ADVANCE LABORATORY MANAGEMENT SKILLS

TAREQ OBAID
ADVANCE LABORATORY MANAGEMENT
SKILLS

Strategy
A Manager’s Primary Responsibility
 Directing the immediate operations of the laboratory. The day- to-
day, and often minute- to- minute, activities of the laboratory.
 Understanding the environment in which the laboratory functions, and
anticipating potential problems that might arise within it.
 Balancing their time and their many overlapping responsibilities with
a well- organized approach.

Con.
 Looking to the future and thinking about how major trends might
affect the operation of the laboratory.
 View changes in the operational environment as opportunities to make
needed improvements in staffing, technology, and processes.
 A good manager is a “high- performance” manager. The high-
performance manager is:-
 A Strategist – One who looks to the future, makes educated guesses
about the major forces and trends he can see, and interprets them in
terms of opportunities for growth and progress.

Performance Manager
 A Problem Solver – One who clearly perceives the differences
between the anticipated future and the unfolding present and
decides what must be done.
 A Teacher – One who guides others and helps them to identify and
solve problems, so that they can perform their tasks effectively.

Planning
Planning is the process of formulating objectives and determining the
steps which will be employed in obtaining them.
Strategic Planning
Strategic planning is a process whereby an organization defines its
mission, identifies directions, develops a unified approach, prioritizes
long- and short- term goals, assigns accountabilities, and allocates
financial resources.

When we Plan, Must..
 Involve staff at every level in developing a strategic plan. gain feedback
from individuals who really know what’s going on and who will be
responsible for executing the plan.
 Be flexible in developing a plan by circulating drafts and allowing
people to provide feedback.
 Ensure that everyone knows their responsibility for deployment of the
plan and that feedback mechanisms are implemented.
 The most carefully written plan will fail if those responsible for its
execution do not know their roles, deadlines, and resource allocations.

The Objective Of Planning
The Objective Of Planning Is To Set An Achievable Course Of
Action.
 By Establishing Long- And Short- Term Goals,
 Monitoring Progress,
 And Establishing An Environment Where Day- To- Day
Activities Are Well Controlled, Measurable, And Thoroughly
Understood.

 A small, knowledgeable, and motivated group from within the laboratory
should be assembled by the senior leader to participate in strategic
planning.
 Typically consisting of seven to eleven persons broadly representing the
management level of the various organizational functions.
 The group must contain key people from all areas of the laboratory. there
should be executive- level representatives from all functional areas (for
example, hematology, microbiology, chemistry, and immunology), as
well as key administrative and support leaders (for example, sales,
marketing, accounting, and billing).
Selecting a Planning Group

 Other key people in the laboratory who possess a strong
working knowledge of policies, procedures, technology, and
processes should also be included.
 The group must be large enough to be inclusive of all areas
affected by the plan, but not so large that it is not conducive to
a free exchange of ideas in a conversational setting.
Cont.

 It is critical for a manager to be aware of the changes that are constantly
occurring in the operational environment. Awareness of these changes is
necessary during the planning process.
This awareness stems from active involvement and participation.
 The manager must have professional affiliations to gain the insight and
perspective of peers in other organizations.
 Some examples include the American Petroleum Institute (API), Institute
of Petroleum (IP) , the American Society of Hematology, the American
Society of Clinical Pathology, and the Clinical Laboratory Standards
Institute (CLSI)
Environmental Analysis

 Laboratory managers must also regularly read laboratory- specific
literature and journals.
 An environmental analysis should be performed at the very beginning of
the planning process. Reliable data should be gathered from every
possible source.
 These data should include financial information (trends, current fiscal
situation, and projections), capital equipment inventories, personnel data,
and laboratory- specific performance data.
 The most important consideration in performing an environmental
analysis is to be completely forthcoming about the internal and external
factors that affect the laboratory.
Cont.

 The modern healthcare organization must appraise its strengths and
weaknesses so that it can determine its future opportunities and
environmental threats.
 A necessary component of an environmental analysis is the careful
consideration of the laboratory’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities,
and threats, often called a SWOT analysis.
 Comparing the laboratory’s existing strengths to known opportunities
makes it possible to put concrete strategies in place to capitalize on those
opportunities. Using the same approach, matching the laboratory’s known
weaknesses to actual environmental threats is useful in avoiding costly
mistakes.
Swot Analysis

 At the beginning of the planning process a vision statement should be
written to articulate what the organization seeks to become.
 A vision statement should be lofty in its ideals. It should state a common
purpose, and it should express the long- term goal of the organization.
 An example of a vision statement, from the Virginia Commonwealth
University (VCU) Department of Pathology, states, “Our vision is to become
a preeminent Department of Pathology in the United States, which is
recognized for excellence in biomedical research, the education of
healthcare professionals, and the innovative application of science and
technology to the diagnosis and management of human disease.
Vision and Mission Statements

 A mission statement for the laboratory should also be developed at the
beginning of the planning process.
 A mission statement answers certain fundamental questions about the
organization, such as What is our purpose?, In what activities will we be
engaged to accomplish that purpose?, and What are our basic values and
shared beliefs?
 An example of a mission statement, also from the VCU Department of
Pathology, states, “The mission of the Department of Pathology is to
provide high- quality, cost-effective pathology services in a manner that
supports the patient care, education, and research missions of the VCU
Health System Academic Medical Center and the Virginia Commonwealth
University School of Medicine.”
Vision and Mission Statements

 The planning group should develop a list of goals and strategies that
will guide laboratory management decisions for a period of time.
 An example of a goal is “to enhance laboratory revenue by increasing
referral testing from external sources.” This is a clear statement of
something that the laboratory will try to achieve.
 A strategy is an action taken to reach a goal. Every stated goal can
have numerous strategies. For this example, a strategy relevant to the
above goal might be to “hire a marketing director to develop business
and increase referrals from community hospitals.”
Goals and Strategies

In planning, as in every other aspect of effective management, it is
necessary to assign priority by weighing the importance of the tasks at
hand to determine which have the highest level of immediate
importance. Therefore, planning is often a struggle between “must do”
and “want to do” decisions.
Prioritization
Accountability
An effective plan must have built- in accountability for all objectives
and strategies. This means attaching specific names to specific action
items. If everybody is accountable for a certain task, then nobody will
take proprietary ownership to make certain that the task is done
correctly and in a timely way.

 Once a strategic plan is drawn, a process of implementation must be
followed to track advancement toward completion of specific aims.
 The actual strategic plan is articulated in a document that lists the goals,
strategies, accountabilities, and deadlines.
 Progress in planning must be monitored with thorough, quantifiable
measurements.
 Metrics, or standards of measurement that accurately gauge progress,
must be attached to each goal. That which cannot be measured cannot be
managed. Therefore, great care must be taken in assigning metrics that
are appropriate to the goals.
Measuring Success (Metrics)

 A regular reporting mechanism must be established to review progress,
reevaluate priorities, and make updates based on a constantly changing
operating environment.
 The ideal venue for reviewing metrics is a regularly scheduled meeting
attended by everyone who has assigned accountabilities.
 At this meeting, accountable people are asked to report upon the progress
made on their assignments.
 A regular reporting forum helps to maintain momentum by removing the
human inclination to procrastinate. Monthly, or perhaps even weekly,
meetings should be scheduled to discuss progress toward stated goals and
objectives.
Cont.

1. Select a knowledgeable planning group.
2. Perform an environmental analysis.
3. Identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
4. Make a manageable and realistically achievable list of goals.
5. Prioritize goals.
6. Develop strategies to accomplish goals.
7. Assign accountabilities and timelines.
8. Measure progress with metrics.
9. Review progress and make updates on a regular basis.
A strategic planning process includes the following steps

 Organizing is the process of structuring activities, materials, and
personnel for accomplishing predetermined objectives.
 One of the most important functions of a manager is to organize
the activities of the laboratory in such a way that use of time is
carefully considered so that effort is minimized while output is
maximized.
 The difference between profit and loss is often determined by how
well the resources and workflow of the laboratory are organized
Organizing

 An organizational chart shows hierarchical relationships between functional
areas. It is a visual depiction of the organization. It helps to clarify workflow,
reporting lines, and areas of responsibility by explicitly listing delineated
work areas, be it by division, laboratory, or medical specialty.
 A laboratory manager possesses authority within the organization if he has
the right to issue instructions that others are expected to follow. The
organizational chart serves as a visual aid for evaluating each of these
basics.
 The organizational chart also attempts to show relationships between line
and staff. In this organizational concept, a line position is one in which a
superior exercises direct supervision over a subordinate.
Organizational Chart

 The surest way to be well organized is to develop a structured
approach to time management.
 Every hour of a manager’s day is occupied with urgent concerns and
pressing issues.
 Without a disciplined time management system, a manager can quickly
become overwhelmed, consumed by the demands of small crises.
Time Management

 Your office email system very likely has a calendar function built in.
Google, Lotus Notes, BlackBerry, Outlook, and Yahoo! all have
calendar functions, and there are many other choices.
 There are hand- held personal digital assistant products and
programs for desktop computers, smart phones, and laptops.
 A traditional paper calendar book can still be quite useful.
Approaches To Time Management

• Minimize time wasted on nonproductive issues
• Be prepared for meetings
• Be aware of existing commitments
• Understand the capacity to take on new assignments and when to say “no”
• Plan each day’s work efficiently and effectively
• Make certain that no project (large or small) is neglected
Time Management System Allows A Manager To:

 A laboratory manager must be a master of all the interconnected
processes within the laboratory, or organizing tasks in a particular way
to accomplish a specified result.
 Analysis of workflow within a laboratory often identifies inefficiencies
that can be corrected, resulting in a more productive process.
 This analysis should include an evaluation of equipment, technology,
information services, computer systems, physical layout, and location of
resources.
 The important tool for analyzing workflow is the flowchart. Process
design flowcharting is a fact- gathering technique used to make the
effort of a task visible by writing down what is done.
Workflow

 A successful laboratory is dependent on good leadership, and good
leadership is dependent on the quality and loyalty of employees. The
selection process is critical in matching people and their skills with
the appropriate jobs.
 A manager must ensure that efficient staffing is maintained at all
times. The best- equipped laboratory will not function at top efficiency
if it is improperly staffed.
 Accurate staffing must be pegged to the organizational chart, taking
into consideration how each laboratory component serves the
ultimate mission of the laboratory as a whole.
Staffing

 Staffing should be a topic of discussion in the strategic planning
process. A well- thought- out strategic plan considers staffing, and
the resulting carefully considered staffing models enable a manager
to make long- term predictions about future staffing needs.
 Plan- based staffing decisions remove much of the guesswork, thus
allowing a manager to stay ahead of staffing issues and providing
lead- time to hire and train efficiently.
 Specifically, staffing of a laboratory is a two- step process. The initial
step is to set up a table of organization denoting laboratory structure
and chain of command.
Staffing

 Directing is the process of influencing people to attain
predetermined objectives.
 A manager is a director of people and activities. Staff members
require and expect direction in their activities. The action of
management is in directing people in their activities.
Directing

 No matter how great the plan or how talented the person, if managers
cannot communicate effectively with other members of the team, their
ideas and inputs are doomed.
 Although it is not listed as a separate management process,
communication is an integral part of each management function. It is
embedded in every action taken.
 Clear written and verbal communication— from manager to employee,
from employee to manager, between managers, and between peers—
influences every action.
 Without it, there is no effective way of articulating expectations,
expressing concerns, providing feedback, and ensuring that policies are
implemented.
Communicating

 Downward communications travel from the superior to the immediate
subordinate. Downward communications are used to transmit
information and instruct employees in the performance of their jobs.
 Upward communication travels from the subordinate to the immediate
supervisor, and it is used to provide feedback on how things are going.
 Lateral communication takes place between people on the same level of
authority within an organization, and it is used for promoting
coordination and teamwork.
 Diagonal communication occurs between people who are neither in the
same department nor on the same level of authority within the
organization. Diagonal communication is used for cutting across
organizational boundaries in an effort to save time.
Communicating Flows

• Listening
• Empathy
• Trust
• Continuous communication
• Consistency
• Clarity
• Honesty
• Multidirectional
• Verbal and nonverbal methods of communication
• Active communication
The Elements Of Successful Communication Are

 Delegation is the process of selecting people from a very limited pool
(current job incumbents) to perform a task.
 When a manager delegates work to someone, that manager is
predicting that the employee will meet performance expectations.
Therefore, do not delegate to an individual until it is clearly
understood that the person can deliver as required.
 Wisely delegated assignments can only be made if the manager has a
strong and current knowledge of the processes and procedures of the
laboratory.
Delegating

 A manager’s challenge in managing change is to reduce the
instinctive resistance to it by presenting it in a way that gives staff
members reason to understand that the change will bring an
improvement.
 A change in procedure is a response to an unsatisfactory situation
and the desire to improve an outcome.
 When implementing a procedural change, a manager must be very
careful to communicate with staff members to assure them that their
performance is not being criticized and that their jobs are not
threatened.
Managing Change

 People don’t resist change; they resist being changed . If you want their
cooperation, you’ve got to keep them on board for every step of the
change. Ask for their opinions. What do they hope will happen?
 Things are the way they are simply because they got that way. Somebody,
sometime, had to write the policy or create the process that you are now
trying to change.
 Unless things change, they are likely to remain the same. If you want
improvement, people will need to change the way they work.
 Change would be easy if it weren’t for all the people.
Whenever changes are introduced in a laboratory, it is important
to remember the “laws of organizational change.”

 Coaching is providing a person or group with the guidance, support, and
confidence to enable them to enhance their performance continuously.
 Guidance enables someone to develop his or her skills and knowledge
appropriately.
 Support means being there when you’re needed.
 Confidence means believing in someone so that they can believe in
themselves and perform effectively.
 Continuously means all the time! Coaching is not something which is turned
on and off like a tap.
Coaching

 Controlling is the process of determining that everything is going
according to plan.
 A manager must review the current situation in the laboratory to
ensure that there are no unattended details.
 The best way to avoid big problems is to address and solve small
problems before they have a chance to become resource hogs that
drain productivity and threaten accuracy.
 By controlling the details, a manager ensures that the laboratory
functions at the highest possible level of efficiency.
Controlling

URHere Co.
Company Background
 URHere was founded in 1967 by Owen Trikum, who built and
tested his first device with an approved Chilean government
satellite linkage.
 URHere one of seven companies manufactured global positioning
systems equipment worldwide, including two major US
competitors and one significant European competitor.
 Given its strong technology focus, URHere Co. managed to
remain number one in market share, but profits and share had
been eroding.

Con.
 The company was depending on traditional processes, and failed
to keep up with the competition with its non engineering- or
nonmanufacturing-related activities.
 Thus, its inefficiency elsewhere in the organization (accounting,
customer service, shipping, etc) caused it to bear increasing costs
and become far less profitable than its nearby competitors.
 However, its recent financial erosion was generating a very cold
shoulder among existing and potential investors. Something had
to change.

URHere Co.
Scenario
 URHere executives decided to allocate additional resources to
improve nonmanufacturing- and nonengineering-related functions
and activities..
 They believe with a solid product and an energetic sales and
marketing group, the company could grow further by
strengthening their infrastructure.
 They realized that they had become the perfect candidate for
improved policies, methods, procedures, and activities known by
many as business process improvement.

URHere Co.
Structure of URHere
Enterprise view.

URHere Co.
Structure of URHere
Micro credit view

Vision and Goals
Build or Validate the Vision
 When engaging an organization, we start with the review or
development of vision, goals, and objectives. Business process
improvement (BPI) takes place within an organization and must be
cemented within that context.
 A meeting conduct with URHere micro manager to dream up her
perfect work life, detailing the kind of work she would be doing,
how and where she would be working, and with whom.
 The three things she wanted most were job excellence, a specific
career path, and to work at an overseas asset.

Cont.
The Challenge
 URHere manager made a list of all the things that she could do -
technical skills, hobbies, and competencies.
 Then they assessed the skills she possessed to determine if they
were enough to achieve the things she wanted. The answers were
not always positive.
 The final output was a detailed five-year plan that outlined ways
she would develop the skills she lacked and hone existing skills.
 URHere manager firmly established a vision, goals, objectives,
and an action plan for going forward.

Cont.
State the Vision
 An organization’s vision is like the client’s dream. It is how the
organization views itself when it is running at full steam, without
constraints.
 URHere’s micro credit business unit provides investment capital
for micro entrepreneurs in village and impoverished regions.
 Its vision is “To be the leading micro credit financial institution in
the region, reduce poverty, encouraging savings and personal
development throughout the organization, thus ensuring client
satisfaction.

Cont.
State the Vision
The elements of the vision are broken down as follows:
To be the leading micro credit financial institution in the region.
To alleviate poverty and encourage savings among customers by
realizing the financial benefits of a global positioning system (GPS).
To ensure the personal and professional development of human
capital.
To maintain a comparable annual rate of return for its funders.

Vision and Goals
Creating Vision
The business process improvement team can use the following
questions to assist with the development or review of the
organization’s vision:-
To what extent does the current vision give an idea of what this perfect
day will be like?
Is the vision understood by most members of the organization?
How easily can this statement be translated by the employees?
How can we make this statement more tangible for employees?
Is the vision communicated to every member of the organization?

Cont.
Set Goals
 Goals must be aligned to support the vision; they must therefore
make sense and add value by enabling measurement toward the
vision.
 Goals are the stepping-stones or milestones that support the what
of the vision.
 More specifically, goals answer the question, “What will it look
like as we begin to realize and approach the vision?”
 When the manager identified the three things she wanted, she was
setting goals.

Cont.
Set Goals
 Start thinking about goals by answering these questions:-
 What are the three to five things that you want the organization
to achieve in the next two years, three years, or five years?
 What will be different when we achieve our goals?
 How will we know that we have achieved our goals?
 How do these achievements relate to the organization’s vision?

Cont.
Set Goals
 The credit manager may have asked, “What will it look like when
URHere is the leading micro credit financial institution? URHere
will have increased membership and higher revenues.
 What will be different when URHere is the leading micro credit
financial institution? We will have low delinquency rates.
 What tells us that we have achieved being the leading micro
credit financial institution? Our funders will be satisfied and the
finances of the micro credit will reflect strong profits.

Cont.
Set Goals
 From the answers above, the micro credit unit’s goals
evolved as follows:-
 To increase membership usage and corporate revenues.
 To retain funding capacity and partners.
 To maintain a low delinquency rate.
 To ensure timely and accurate reporting.

Cont.
Perform Gap Analysis
 The gap analysis is a critical step that may yield an uncomfortable
exposure of an organization’s weaknesses.
 It also identifies the existing skills, competencies, and resources
within the organization that will lead to goal achievement.
 Organizations that do not perform a gap analysis run the risk of
not attaining goals in a satisfactory manner, as they may be
unaware that they do not possess the skills or resources necessary
to achieve the stated goals.

Cont.
 An honest assessment will align existing skill sets, resources, and
competencies of the people, processes, and technologies with the
goals.
 If the skills and resources are absent, the organization needs to
determine how they will be obtained - either externally through
outsourcing or internally by developing existing resources.
 To perform a gap analysis, a skills analysis is completed and then
the gaps are identified.

Perform Skills Analysis
The analysis may look something like the following:-
What skills and resources does URHere need to increase membership
usage and corporate revenue?
• Field officers to visit existing members and recruit new members
(resources).
• Proper accounting methods to maintain membership records
(resources).
• Accountant to maintain the membership records (skill).

Cont.
Perform Skills Analysis
How will the skill assist in achieving the goals of increasing
membership usage and corporate revenue?
• The field members will meet with the members to increase
visibility, early problem detection, and problem solving.
• What resources are needed to achieve the goal of increasing
visits by field offices?
• A: Accounting resources are needed. Field officers need to
increase outreach to members.

Cont.
For each skill and resource that is identified as missing or absent
from the organization, ask the following questions:-
What are the skills and resources that the organization does not
have?
How can the organization get the skills and resources needed to
achieve the goal?
How can we obtain these skills?

Vision and Goals
Clarification
What are the skills and resources that URHere does not have to
achieve the goal of increasing membership usage? Accounting skills,
accountant.
How can URHere get the accounting skills? Outsource the function
or develop it internally.
How will the lack of the accounting skills affect the organization?
The increase in membership will not be correctly or completely
measured. Revenues may not be properly accounted for and
members’ accounts improperly maintained.

Vision and GoalsSkills and Resources Gap Analysis

Vision and Goals
SMART Objectives
 Objectives further detail goals and provide a way forward to
clarify the shortcomings identified in the gap analysis.
 Some objectives will be created around the missing skills,
competencies, and resources, and others will leverage what
already exists to advance goals.
 Objectives are narrow and focused statements that identify with
additional precision the general or directional goal statements.

Cont.
SMART Objectives
 Most literature about objectives state that they must be
SMART.
 S—specific. Set significant and specific objectives that will
challenge the team to go for them.
 M—measurable. Objectives should be measurable in terms of
value: dollar, time, percentage.
 A—achievable and adjustable. The stakeholders being held
responsible should agree on the objectives and the way they
will be achieved.

Cont.
SMART Objectives
 R—realistic and relevant. The organization’s limited resources
need to be spent on activities that will bring it closer to its
vision. Objectives should therefore be realistic, set within the
context of the organization and its capability.
 T—timely. Objectives are set to be achieved within a particular
time frame. The outcome must be timely to maintain the
momentum and progress toward the organization’s vision and
goals.

Cont.
SMART Objectives
 The questions below help to convert goals into SMART
objectives:-
 What are the specific things the organization needs to realize
as it achieves its goals?
 When are these to be achieved?
 How will we know when they are achieved?
 Are we going to fill gaps and hone skills?

Cont.
SMART Objectives
Company’s objectives were identified as follows:-
Short-term objectives : these were set to be completed with a one-
year time frame:
Develop an efficient accounting system by the end of year.
Hire an accountant by the end of the year.
Medium-term objectives: to be achieved within a two-year time
frame:
Train managers in basic managerial and accounting skills.
Develop a pension scheme and benefit plan.

Cont.
SMART Objectives
Long-term objectives: achieved in two to five years:
Visit each client once a quarter.
Achieve a delinquency rate of 12 percent.
Maintain a minimum of 800 borrowers each year.
Increase profits by 15 percent each year.

Cont.
SMART Objectives
Objectives Gap Analysis

Check for Alignment
Objectives provide a breakdown of goals, and the goals are
used to guide the efforts and actions required to reach the
vision. Therefore, the three should be aligned and make sense.

Develop Action Plan
Organize the systematic activities that will lead to the achievement of
objectives.
Create an action plan for each objective to show how and when it will
be achieved.
Identify the person responsible and, where appropriate, generate a
budget for the item to be completed.
Establish the monitoring points and how the action will be evaluated
on completion.

Develop Action Plan
Questions to be answers:-
What actions are to be taken to achieve the goal?
What resources are required to achieve the goal?
Who, what, when, and how will the actions be performed?
What is the desired outcome of each action in the plan?
How will we monitor the achievement of each outcome?
How will we evaluate the outcomes?

Develop Action Plan
The action plan is a template that gives a stepped approach for
the daily progress toward objectives and goals.
Objective: Hire an accountant by year end.
Evaluation: Do we have an accountant by the end of the year?
Monitoring: The deadlines and cost help to monitor progress.

Relevancy to Business Process Improvement
 All activities in an organization should contribute toward the
achievement of a business objective or goal aligned with the
organization’s vision and ultimately with the longevity of the
organization.
 The business process improvement project should be no
different. It should begin with goals and objectives and progress
through detailed action plans as it moves toward full
implementation.

Change Management
Change management is about mitigating fear and making the project
and its outcome more familiar to the other staff members.
Managing Change
Enticement—enticements can be positive and negative. People can
be rewarded for varying levels of contributions they make to the
project and to the successful implementation of the project.
Evidence—fear often finds root and thrives among the unknown and
uncertain.

Change Management
• Explanation—the project team must be willing to provide one-on-
one sessions with closely affected staff members, ensuring that
each person understands what is happening and will change in
their lives.
• Essence—stakeholders should develop a sense of urgency, leaning
toward the belief that the organization cannot survive without the
improvement program.
• Engagement—the team alone cannot make the project successful.
The team’s role is to lead and guide the effort with the
understanding that they cannot create success without the support
of stakeholders.

Change Management
A successful change management program includes the
following:-
Who will be involved?
What is going to change?
Selection of key personnel for the program?
How the change affects each stakeholder?
Clear understanding of the change impact on strategy, culture,
roles, activities, and adjustments for the business process
improvement project.

Change Management
Detailed communications plan.
 Stakeholders (internal and external) have a stake in the project
and its outcome.
 The communications plan is critical and best done at the onset
because it identifies the stakeholders of the project and their
importance to the project’s success.
 The communication plan will be continually updated over the life
of the project.

Change Management
The plan addresses the following:-
Who—the plan identifies the stakeholders or stakeholder groups that
need directed communications.
What—the specific message for each stakeholder group will be
addressed.
When—the time frame for the communication.
How—the method for the communications—one-on-one, meeting,
presentation, and so forth.

Business Process Improvement
BPI project must be completed in the context of the
organization’s vision, goals, and objectives with a focus on
issues such as:-
• Customer satisfaction.
• Flexible systems and processes that can meet the
requirements of a changing business environment.
• Increase on the returns from every dollar of resources
invested or consumed.
• Reduction of operational and production cost and time to
market.

The aim of the BPI project is to:-
 Simplify—examine the details of what, why, and how we
perform on a daily basis within the organization. Interactions
within the organization will be demystified and made
understandable regardless of the hierarchy.
 Clarify—members will develop a similar level of understanding
of the processes and the expected results.

Cont.
The project deals with:-
People—emphasizes the empowerment of people.
Processes—all activities and tasks that occur on a daily, monthly, and
annual basis to provide the products and services of the organization.
Technology—enables complex actions to be completed with speed and
accuracy.
Organization vision—to add value, all of the above must be completed in
the context of the organization’s vision, goals, and objectives.

Cont.
The focus is on the following:-
Customer—ensuring that the customer is satisfied with the outcome
(product or service) of the interactions among staff, technology, and
processes.
Flexibility—having systems and processes that are easily maneuvered to
meet changes in the business environment.
Marketplace—retaining the organization’s standing in the marketplace.
Profitability—reducing operational and production cost and time to
market.

Cont.
Critical factors for successful BPI:-
Collaboration—a holistic approach plays great homage to the team
as an integral part of the project.
Facilitation—team members are encouraged to share and argue
their thoughts, ideas, and recommendations for improvement.
Safety—a safe environment needs to be created for challenging the
status quo and expressing a variety of ideas.
Limited use of consultants—we reject the notion that only consultants
can improve processes.

The BPI Approach
 BPI approach starts with determination of the need for
improving a process.
 Concludes with the team’s celebration of a successful
implementation of the improved process.
 The method continues after implementation through constant
monitoring, evaluation, and tweaking of the newly improved
process.

The BPI Approach
BPI Six Stages:-
Stage 1: Examine the need for process improvement in your
organization.
 Determine the process to be improved.
 Determine the BPI team and its mandate.
 Define the project scope.

The BPI Approach
Stage 2: Negotiate with process stakeholders.
 Change management.
 Stakeholder analysis.
 Strategy plan.
Stage 3: Go for it.
 Define the project goals and objectives.
 Roll out the project plan.

The BPI Approach
Stage 4: Action and achieve the dream.
 Improve the process.
Stage 5: Generate excitement and commitment to get it together.
 Procedures.
 Implementation plan.
Stage 6: Engage and excite staff—evaluate improvements on an
ongoing basis.
 Audit plans.
 Celebration of successes.

The BPI Approach
BPI Six stages.
This BPI approach is a tested and proven methodology
that has been used in many industries .

Tools
Project Tools
Four important tools need to be used and maintained
throughout the life of the BPI project to increase the likelihood
of success:-
1. Project plan.
2. Risk and opportunity register.
3. Lessons learned register.
4. Documentation plan.

Cont.
Project Plan
The project plan captures the planned use of resources to
complete a thorough planning effort and comprises at least four
elements:-
1. Project team.
2. Team charter.
3. Project budget.
4. Project timetable.

Cont.
Project Team
 Team leader—assigned the responsibility for the outcome.
The leader can be selected either by the team or by the
executive team and will likely not be the process owner.
 Team members—other team members will be selected
according to the needs of the team during the rotating
phases of the project life cycle.

Team Charter
 The team charter outlines the responsibility of each team
and its members during the project. At various phases of the
project, the team will have rotating members, varying
objectives, and discrete deliverables.
 The team charter needs to be updated for the change that
occurs over the life of the project.
 Each team member should also sign the charter as a visible
commitment to its contents.
Cont.

Project Budget
The focus will be on the following:-
 Human resources—However, if there is a need for overtime
or to bring in contract staff to fulfill the team members’
daily roles, then the additional costs need to be included in
the budget.
 Special events—the project team may want to plan special
events to engage and excite staff for the project—kickoff, off-
site workshops, and celebrations.
Cont.

Project Budget
 Tangible items and services—cost of tangible items and
services needed, such as external conference rooms, flip board,
chart paper, stationery, hosting of workshops, refreshments,
binding services, copying, teleconferencing, and so forth.
 Include a contingency to cover unexpected costs, Such as
engage the executive sponsor, project champion, and other
managers to review and comment on the budget before final
presentation.
Cont.

Budget Justification
The calculation is completed in three steps:-
Calculate the total cost of the project: for example, $22,990
Calculate the change in the process cost: $5,000 annual savings
Calculate the rate of return: change in process cost ÷ total cost of the
project × 100 (5,000 ÷ 22,990 × 100 = 21.74 percent)
In this example, for every dollar spent on the project, 21 cents is
returned to the organization annually. Alternatively, the BPI project
generates a 21 percent simple annual return on the investment.
Cont.

Payback Period
Payback establishes how long the organization has to wait to get
the money back it invests in the improved process. For the savings
of $5,000, the project payback period is slightly more than four
years, calculated as follows:-
Calculate the total cost of the project: $22,990
Calculate the change in the process cost: $5,000 annual savings
Calculate the payback period: change in the process cost ÷ the
total cost of the project, or $22,900 ÷ $5,000 = 4.58 years.
Cont.

Project Timetable
The project timetable reflects the time frame within which all the
activities over the life of the project will be completed. Project
Timetable includes the following:-
Activities—the actions that will occur during the project. Each
activity should be decomposed into smaller tasks.
Duration—each activity and task is assigned a specific start and end
date with the number of days and hours for the action clearly defined
and predetermined.
Cont.

Cont.
Responsibilities—responsibility and expectations for task
completion is clearly outlined and assigned.
Updating—the project timetable is constantly updated throughout
the life of the project.

Performance Measurement in Business
Process Improvement tools
• Monitoring the overall performance levels of the organization.
• Setting a strategic direction and using measurement to ensure
adherence to this direction.
• Using average or absolute performance levels to perform
detailed operational planning of activities and processes.
• Using performance history to develop cost estimates for
products or services.
• Basing planning on up-to- date performance data

• Establishing foresight/early warning through monitoring
leading performance indicators.
• Undertaking regular supplier assessments.
• Exploiting performance measurement for altering the behavior
of individuals, groups, or whole organizations and thus used to
promote desired changes.
• Establishing incentives through focusing on certain
performance parameters and using performance data as a
basis for bonuses or other rewards.
Cont.

• Using performance measurement to determine what
processes need improvement.
• Evaluating improvement projects to monitor whether they
deliver their promise.
• Exploiting performance data for marketing purposes.
• Sharing data with customers, for example, as an approach
to documenting that performance is taken seriously.
• Benchmarking.
Cont.

Implementing a Performance Measurement System
The eight steps of the design process are:-
• Understanding and mapping business structures and
processes.
• Developing business performance priorities.
• Understanding the current performance measurement
system.
• Developing performance indicators.
• Deciding how to collect the required data.

Implementing a Performance Measurement System
• Designing reporting and performance data presentation
formats.
• Testing and adjusting the performance measurement system.
Here, the system is tested so that elements that do not work as
planned can be adjusted.
• Implementing the performance measurement system. In this
step, the system is finally put to official use.

Performance Indicators
Hard versus Soft Indicators
• Hard indicators are pure facts that can be measured directly,
such as the time it takes to carry out something or how much
it costs are typical hard indicators.
• whereas soft indicators are less tangible conditions that must
be measured indirectly, such as quality, expressed as
satisfaction of needs or attitudes.

Performance Indicators
Differences between hard and soft
indicators.

Example
There is a need to take a soft measure of quality of the atmosphere in
a meeting room?
This can be quite difficult . It is possible to measure specific
conditions such as temperature, humidity, and air circulation.
The problem with these measures is that no optimal value can be
easily defined, as this will heavily depend on the individual
participants in the meeting. A number of surrogate indicators can be
used in this case:-
The number of ideas or suggestions generated.
Cont.

Financial versus Nonfinancial Indicators
• Financial indicators include both basic and derived indicators of
a financial character and/or using monetary values as the
measurement unit.
• Nonfinancial indicators are common denominators for
performance indicators that have measurement units other than
monetary value. They can be both hard and soft such as
• Defect rate, Innovation rate.
• Quality of work life, Brand image strength.
Cont.

Examples of financial indicators.
Cont.

Leading versus Lagging Indicators
Cont.

Cont.
Important performance dimensions include the following:-
• Time, with regard to speed of delivery, execution.
• Quality, measured as the more specific factor of defect rate, but
also as the product’s or service’s ability to satisfy needs and
expectations.
• Cost, as one important dimension of the performance picture but
not the entire picture.
• Flexibility, which is also a dimension of growing importance.

• Environmental impact, which is becoming crucial when
discussing the overall performance of an organization.
• Safety, for employees and others who come into contact with the
organization and its business processes.
• Business ethics, which over the last few years has proved an
extremely important aspect, where failure to uphold ethical
standards has brought down several well-known companies.
Cont.

Creating a Business Process Improvement Road Map
Improvement Project Planning
The tools that will be covered here are:-
• Trend analysis.
• Spider chart.
• Performance matrix.
• Criteria testing.
• Quality function deployment (QFD).

Trend Analysis
• Trend analysis is simply an analysis of how results or
performance develops over time. By comparing current results
with past performance.
• This is part of the early warning dimension usually appears
before the performance level reaches an unacceptably low level.
• There is really nothing fancy or complex about trend analysis—
the main point is to include a sufficient amount of historical data
to create a credible trend image, This means:

• Decide which performance dimensions or indicators to include
in the analysis and whether to construct one shared diagram for
all the data or several individual diagrams.
• When constructing the trend chart(s), time is assigned to the
horizontal axis, which places the most recent measurements at
the right side of the chart.
• The performance level is tracked on the vertical axis by plotting
the available data to form trend lines.
Cont.

Trend analysis for three example measures
Cont.

Spider Chart
the spider chart is an analysis tool offering additional capabilities
for graphically displaying your performance data. There are two
useful ways to employ a spider chart:-
• To gain a quick overview of the performance levels for a
number of different performance indicators simultaneously,
mainly to find which are in order and which are lagging.
• To compare the organization’s own performance level with
that of other organizations—a graphical presentation of
benchmarking data.
Cont.

Spider Chart
To construct a spider chart, follow this procedure:-
• Collect data from market analyses, surveys, competitor
analyses, and so on.
• Assign one variable to each spoke in the chart.
• Divide each spoke into logical segments by using a separate
unit of measurement for each variable. The farther from the
center of the chart, the higher the performance.

• Plot the performance data for each variable along the correct
spokes, using different colors or symbols to separate data points
from those of different organizations.
• Draw lines between the data points for each organization to
generate performance profiles.
• Identify the variables that show the largest gaps between your
organization and the benchmarks.
Cont.

Example of a spider chart.
Cont.

Performance Matrix
A generic performance matrix.
Cont.

The meaning of the quadrants is as follows:-
• Unimportant (low importance, low performance): The
performance level is low, but the low importance renders it
unnecessary to put any resources into improvement.
• Overkill (low importance, high performance): The performance
level is high, but this is of less consequence because the
business processes in this quadrant are not especially important
to the organization’s competitiveness.
Cont.

• Must be improved (high importance, low performance): This is
the obvious area for starting improvements. The business
processes that fall within this area are important, but the
current performance level is low.
• OK (high importance, high performance): A golden rule is that
areas where the performance is already good should also be
improved.
Cont.

The steps in using a performance matrix are the following:-
• Construct an empty chart by placing importance on the
horizontal axis and current performance on the vertical axis and
dividing both axes into nine segments of equal size.
• Decide which business processes or other items to include in the
analysis.
• Place each business process in the chart according to its position
along the two axes, using symbols to identify each factor.

• Divide the chart into four quadrants approximately at the
middle of each axis. If many items are clustered in one area,
place the division lines farther to one side.
• Determine which factors fall within the different quadrants.

Criteria Testing
• Before the criteria testing tool itself is presented, the term
critical success factor (CSF) should be defined.
• A limited number of factors that to a large extent impacts the
organization’s competitiveness and its performance in the
marketplace.
• Typical examples of such CSFs are the prices, quality, and
special features of the organization’s products or services;
reputation; and so on.
Cont.

The procedure for using criteria testing is as follows:-
 Place the identified CSFs, typically three to five, in the upper
field of the matrix. If desired, assign each of these a different
weight factor that expresses relative importance.
 In the left-hand field of the matrix, place all possible business
processes assumed to have an impact on these factors.
 For each business process, assess its impact on each of the
CSFs. Again, the example uses impact factors from one to three,
where one is low impact and three is high impact.
Cont.

 Multiply the impact factor by the weight factor of the CSF
and place the product in the correct matrix cell.
 For each business process, add up the products and place
the total in the right-hand column of the matrix. This
numeric value indicates the collective impact of the business
process on the complete set of CSFs. The higher the score,
the better reason to improve this process, as this will give
the highest overall effect on the organization’s CSFs.
Cont.

Matrix for criteria testing.
Cont.

Quality Function Deployment
• The quality function deployment (QFD) tool was developed to
represent a customer-oriented approach to product
development.
• It is a methodology for structuring customer needs,
expectations, and requirements and translating these into
detailed product and process specifications.
• The principles can, however, also be used for a number of other
problems, including improvement planning.

To start with, the product development process consists of several
sequential phases:-
•Transforming customer requirements into a product concept.
•Transforming the product concept into a product design.
•Transforming the product design into a process design.
•Transforming the process design into production documentation.
Cont.

The basic structure of QFD.

Organizing for Business Process
Improvement
Business Process Improvement Skills
To achieve this, some preconditions must be fulfilled:-
• A sufficiently large portion of the organization must be
trained in business process improvement and involved in
improvement projects.
• There must be a sufficient amount of improvement projects
going on at any given time so that employees are regularly
involved in improvement work.
• The organizational structure must allow employees at all
levels the freedom to get involved in improvement efforts.

Tools for Creating Improvements
The following tools are presented in this sector:-
Six Sigma
Business process reengineering
Benchmarking

Six Sigma
• Six Sigma is a set of techniques and tools for process
improvement.
• Six Sigma strategies seek to improve the quality of the output of a
process by identifying and removing the causes of defects and
minimizing variability in business processes.
• Each Six Sigma project carried out within an organization
follows a defined sequence of steps and has specific value
targets, for example: reduce process cycle time, reduce costs,
increase customer satisfaction, and increase profits.

The Six Sigma Process
The basic improvement process outlined in the Six Sigma concept is
the DMAIC process:-
• Define: The purpose is to scope the project by defining its focus,
objectives, and desired benefits.
• Measure: to narrow down the range of potential causes of
problems and understanding the capabilities of the current
process.
Cont.

• Analyze: The purpose here is to better understand the problem:
identifying possible causes, organizing these causes, and validating
which are the root causes.
• Improve: As the name clearly indicates, this phase of the Six Sigma
project aims to implement improvements that remedy the identified
problems, mirroring the phase of creating improvements in our
overall improvement model.
• Control: The purpose of this phase is to ensure that the process
does not revert to its old state and to make sure that the solution
actually works.

Six Sigma in the Organization
Main elements and roles in the organizational structure are:-
• Careful project selection, as was already briefly mentioned, to
ensure that the best projects are selected and that the projects
target critical stakeholders and match the organization’s
goals.
• Black Belts and Master Black Belts, people who have
undergone careful training in the Six Sigma methodology and
are thereby qualified as project managers.
Cont.

• Green Belts, employees who have received some training in Six
Sigma and work part-time on projects (typically 20–25 percent
of their time).
• Other team members, who are employees without Black or
Green Belt certification.
• Project sponsors, senior or middle managers who act as
Champions or sponsors of individual projects.
• Six Sigma steering committee, the primary driver of Six Sigma
deployment in the organization.

Business Process Reengineering
Reengineering is fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of
business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical
contemporary measures of performance, such as cost, quality, service,
and speed.
BPR is an improvement philosophy. It aims to achieve step
improvements in performance by redesigning the processes through
which an organization operates, maximizing their value-added content
and minimizing everything else.
Cont.

From the two extremes, two types of BPR can be defined:-
• Systematic reengineering, where the current processes are
understood, documented, and analyzed in order to systematically
create new and better processes
• Clean sheet reengineering, where the current processes are
scrapped and new processes are created from scratch through
fundamental rethinking.

A Process for Conducting BPR
• Planning, where the focus of the BPR project is selected, a team
to carry out the project is formed, and, if possible, objectives for
the project are defined.
• Reengineering, where, more or less based on the existing
process, a set of techniques is employed to reengineer the
process to a level that will result in significant improvements.
• Transformation, where it is determined how the reengineered
process can be implemented with regard to the existing process,
the need for investments, training, and so on.
Cont.

• Implementation, where the solutions generated and
approved during the two preceding phases are
implemented and the process changed.

Planning
There are four central tasks in the planning phase:-
• Select the process to be improved through BPR and consider its
scope.
• Assess the possibilities for achieving improvements and establish
targets.
• Establish a project team to perform the work in the project.
• Produce a project plan for the BPR project.
Cont.

Reengineering
The main purpose of the reengineering phase is to reengineer the
process to be improved. Before and after this main task, there is
preparation to do:-
Document the existing process.
Reengineer the process.
Develop recommendations for improvement.
Cont.

Transformation
The purpose of the transformation phase is to build the foundation
for an effective and successful implementation of the new process.
The main tasks will be:-
Evaluating the changes required to implement the new process.
Planning the need for investments, training, purchases, and soon.
Creating a favorable climate for change.
Planning the implementation.
Cont.

Implementation
The steps of this phase are as follows:-
Set targets for the improvements.
Create a favorable climate for change.
Carry out the implementation plan.
Monitor the progress of the implementation and handle any
deviations.
Cont.

Benchmarking
• Benchmarking is the practice of being humble enough to
admit that someone else is better at something, and being
wise enough to learn how to match them and even surpass
them at it.
• Many used to see benchmarking as a method for comparing
only key figures, often financial key figures, for the purpose
of ranking the organization in relation to competitors or the
industry average.
Cont.

Operational Definition Of Benchmarking.
Cont.

The core of the current interpretation of benchmarking is:-
Measurement of your own and the benchmarking partners’
performance level, both for comparison and for registering
improvements.
Comparison of performance levels, processes, practices, and so on.
Learning from the benchmarking partners to introduce
improvements in your own organization.
Improvement, which is the ultimate objective of any benchmarking
study.
Cont.

There are four main reasons for advocating the use of
benchmarking in improvement:-
• Benchmarking helps the organization understand and develop a
critical attitude toward its business processes.
• Benchmarking encourages an open attitude toward seeking and
sharing information and thereby is an active learning process
that motivates change and improvement in the organization.
Cont.

• Through benchmarking, the organization can find new sources
of improvement and new ways of doing things outside its own
environment.
• Through benchmarking, reference points are established for
performance measurement of business processes.

First, you can compare on three different levels (at least) in terms
of who you use as benchmarking partners:-
• Internal benchmarking—comparison against the best within the
same organization or corporation.
• Competitor benchmarking—comparison against the best direct
competitors.
• Generic benchmarking—comparison against the best,
regardless of industry or market.
Cont.

Depending on what you compare, there are again at least three
levels of benchmarking:-
Performance benchmarking—comparison of pure key figures or
other performance measures.
Process benchmarking—goes beyond performance measures by
comparing how business processes are performed as well as how
well they are performed.
Strategic benchmarking—comparison of strategic decisions and
dispositions at a higher level. This is a less frequently used variant
of benchmarking.

Conducting a Benchmarking Study
A full benchmarking study includes the activities necessary for the
organization to:-
Study and understand its own process.
Find benchmarking partners.
Study the benchmarking partners’ processes.
Analyze the differences between its own and the benchmarking
partners’ processes.
Implement improvements based on what was learned from the
benchmarking partners.
Cont.

Plan
The planning phase contains four basic activities:-
1. Select the process to be benchmarked.
2. Establish a benchmarking team.
3. Understand and document the process to be benchmarked.
4. Establish performance measures for the process.
Cont.

Search
The contents of the search phase are as follows:-
• Compile a list of criteria that an ideal benchmarking partner
should satisfy.
• Search for potential benchmarking partners.
• Compare the candidates and select one or more partners.
• Establish contact with the selected partners and gain
acceptance for their participation in the study.
Cont.

Observe
In the observation phase, the benchmarking partners’ processes are
studied and documented, just as was done for our own process in
the planning phase. The observation phase covers three steps:-
1. Assess the information needs and information sources.
2. Select a method and tool for collecting data and information
3. Perform data collection and debriefing.
Cont.

Analyze
After the information and data about the benchmarking
partners’ processes have been collected, the next step is to
analyze the data and identify improvement suggestions.
The analysis phase consists of five steps:-
1. Sort the collected information and data
2. Quality control the collected information and data
3. Normalize the data
4. Identify gaps in performance levels
5. Identify causes of the gaps
Cont.

Adapt
As with the planning phase, the adaptation or implementation
phase is not really. The adaptation phase consists of four steps:
1. 1. Describe the ideal process and summarize improvement
actions based on it.
2. 2. Set targets for the improvements.
3. 3. Develop an implementation plan, carry out the plan, and
monitor the progress.
4. 4. Write a final report from the benchmarking study.
Cont.

 Increased Individual Performance,
 Better Quality,
 Less Absenteeism,
 Improved Employee Engagement,
 Reduced Employee Turnover,
 Leaner Plant Structures,
 And Substantial Improvements In Production Cycle Time
Teams and Workgroup
Teams Advantages

 A small number of people with complementary skills who are committed
to a common purpose and performance goals for which they hold
themselves mutually accountable.
 A group whose individual efforts result in a performance that is greater
than the sum of those individual parts.
 Two or more people with different tasks who work together adaptively to
achieve specified and shared goals
Definition of a Team

Distinguishing Teams from Work Groups

 Skill requirements for team members can be categorized into three types:
technical or functional expertise,
 problem-solving and decision-making skills,
 and (iii) interpersonal skills.
These three basic skill categories are used to set the criteria for team member
selection. For example, one can expect task-related skills for a management
team to be drastically different from those for a work team. Similarly, decision
making skills and interpersonal skills in those two contexts are also likely to
differ to a large extent
Selecting Team Members

Knowledge, skill, and ability (KSA) requirements for teamwork

 Task-related training focuses on the actual tasks for which the team is
responsible. Because of rapidly changing technology, the associated
technical skills and knowledge require continuous upgrading.
 Hence, task-related training is an ongoing process. Training programs
should be designed to satisfy the team’s need for particular technical skills.
 Consequently the design should consider each individual member’s
current abilities, interests, and professional direction.
Task-Related Training

 One of the most important of these skills is the ability to communicate
well.
 Teamwork relies on collective actions and decisions. Furthermore, team
members achieve these actions and decisions through exchange of
opinions, negotiation, persuasion, compromise, and collaboration.
 Thus, communication skills and group decision- making skills are
essential for collective creation.
 Training to enhance these skills can start before the work teams are
formed and should be made available on an ongoing basis as teams
develop and mature.
Team-Related Training

 Performing successfully as a team leader requires a number of
skills.
 Successful team leaders know that team performance comes from
collective effort and action.
 An important focus is to motivate team members to support
collective performance. To do this, team leaders need to
accomplish several objectives.
 To do this, team leaders need to accomplish several objectives.
Leading Teams

 First, “clarify purpose and goals, build commitment and self-confidence,
strengthen the team’s collective skills and approach, remove externally
imposed obstacles, and create opportunities for others.
 Second, keeping in mind that team success depends on the combined
contributions of all members of the team, team leaders should, as much
as possible, involve team members in decisions that affect the team and
its performance.
 Third, it is the team leader’s role to develop and facilitate team members,
not just control them. Consonant with this objective, leaders must decide
upon the amount of autonomy given to members, when to make decisions
alone or with the team, and how much responsibility to give
inexperienced members
Leading Teams

 They can be liaisons between the team and other parts of the
organization or even other organizations;
 Resource providers, assisting the team in defining their resource needs
and helping to secure those resources;
 Counselors, helping team members develop problem-solving skills; (iv)
mentors, guiding team members to develop organizational savvy;
 Teachers, passing on technical information to team members; or
 Devil’s advocates, challenging the team process of decision making,
interpersonal relationships, and progress toward the team’s goal
Team leaders can take on other roles

1. Become an effective self-leader.
2. Model self-leadership for team members.
3. Encourage team members to set their own goals.
4. Encourage a positive work environment.
5. Reward self-leadership and promote constructive critical feedback.
6. Promote self-leading teamwork.
7. Facilitate a self-leadership culture.
To do this, some management scholars suggest the
following seven steps:

 One of the most viable and successful motivational techniques to appear in
the management literature is goal setting.
 Goal-setting theories suggest that goals can improve performance because
they generate, direct, and sustain effort .
 For goals to have the most positive effect, they should be specific, rather
than general; difficult but attainable, rather than easy; and accepted by the
team. Attempts to reach them should be accompanied by feedback.
 Therefore, managers would do well to ensure that goals are accepted and,
to the degree possible, implement a reward structure to support their
attainment. This means that leaders must be knowledgeable both in terms of
the difficulty of the work and the capability of the team.
Motivating Team Performance
Goal Setting and Performance

 As with individuals, team goals can be assigned or participatively set.
Which technique to use depends on the type of team and the tasks the
team is assigned.
 Studies show that participatively setting goals is likely to enhance the
acceptance of goals by team members, increase congruence between
individual and team goals (20, 45), lead to better-quality goals and
satisfaction with the process (42), and increase the likelihood of
producing positive outcomes.
 Another possible benefit of team members participating in goal setting is
the cohesiveness that can be generated by such interaction. Further, as
teams discuss various goal levels, individual members become aware of
their teammates’ strengths, weaknesses, and overall capabilities.
Goal Setting and Teams

A team’s achievement can be evaluated based on
 The degree to which the results that a team delivers are acceptable to
those who receive them,
 The team being able to work effectively together in the future, and
 Individual members being more satisfied than frustrated in achieving
their personal goals
Evaluating Teams and Team Members

 Virtual teams are characterized by members who are typically
geographically dispersed and communicate primarily through
electronic media including email, telephone, texting, video-
conferencing, webinars, etc.
 Virtual teams are quickly moving to the forefront as an organizing
strategy as business becomes more global, employees work from
remote locations, and travel costs increase.
 Virtual teams can make employees feel increasingly isolated, increase
chances of misunderstanding among team members, and create
conflicts.
Virtual Teams

 First, consideration must be given to the characteristics of the individuals
who are placed on global teams. Successful global team members must
have language, technical, and social skills as well as an understanding of
how to work with those who operate in different cultures.
 Second, getting a global team together face to face is important, especially
when the team is being formed. The team’s goals and objectives, as well as
how the team will work together, should be discussed at the face-to-face
meeting. Time should also be allocated for the team members to get to
know one another as individuals.
 Third, local issues and obligations often trump global responsibilities.
Clear goals, work structure, and performance criteria must be established.
Global Teams

Quality in the Laboratory
Laboratory Safety
Safety Regulation in British Petroleum
Company

Contents
1. British Petroleum at a glance
2. Values of BP
3. Safety in BP
4. Personal and Process safety
5. Business & Human Right Policy
6. Accident Case- Deep Water Accident in Mexico
Gulf

BP at a glance
• BP Company, headquartered in London, United
Kingdom, is a British multinational oil and gas
company.
• It is the 3rd largest company in the world in the
Energy sector.
• History
1909
1935
1954
1998
2001
as Anglo-Persian Oil Company
as Anglo-Iranian Oil Company
as British Petroleum
as BP Amoco plc
as BP plc

BP at a glance
• BP has operations in over 80 countries worldwide.
• According to the statistics of 2008-2012, the total
number of employees is 85,700.
• The Sales and other operating revenues of BP
Company is $ 375,765 million.
• www.bp.com
• Some of the core brands of BP oils are:

Values of BP
• Safety
• Respect
• Excellence
• Courage
• One Team

Safety in British Petroleum
operational leaders to
excel as safety leaders.
Safety is at the heart of everything we do, driven by
our leadership and applied through our operating
management system
BP’s senior management
has set clear expectations
• BP works hard to improve
their impact on environment
• Reducing waste, emissions and
• discharges.
• Using energy efficiently.
• Reducing workplace exposure
to health risks.
• Producing safe, high-quality
products
designed to help

Personal and process safety
• Act first to protect the safety and well-being of everyone aroundyou.
• Act in accordance with the applicable laws and follow the requirements
in Office safety.
• Stop work that you believe is unsafe, may harm health or deteriorates the
environment.
• Only undertake the work if you are competent, medically fit and
sufficiently rested.
• Make sure that you know all the emergency procedures that apply where
you work.
• Report any accidents, injury, illness, unsafe and unhealthy conditions to
the local BP management. Never wait for others to do.
• Ask for help and advice if you are unclear about HSSE (Health, Safety,
Security and Environment Rules) and operating responsibilities

• Never work while your performance is impaired by alcohol or
any prescription/over-the-counter drug, whether it is illegal or
legal.
• Never threaten, scare or act violently towards anyone at work
where we operate.
• Never bring any weapons- including those for sporting purpose
without the approval of BP’s board.
Basic rules that employee must
follow

Business & Human Right Policy
• BP conducts business in a manner that respects the rights and
dignity of all people, complying with all legal requirements.
• BP recognize our responsibility to respect human rights and
avoid complicity in Human right abuses.
• BP respect freedom of association, where the
employees are represented by trade unions or work
councils.
• BP respects internationally-recognized human rights, as set
out in the Fundamental Principles and rights at work.

Deep-water Accident in Mexico Gulf
20th April, 2010
11 and many more were injured
Date
Number of
employee died
Cause of the
accident
Loss of hydrostatic control of the well.
This was followed by the failure to
control the flow from the well with the
blowout preventer (BOP) equipment,
which ultimately allowed the release and
ignition of the hydrocarbons.

How BP responded to the accident?
• BP spent $14 billion on the response activities.
• To clean-up the environment under the direction of the federal
government.
• To compensate people affected by the accident
• To look after the health, safety and welfare of the people.
• To support the economic recovery of the industries like Seafood
Industries and Gulf Coast’s Tourism.
• BP also introduced a reward strategy in order to improve safety standards.

New Regulations
• BP will hand over the duty of verifying “testing and
maintenance” of the blowout preventer to third party.
• BP will introduce laboratory testing of cement slurries for
hydrocarbon-bearing zones under the supervision of
competent engineer. (Because Investigators found major flaws in the cementing procedures used at the Mexico Gulf well)
• BP's oil spill response plan will include information about
"enhanced" measures for responding to a spill in the open
water, as well as for responding to oil threatening
shorelines.

Tobeatrusted company,yearafter year,
we needto work to aconsistent andhigher
set of standardsandfollow themin
everythingwe doandsay,everyday,
everywherewe work.

ADVANCE LABORATORY MANAGEMENT SKILLS

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