As former officers in the Army, we know how important it is to have a good overview of your situation. It isn’t easy to make the right and good decisions without a good view.
Translating this operational approach to everyday life in one “civilian” frame gives you a better insight, making better decisions, which ultimately leads to better results.
We use a simple “test,” which we have developed based on our experiences from environments where decisions and actions have far-reaching consequences. – The test, which we call the 10-minute test, is based on the fact that you as a manager/project manager should ALWAYS have a good overall overview of how the situation is for the person/people you are leading. And your entire management structure should be able to support this.
As we usually say, leaders further down in the organization must also have a good overview. Their information forms the basis for the top management to make proper and informed decisions.
In its simplicity, you as the leader of a team/department/project/organization must within 10 minutes be able to explain the following:
Status (green / yellow / red) within:
Customers:
– The largest customers and their status (incl. Customer satisfaction)
The company/organization:
– Strategic focus areas
– Projects (progress, challenges, and finances)
– Operation:
– Financial status (income & expenses)
– Operations (daily operation)
– Employees: competencies & well-being
– Logistics, including availability, transportation, shopping
As well as brief on points below:
– 10 most significant risks, including development & status
– Focus areas in the coming 4-6 weeks
The detail level depends on what level you are at in the organization.
But the points that we mentioned above, unfortunately, many can not answer. Nor in smaller projects and organizations.
CAN YOU PASS THE TEST?
If not, try to build your structure for the operation to answer the questions and improve the basis for making better decisions.
It is significantly MORE CRITICAL to have this insight in times like now.
