M2 Matching Management

Management Effectiveness: Aligning People and Business

How effective an organization management strategy is for aligning people and business is one of the key predictors of how successful an organization will be in achieving its goals. M² provides organizational leaders an opportunity to examine and evaluate how effectively the core pieces needed for success are connected. M² is Howatt HR's proven model for aligning management effectiveness to increase organizational results. M² is a strategic planning process where leaders define and plan the right strategy for their organization.

M² is a strategic planning process that:

• Facilitates the strategic and critical thinking required to define and align the pieces that connect people to business
• Provides a framework for addressing the current reality of a shrinking workforce

Effective utilization of this limited resource is becoming more urgent

Corporate leaders are spending more time thinking about attraction and retention

M² enhances management effectiveness

• One of the most important retention strategies for any organization is management effectiveness
• Managers move corporate strategy into action
• It is imperative the management model matches the business needs for long-term success

 

To maximize the potential of a workforce, people need to be aligned to business strategy. The benefits include:

• Increased productivity     
• Greater profit potential
• Better efficiency
• Less miscommunication and conflict
• Improved employee satisfaction (needed to harness discretionary effort)

The M² process examines how each person is aligned to their business group’s strategy by analyzing:

• Core functions and core competencies
• Job profiles
• Accountabilities and expectations
• Measures of success

This is a critical building block for alignment with corporate strategy.

 

 

M2 Case Studies – Attraction/Retention Solutions M2 Discovery: An organization found a substantial percentage of skilled leaders would reach retirement age in the next five years. It needed to build a robust on-boarding process to ensure staff would be ready to step up when experienced leaders retire.  Solution: Implemented a Structured Mentoring Program that resulted in faster, more consistent knowledge transfer across the organization.   M2 Discovery: Business unit found its core functions were not well aligned to its balanced scorecard, which negatively impacted its ability to meet corporate expectations. Solution: Reviewed all position profiles, revised core function descriptions and redefined core competencies. Implemented a training plan for new core competences and built a new on-boarding strategy. The outcome brought closer alignment to corporate expectations and enhanced ability to meet corporate goals.    M2 Discovery: Staff performance management/review was not closely linked to metrics being used to measure overall company performance. Solution: Created a top-down approach aligning the performance management model to business metrics. Developed communication protocols for effective workforce feedback.  This process closely linked individual goals with organizational goals and provided a method for timely, meaningful feedback to keep the team on track.

M² is a four-day process consisting of three distinct phases: Preparation, Strategic Planning, and formulating the Results Plan.

Choosing participants to engage in the process will depend largely on organizational structure. Though the team often consists of managers, individual contributors may be included.

• Invite individuals who are responsible and have decision making authority on a piece of the business.
• Make up a strategic M² team of 8-10 people. 
   

Preparation

The first step is Preparation.  The sponsor/decision maker meets with Howatt HR consultants, typically for one day, to: Complete the Howatt HR Talent Management Audit Select who will participate in Strategic Planning (Phase 2) Provide insight about the organizational culture, current strategic plans and share successes and challenges

Strategic Plan

The second step is a two day Strategic Planning session where participants of the M2 team defined in Phase 1: Evaluate, discover, align and define what is working well Identify areas where gaps exist between what the business wants and what the workforce is delivering Review, inversely, what the workforce wants and the business is giving Identify the cost of doing nothing Calculate the ROI for taking action to implement change

Results Plan

Phase 3 is where the outcome of the M2 process is formalized. Howatt HR will work with the sponsor to prepare a written Results Plan pulling together the pieces needed to align people to business for long term success. Output will include: A formal report of discoveries The detailed strategic plan A visual map of next steps An implementation plan with timelines