingrained in our educational system and it has caused additional strain and damage to system already in distress.

What do the call letters stand for – What’s In It For Me.

Too many Business executives make decisions on what changes have to be made by first thinking what will happen to me? Will I be Ok? I feel bad for others but that’s just the way it is. Once I know I am OK then I will make sure others are OK, but many will be not.

This is not Servant Leadership; this is Selfish Leadership that breeds long-term negative results.

Many Educational decision makers (Admin, School Boards & Teachers) also use this decision-making policy when changes come their way. The first reaction is “How much more work will this cause me because I am already overloaded?”

I would like all you folks who think this way and put the same thought process toward decisions that affect your family. Do you make decisions based on how you will benefit even at the expense of your loved ones? Most of us do not but we don’t take that same caring logic to our workplace. We have instilled this thinking in the next generation who will leave a job in a minute for short-term gratification.

We don’t think of the whole (systems thinking) and how we are not SERVING our employees, organization the communities we serve.

This thinking is rabid in many companies that push for cheaper labor in places that serve no purpose to the whole (employees, organization and communities).

Don’t give me your bottom line crap. Your bottom line sucks because of your short-term narrow Wall Street thinking.

So stay tuned folks because this radio station is playing in your company, your school and in your home. Please don’t advertise anymore, this station needs to be cancelled NOW!

Creating a High School Dream Mentor Culture

Based on my Change Matrix for Educational Change (See Label for Education) the following needs to be understood about the need for Change in order for Dreams to become a reality.

Determining how to change the school once all involved understand and accept the why and the what. This final stage involves:

• How to create a strategic, collaborative plan
• How to manage change

Unfortunately, like business many schools begin their improvement efforts in the reverse order — by first deciding how to do things differently. That is, they find a "solution" without defining the need or problem/opportunity statement. Plus, if Administrators, Teachers, Parents and Support Staff do not believe the school must change or understand what needs to change, the suggestion for how to change is likely to be unsuccessful or rejected, because it is, in effect, an answer to a problem that has not been acknowledged or one that has always been around and it is a fact of education life.

I. WHY We Need to Change

Public and Private School changes will require the desire and passions to come from leadership and at least an enthusiasm of others to be led — to change what currently exists. We as leaders administration and staff must accept change as a team and challenging rather than intimidating and threatening to those who look to us for guidance and leadership.

As I traveled back and forth across the country when I worked for a major corporation I wanted to know if it was a local problem or more systemic across the country. Talking with peers in different regions of the country I found them all to have the same problems as we faced in the central region (MI, OH, Il, IA, Wisc). In fact I did a study based on what I saw in North Carolina and determined that our reading and writing level was at the 8th grade level for many of our employees (including some that attended college).

While on the road I often attended local high school board meetings in different states to listen to what was going on in their schools, looking for ways they were preparing their students for the future. I found some good ideas for the times but mostly the common thread that most had in common were the problems they faced. For example these were the most prevalent between 2000 and 2004:

Lack of funds
Overcrowded classrooms
Discipline problems
Federal ; State Laws and Regulations (NCLB)
Lack of synergy between teachers, grade levels and schools
Rapid changes in the digital world
No synergy between parents, teachers and administrators
Our Educational System is falling behind the rest of the world

Now that I have been working in the Public & Private School System for the past five years I would still say the problems I found eight years ago still exist today with the exception of the last one because we are now behind many nations of the world in our educational policies.

I have been known for many years as a Systems Thinker who challenges "Conventional Wisdom", the "Status Quo" and the "Balance" within a system. I ask many questions.

We educators have to understand that what exists in schools today needs to be updated to keep pace with the local, state, national and global societies. We need to recognize that students, admin and teachers must continually learn new things and that some of the skills we teach and use today will soon be as outdated as the technological and social skills continue to change for our students to be successful citizens and life long learners.

Changing the Paradigm
I have often stated that our schools follow an agricultural calendar and was designed for the industrial age of the mid 1800s that has created a poor match with preparing students for the technological digital age. In many districts, schools are not designed to deal with today’s technology, the global and media-driven world we live in, or the equity issues facing education.

The rules and regulations under which these schools operate are held over from a time that has passed.

II. Determining WHAT Changes Need to be Made

Creating the Dream
A Dream Mentor awareness presentation needs to be presented and shared with all involved in within a School System. The awareness must explain the educational, economic and social reasons why education programs must change, the schools must use that knowledge to develop a student-focused dream (vision) and common focus that helps to identify what changes will be needed (data collection techniques to be developed). The dream helps create a mutual spirit among school and parish communities. The purpose of the school has to be clearly defined. Priorities will begin to appear and roadmap action plans will guide the changes for the school.

Today, there is common agreement about four roles of education:
1. Fostering academic (thinking) development
2. Preparing students to be informed, caring, and productive citizens of society
3. Preparing students for higher education
4. Preparing students for the world of work.

Nice words and found in many schools vision and mission statements. However, what does not exist is the means of how to bring these words alive, to make them real, to internalize them into the day-to-day learning’s of the school. It cannot be done without "active" leadership and the plans with associated measures to monitor progress.

III. Determining HOW to Change

Schools that have first gone through a process of discovering why they must change followed by an analysis of data which identifies what they must change are far better positioned to determine how they need to change.

Creating a DREAM MENTOR CULTURE in which educators at every level and students feel safe in questioning current practices and procedures is an important component in the processes that the successful schools use to stay on a path of continuous improvement.

I have found in my work and studies that found that change leaders look at the process of how to change quite differently from many other leaders. These leaders are willing to take risks as necessary because they believe there is no choice but to change (Dr. Deming – "No one has to change, Survival is optional"). They understand that playing it safe is more dangerous than taking a risk and that there is no protection from the wave of changes facing our students today and tomorrow. Consequently, they take control and lead example with humility and confidence, rather than simply trying to hang around.

Dream Mentor Whiteboard in my office:

Click Pic to Enlarge

Creating the PlanMy experience in Change and Creating Action Plans for transformation in business and education comes with the realization that leaders in the high-performing (Baldridge Results) schools and businesses seem to recognize that if they wait to get everyone on board and fully accepting of all requirements of a school improvement plan, they will never move forward. So instead, many accept the concept that one-third of the faculty and staff will be excited about a new plan, one-third will be watchful but somewhat open-minded, and one-third will say, in effect, "any changes will be made over my dead body."

One approach I have found through painful experiences is that everyone needs to understand through open and honest communication (i.e., Dream Mentor awareness package ) that any plan laid out is not perfect and that, moreover, there is no perfect model or plan. Any plan will need evaluation and adjustment constantly. The admission up front that the plan will need to be personalized as the school moves forward is critical to bringing the mindset of nay Sayers and those who like to sit on the fence and fall which ever way the wind is blowing.

Another hurdle that many schools and businesses I have worked with and for are the problems of dollars and time. Funding will always be an issue; but one must ask what is the cost of not doing changes, can we put a price tag on making sure our students are prepared for the environment they face after high school?

The biggest single deficit schools face is lack of time, how do we fit another project or effort into an already crowded workday. Everyone has their own priorities as to how things should be done; everyone protects "What’s in it for me," instead of "What’s in it for the good of the whole school."
We must envision our dream as a completed product and build from backwards from there. There are tools to help us (SIPOC + CCCC) see this ending and the priorities that are required to make it happen.

Managing Change - While managing change is difficult in all organizations, I am reminded back 20 years that it is especially problematic in institutions with long and rich traditions, like the Catholic Church. I also found this to be true in 1980 when I was part of the massive change of the Breakup of the AT and T phone monopoly. We used to use the analogies of taking a bite out of the elephant one mouthful at a time and trying to turn a battleship on a dime. We must realize that traditions, and the rules and regulations that surround them, become anchors that are difficult to pull up so that the "ship" can be redirected.

By nature, many of us are not risk takers. Therefore, we want to make sure that any change being contemplated is well thought out, carefully planned, and clearly better than what currently exists. In effect, we will not change unless the pain of not changing is worse than the pain of a new change (like losing a job).

If we don’t, as a team believe that the present system can be changed for the better it will be a long haul. However, I believe the haul can be fun and it can be exciting to lay the groundwork and build what others are afraid to do. I have found since I retired when I look back and see what was, it makes me feel old. However, the way to feel young and invigorated is to look forward and to "Dream" for a better future through hard work and a passion for educational excellence.

To manage change in a school system with entrenched traditions and well-known fear of change requires a team of special and charismatic leaders. We as leaders need to recognize that avoiding dreams, passions and risks actually puts our school and students in greater risk of not succeeding than not attempting change at all.

A Transformation is required and we can no longer wait for someone or the government to come up with the ultimate plan. In order to compete, and bring balance to our academic successes along with our athletic successes, we must Dream and build a plan for today and tomorrow.

"No one has to change. Survival is optional."

For more on Mentoring in schools please visit www.dreammentorprogram.com