ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 7, 1996 TAG: 9601110146
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D2 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Working It Out
SOURCE: CAMILLE WRIGHT MILLER
Q.: Partnerships is the next managerial wave? What is it?
A: Defined by John L. Mariotti, partnerships are "relationships between companies and people who share common goals, strive to achieve them together, and do so in a spirit of cooperation, collaboration, and fairness."
Mariotti, author of "The Power of Partnerships," sees four partnerships as essential to successful ventures: with suppliers, customers, employees or associates, and with valued personal or professional partners. The latter includes a mentor, consultant, spouse, friend or business partner. The role for each partnership is to aid and supports the success of both partners.
Mariotti recommends founding partnerships on six attributes. The first is a combination of character, integrity and honesty - for both partners. The remaining traits are trust, open communication, fairness, self-interest of both partners, and balance of rewards vs. risks.
While Mariotti believes partnerships are the "next step beyond TQM [Total Quality Management], re-engineering, and lean production," the reality is that good business practice has long treated all relationships as partnerships.
Partnering won't replace managerial philosophies; however, it's an excellent addition to whatever managerial position one is using.
Q: My staff comes to work with colds and fevers. I appreciate their loyalty, but don't want their germs. Short of bathing in disinfectant, how can I stay healthy?
A: Consider several factors - completed work, quality work, the health of you and your employees, and communicability of illness.
Work quality produced by sick employees generally is lower than usual. Further, by working when ill, they prolong their recovery period - so they'll be producing poorly for a longer period of time.
Sick employees also communicate illnesses to other employees. Employees with viruses cause other staff members to become ill, resulting in lowered performance all around.
For yourself, implement a rigorous hygiene policy. Practice the basics, such as washing your hands frequently. For your business's and employees' health, implement leave policies that encourage folks to stay home when they have infectious illnesses. Your employees will appreciate your concern and their increased loyalty is likely.
Further, your business will benefit because delayed work is better than poor quality work.
Q: Ideas I present are shot down - sometimes for good reason, sometimes not. I'd like to reduce the belief I "shoot from the hip." How can I evaluate my ideas?
A: In his book "Secrets of Executive Success," John Feltman provides a process which he calls Protocol to estimate the strength of an idea. The score is generated by considering several questions. Give weight to the first three categories by entering their scores twice:
How compatible is the project with your organization's "personality, experience, role in the marketplace" and philosophy? A score of 10 indicates perfect compatibility. A score of one or two indicates strong incompatibility.
What's the reward potential? Include efficiency, dollars and public goodwill. Estimate the "extent to which the reward outweighs investment." If rewards barely equal investment, score zero or one. If the two factors are equal, score two. If the potential reward is significantly greater than investment, score eight to 10.
What's the success probability? A 10 percent chance scores one, a 20 percent scores two, a 100 percent scores 10.
What's your level of enthusiasm for the idea? A score of one represents minor interest; 10 demonstrates total commitment.
What are the side effects? Rate positive side effects from low positive benefits scoring one to breathtaking benefits worth a 10.
Also, predict negative side effects such as lowered morale and strain on facilities. If you see no negatives, score five. Scoring six or seven means to expect disruption, eight or higher means the organization could be seriously hurt.
Subtract the negative score from 10 for a converted score. Add the converted negative to score for positive side effects and divide by two.
If the idea doesn't work, what's the loss potential, in terms of dollars, time and effort? If failure would be slight, score one or two. If failure would bankrupt the organization, score 10.
What's the impact of "constraint effects". These evaluate the extent to which "implementing ideas produce short-term pressure on how the organization keeps itself strong on a day-to-day basis." The more constraints, such as endangering ongoing production, the higher the score - up to 10.
For six and seven, subtract each number from 10 for converted scores.
Add the 10 scores; divide by 10 and then evaluate the overall score by this scale: 10 is unrealistically high, nine is extremely strong, eight is strong, seven is good, six means weak, five is doubtful. Scores under five mean you should abandon the idea.
If you don't have answers to questions, do more research into your organization before offering ideas. Your goal is rate ideas from the organization's perspective.
Solid ideas, based on Feltman's scale, will score seven to nine points. With practice you can get there.
LENGTH: Medium: 97 linesby CNB