Chris Baigent- Reed of Jigsaw Tree outlines a practical approach that you can use to ensure you have an effective operating framework in place to underpins your business development in pursuit of your strategic goals
We have plenty of experience of working with advice firms to help them overcome a range of business challenges as they seek to build their business and develop their service. Our premise when working collaboratively with firms is to, in the words of the late, great Dr. Stephen Covey, “start with the end in mind’. It is only by doing this can we identify the transitions that are required to reach your strategic goals.
At the core of this is ensuring that your business has a target operating framework to aspire to. By knowing and then sharing critical success factors across your business and demonstrating the value of change to all, everyone in your team is engaged and inspired to make the business the success you want it to be.
The key components of the ‘one best way’ operating framework
This framework can be used to help you develop your strategic plans. It all starts with having a clear view of your end goal. Once this is established, then you can progress to working out the detail of how this will be achieved.
Vision and values
Without having a clear vision of your future, how will you know if and when you have arrived at your destination?
Let’s ‘start with the end in mind’ and look to identify what your vision is for the future of the business. You will need to set out an unclouded vision on what this preferred future looks like. Make it inspirational and aspirational so as to challenge and excite others in the business.
Your core set of values should show what you believe in and how you and your team will all behave. A values-led business creates a moral compass to guide on decision making and establishes a standard that all actions can be assessed against.
Vision and values should never be decided just by senior management but must be discussed openly – everyone from the top down needs to live them. By getting everyone’s 100% support for these, your destination and journey will become clear.
Progress is impossible without change
‘We have always done it that way’ is a common reason given for using a particular method or process which I often hear from advisers. Think about your business in this light. If this applies to you, then over time, this attitude allows your processes to become inefficient, long-winded, costly and frequently with workarounds which are no longer needed. Well-developed processes are central to ensuring that your business can convey its value efficiently and effectively, and in a way that delivers a quality client experience.
The absence of clearly defined and documented processes is a key risk. Putting clients at the heart of how you deliver your service, is central to achieving high levels of satisfaction. The reward for this is repeat business, regular referrals and improved client retention which is delivered through robust and repeatable processes which your clients love – and will recommend to others.
The challenge of getting the right person
Having the right people doing the right things at the right time is critical for your business. It is not only important to regularly assess the roles and responsibilities within the business but also to review who holds those positions and how they interact with others. Using DISC profiling, or other psychometric tools, can be an effective way of assessing behaviour types to ascertain if individuals are actually suited to their roles. We are not suggesting a rip it up and start again approach here, instead we are looking to see where individual people have the best impact in your business. For example, Joanna’s DISC profile may show from her behavioural traits that she would be more effective in a client-facing role, rather than her current accounts role.
Living your dream
Once you have defined your future vision, you can progress to working out how you get there. A ten year vision is distant and things change. The best approach is to work out what your objectives are for each year. Then break it down further and get everyone in your organisation to set themselves their own ‘big rocks’. The big rock theory is a quick and easy time management tool developed by American author and educator, Dr Stephen Covey. It’s based around the concept of first things first, getting your most important objectives and goals identified and agreed first. Only once you have done this, can you really build your strategy around them. If you haven’t already done so, I’d recommend watching his youtube clip on the subject.
Like all your objectives, these ‘big rocks’ should be SMART (ie specific, measurable, agreed, realistic and time-based). Again, they should be broken down into manageable chunks. It is easier to see what needs to be done this month, this quarter, this year to ensure you are on track to meet your stated vision rather than jumping straight into your ultimate vision.
Within any critical issue, there are always aspects no one wishes to discuss
Looking at the bigger picture around your ‘big rocks’ and dealing with any issues or challenges you have to overcome immediately is key to reaching your goals –even if there are painful issues in there. Your business needs to become great at solving problems. Once an obstruction to reaching your goal has been identified, it needs to be openly discussed. Make sure that you stay solution and outcome focused until the issue has been solved and avoid going off on tangents, which is all too easy to do in practice.
Discussing and solving issues must be done in a positive environment where everyone can share their thoughts and views without judgement or blame and with no adverse repercussions. There must always be a united front in order to keep moving forward and the team working together effectively.
After all is said and done, actions speak louder than words
Your business needs a set of key performance indicators ( KPIs) so you can regularly and easily monitor how the business is doing against its strategic objectives. If you’ve not already done so, these KPIs should be set at multiple levels through the business to ensure you are evaluating every team’s success at reaching their targets. To be effective your KPIs must be:
- Applicable to your business
- Well defined and quantifiable
- Thoroughly communicated throughout your organisation
- Crucial to achieving your goals
To be able to accurately and consistently monitor KPIs, you must have clarity on these numbers and how they underpin the vision of the business. That means having good operational management and control systems to keep you on track. Getting this right will give you an accurate view on where the business is against its goals at all times and is a key tool in your strategic planning success.
In summary
By having clarity on the key components and giving accountability for delivery of these, along with a clear view on the future vision of the business, will ensure your key goals are met.
About Chris Baigent-Reed
Chris is a financial services professional with over twenty years’ experience in this sector. Having worked for FS advice and technology companies for many years Chris founded Jigsaw Tree and Jigsaw Tree Outsourcing. These businesses are support companies specialising in providing expertise and outsourced resources where they are needed most. Jigsaw Tree focuses on combining people, process and technology in order to deliver the right results.
Twitter @JigsawTree or call call 07764 232188
