1. Work Focused Improvement®
Management Essentials for Daily Use & Ongoing Improvement
Beyond World Class Performance
Year After Year
Quick Intro
By Sam Pratt
© 1986-2017 Samuel H. Pratt / SHP Consulting Limited
Module 0
Ground Zero to 50,000 Foot View

2. Why WFI Pay Systems are World’s Best
1. They improve bottomline performance
a) Minimum of 25% gain for each of the first 5 years [gain is often much
higher]
b) Gain continues as long as prescription is followed
2. Gains continue unless something like this happens:
a) An executive / owner notices that the monthly “cost” of incentive bonuses
is $480,000 [ignoring the fact that monthly profits are up $ 2.2 million]
b) He tells the powers / partners that “we are paying people an extra $480,000
a month to do the job they were hired to do
c) A letter is sent out telling the associates that their performance, including
throughput & quality is excellent, but due to tough economic times, the
Gain Share & Direct Incentives are being temporarily suspended, but it is
expected that associates will continue to perform at the recent very high
levels [this is known as “Management by Wishful Thinking”]
© 1986-2014 SHP Consulting Limited, Samuel H. Pratt

3. First Steps
(these steps are Form & Workbook driven)
• Conduct Environmental Analysis
• Perform Social & Technical Analysis as needed
• Identify key Inhibitors & need for Parallel Paths
• Introduce Continuous Improvement & Advancement process
• Review business data and determine Key Performance
Indicators (KPIs)
• Determine Business Objectives in support of Mission
• Complete Work Essentials process to determine nature of
work and secure re-engineering gains
• Identify target areas for Gain Share & Direct Incentives
• Design the Pay System
Key Systems & Mechanisms© 1986-2014 SHP Consulting Limited, Samuel H. Pratt

4. Work Essentials
• Work Essentials is a streamlined reengineering
process that scrutinizes jobs to uncover
improvement opportunities
• A form is used to analyze work to trigger
improvement:
• The various tasks performed by the job
• The % weekly time spent on the task
• The worth of the task in terms of bottomline
performance
• The goal is to eliminate non value adding work
and to increase the organizational time on things
that help the bottomline
Organization© 1986-2014 SHP Consulting Limited, Samuel H. Pratt

5. Work System Design
1. Design as a collaborative effort among Work Groups
2. Design so that people rely on their strengths and develop their weaknesses
3. Design so that people are equally challenged, but recognize the mastery vs variety
dynamic
4. Incorporate vision that there will be greater cooperation and more cross functional
Advancement Teams
5. Include mechanisms to insure design refinement and reconfiguration in an ongoing
way
6. Consider how all associates will be more integrated into the information and decision
making system
7. Support the concept of "boundaryless" and protect against turf battles
8. Develop multiple work assignment groupings to show occupation options
9. Develop multiple organizations that include various diagonal groupings
10. Don’t avoid past adversarial relationships but consider both healing and synergy
11. Include discretionary and non-discretionary work in each team if possible
12. Include repetitive and creative tasks in occupations and teams where possible
13. Design from a organization perspective first, and consider specific personalities
second
14. Push the limits … don’t be afraid to combine or change teams, jobs, etc.
Organization© 1986-2014 SHP Consulting Limited, Samuel H. Pratt

6. WFI Socio-technical Design
Traditional
Less of this
• Controlled compartmentalized units
• Ambiguous requirements
• Technical system dominance
• Limited information flow
• Narrowly defined jobs
• Errors reworked downstream
• Controlling structure & culture
• Static design by top management
Socio-technical Design
More of this
• Empowered autonomous units
• Clear direction and goals
• Socio-technical integration
• Accessible information flow
• Diagonally enriched jobs
• Control of variance at source
• Empowering structure & culture
• Capacity to reconfigure built in
Organization© 1986-2014 SHP Consulting Limited, Samuel H. Pratt

7. Key Design Steps for WFI Direct Incentives
1. Gather performance data of Linear occupations
2. Perform Focus Studies on all key repetitive tasks
3. Use Environmental Assessment Scores workbooks &
sheets to gather & analyze ratings of various work groups
4. Gather historic & observed performance data & use
Correction Factors to fine tune in 5 below
5. Use Rate Analysis & Derivation Template to set
Baselines for various linear work tasks
6. Use Situational Pay Curves only if the Standard WFI Pay
Curve will not be optimum

8. Gather Performance Data
Macro Collect all periodic data and
calculate gross widgets per hour
Multiply by
correction
factor
Micro –
Focus Study
Observe & record tasks by
average or above worker for 1 or
2 hours
Multiply by
correction
factor
Micro –
Challenge
Give worker “3 hours” with
direction to complete ASAP &
record time
Multiply by
correction
factor
Micro –
Target Data
From historic records, select
known periods of work that
reflect good performance
Multiply by
correction
factor
© 1986-2014 SHP Consulting Limited, Samuel H. Pratt

9. At least 7 WFI Organizations have been
Acquired/Merged by Larger Organizations
1) This is good and bad
a) Usually the WFI organization owners have been able
to insure that the purchase / merger was with the right
party at the right price (many millions of dollars)
b) In some instances the new organization has wandered
off the WFI path with serious consequences
2) Ultimately the lesson is that WFI companies stay
world class only if they adhere to the tenets of
WFI
© 1986-2014 SHP Consulting Limited, Samuel H. Pratt

10. WFI Key Characteristics & Components
1. Emphasis is not on control, empowerment, or any traditional management focal point.
2. Key Performance Indicators and other measures are used to facilitate Fact Based Management.
3. Everyone in the organization is preoccupied with performance. They are owners and are
rewarded for organizational gains through a Gain Share Plan, possibly in the form of a Virtual
Performance Company™.
4. Key core value adding linear work is covered by a Direct Incentive Plan that changes all
traditional dynamics and moves individuals out of the Entertainment / Entitlement Zone to the
Performance Zone.
5. Hygiene (me issues) are in the background and not a focal point.
6. Gain Share and Direct Incentives are uniquely linked to reinforce each other, and the design
effort is socio-technical.
7. Incentive Baselines (Productivity & Quality) are set using 6 weighted rating factors including
culture & business mechanisms.
8. Annual Continuous Improvement Adjustments insure that the pay system is fair to
Individuals and the organization.
9. Situational Sculpted Pay Curves optimize incentive impact.
10. A Continuous Improvement System works in concert with the Pay System.
11. Non-value adding work naturally and systematically disappears.
12. The underlying principle is, “When a group of people work in concert to advance the business,
a by-product of the effort is a better functioning social unit.”
© 1986-2014 SHP Consulting Limited, Samuel H. Pratt

11. Logic of Managing with Facts
 Edwards Deming said: “If you can't describe what you are
doing as a process, you don't know what you're doing.”
 Extending the above logic, it is reasonable to conclude that
if you do not have access to process performance data, you
don’t know how well you are doing.
 The goal of any organization or process is to continuously
improve to the point of being the world’s best.
 If you don’t have the core facts, you will fail.
 Also, a lack of access to key core facts injects extreme
stress in to the social structure.
© 1986-2014 SHP Consulting Limited, Samuel H. Pratt

12. Learn More About
Work Focused Improvement
1. Browse the other modules on the WFI website …
probably beginning with Module 1
2. Contact Sam Pratt to discuss Guaranteed Improvement:
Payments come only from Unforecast Profit triggered by
increased productivity & Work System Design
3. Contact Info
a) Phone 330-904-7147
b) Email: prattsh@neo.rr.com
c) Text: 330-904-7147