http://it.coe.uga.edu/itforum/paper85/Kaufman_Paper85.htm

DEFINING AND DELIVERING MEASURABLE VALUE:

    A MEGA THINKING AND PLANNING PRIMER

                                         Roger Kaufman, CPT, PhD

                                                Abstract

Mega planning has a primary focus on adding value for all stakeholders. It is realistic, practical, and ethical. Defining and then achieving sustained organizational success is possible.  It relies on three basic elements:

1.      A societal value-added “frame of mind” or paradigm: your perspective about your organization, people, and our world. It focuses on an agreed-upon focus on adding value to all stakeholders.

2.      A shared determination and agreement on where to head and why: all people who can and might be impacted by the shared objectives must agree on purposes and results criteria,

and

3.      Pragmatic and basic tools. 

This article provides the basic concepts for thinking and planning Mega in order to define and deliver value to internal and external partners.

The Societal Value Added Perspective and Frame of Mind

The required frame of mind for Mega thinking and planning, one’s guiding paradigm, is simple, straight forward, and sensible. It puts a primary concern on adding measurable value for external clients and society using one’s own job and organization as the vehicle.  From this shared societal value-added frame[1], everything one uses, does, produces, and delivers is linked to achieve shared and agreed-upon positive societal results. This societal frame of reference, or paradigm, I call the Mega level of planning.[2]

If you are not adding value to our shared society what assurance do you have that you are not subtracting value?[i] Starting with Mega as the central focus is strategic thinking and provides the data based for strategic planning.

A central question that each and every organization should ask and answer is:

   If Your Organization is the Solution, What’s the Problem?

This fundamental proposition is central to thinking and planning strategically—using a Mega focus--represents a shift from the usual focus only on oneself, individual performance improvement, and one’s organization to making certain you also add value to external clients and society.

An Overview of the Basic Concepts and Tools for Mega Planning

There are three basic guides, or templates, that will be helpful to define and achieve organizational success. Each is defined in much greater detail in several books (see the references), but for our entry into Mega Planning and strategic thinking, here is the short introduction to these three guides:

Guide One: The Organizational Elements Model (OEM) –Table 1--defines and links-aligns--what any organization uses, does, produces, and delivers with external client and societal value added. For each Element, there is an associated level of planning. Note that Strategic planning (and thinking) starts with Mega while Tactical planning starts with Macro and Operational planning at Micro.

Table 1. The five levels of results, the levels of planning, and a brief description. 

These elements are also useful for defining the basic questions every organization must ask and answer as provided in Figure 2.

Guide Three: Six Critical Success Factors. Following are what provides a vital framework of this approach and for Mega planning. Unlike conventional “critical success factors,” these are factors for successful planning, not just for the things that an organization must get done to meet its mission. These are for Mega planning, regardless of the organization. 

Six Critical Success Factors (CSFs) for any organization.[ii] Six critical success factors for Mega planning (not targeted for any one organizational business but only for the planning process and concern) are shown in Table 2.

Table .2. The six critical success factors for Mega level strategic planning (and strategic thinking).

Guide Three: A six-step problem solving model, Figure 1 that includes (1.0) identifying problems based on needs, (2.0) determining detailed solution requirements and identifying (but not yet selecting) solution alternatives, (3.0) selecting solutions from among alternatives, (4.0) implementation, (5.0) evaluation and (6.0) continuous improvement (at each and every step):

Figure .  The six-step problem solving process: A process for identifying and resolving problems (and identifying opportunities).

From Kaufman, 1992, 1998, 2000.

Each time you want to identify problems and opportunities and systematically get from current results and consequences to desired ones, use the six-step process.

New Realities for Organizational Success.  To be successful—to do and apply Mega Planning—you have to realize that yesterday’s methods and results often are not appropriate for tomorrow.  Most planning experts agree that the past is only prologue, and tomorrow must be crafted through new patterns of perspectives, tools, and results.[iii]  The tools and concepts for meeting the new realities of society, organizations, and people are linked to each of the Six Critical Success Factors.

The details and how-to’s for each of the three guides are also provided in the referenced sources. The three basic “guides” or templates should be considered as forming an integrated set of tools—like a fabric—instead of only each one on their own.[iv]

Mega Planning. A Mega Planning framework has three phases: Scoping, Planning, Implementation/Continuous Improvement. From this framework, specific tools and methods are provided to do Mega Planning.  It is not complex, really. If you simply use the three guides you will be able to put it all together.

When doing Mega planning, you and your associates will ask and answered the following questions shown in Table 3.

Table 3. The basic questions every organization must ask and answer.

A “yes” to all questions will lead you toward Mega planning and allow you to prove that you have added value. . . something that is becoming increasingly important.  These questions relate to Guide One.  It defines each organizational element in terms of its label and the question each addresses. If you use and do all of these you will align everything you use, do, produce, and deliver to adding measurable value to yourself, your organization, and to external clients and society.

Mega planning is proactive.  Many approaches to organizational improvement wait for problems to happen and then scramble to respond. But there is a temptation to react to problems and never take the time to plan so surprises are fewer and success is defined—before problems spring up—and then systematically achieved. 

The Six Critical Success Factors in Brief

Let’s look at each of the Six Critical Success Factors –Guide Three–briefly—each will form the basis of a chapter following this Introduction—to get a feel for the frame of mind (or paradigm) Mega planning provides.

Critical Success Factor 1. USE NEW AND WIDER BOUNDARIES FOR THINKING, PLANNING, DOING, AND EVALUATING/CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT.  MOVE OUT OF TODAY’S COMFORT ZONES

There is evidence just about everywhere we look that tomorrow is not a linear projection—a straight-line function—of yesterday and today. . .such as car manufacturers that squander their dominant client base by shoving unacceptable vehicles into the market and airlines that focus on shareholder value and ignore customer value.  An increasing number of credible authors have been, and continue to tell us that the past is, at best, prologue and not a harbinger of what the future will be. In fact, old paradigms can be so deceptive that Tom Peters suggests that “organizational forgetting” must become conventional organizational culture.[v]

Times have changed, and anyone who doesn’t also change appropriately is risking failure. It is vital to use new and wider boundaries for thinking, planning, doing, and delivering. Doing so will require getting out of current comfort zones.  Not doing so will likely deliver failure[vi].

Critical Success Factor 2.  DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN ENDS AND MEANS. FOCUS ON “WHAT” (Mega/Outcomes, Macro/Outputs, Micro/Products) BEFORE “HOW.”[vii]

People, are “doing-types.” We want to swing right into action and in so doing we usually jump right into solutions—means—before we know the results—ends—we must deliver. Writing and using measurable performance objectives is something upon which almost all performance improvement authors agree. Objectives correctly focus on ends and not methods, means, or resources.[viii] Ends—“What”—sensibly should be identified and defined before we select “How” to get from where we are to our destinations. If we don’t select our solutions, methods, resources, and interventions on the basis of what results we are to achieve, what do we have in mind to make the selections of means, resources, or activities?

Focusing on means, processes, and activities are usually more comfortable as a starting place for conventional performance improvement initiatives. Starting  with means, for any organization and performance improvement initiative, would be as if you were provided process tools and techniques without a clear map that included a definite destination identified (along with a statement of why you want to get to the destination in the first place). Also, a risk for starting a performance improvement journey with means and processes would be the fact that there would be no way of knowing whether your trip is taking you toward a useful destination or the criteria for telling you if you were making progress.[ix]

It is vital that successful planning focuses first on results—useful performance in measurable terms—for setting its purposes, measuring progress and providing continuous improvement toward the important results, and for determining what to keep, what to fix, and what to abandon.

It is vital to focus on useful ends before deciding “how” to get things done. It also sets the stage for another related Critical Success Factor (#3, Use and Link all Three Levels of Results) through application of the Organizational Elements Model (OEM) and for Critical Success Factor #4 (Prepare objectives that have indicators of how you will know when you have arrived). The OEM relies on a results-focus because it defines what every organization uses, does, produces, delivers, and the consequences of that for external clients and society.

Critical Success Factor 3: Use and Align all three levels of Planning and Results.

As we noted in Critical Success Factor 2 (above), it is vital to prepare all objectives that focus only on ends. . .never just on means or resources.  There are three levels of results, shown in Table 4, that are important to target and link:

Table 4. The levels of planning and results that should be linked during planning, doing, and evaluation and continuous improvement and there are three levels of planning.

There are three levels of planning and results, based on who is to be the primary client and beneficiary of what gets planned, designed, and delivered. For each level of planning there are associated three levels of results (Outcomes, Outputs, Products).[x]  Strategic planning targets society and external clients, tactical planning targets the organization itself, and operational planning targets individuals and small groups.

Critical Success Factor 4: PREPARE OBJECTIVES—INCLUDING THOSE FOR THE IDEAL VISION AND MISSION OBJECTIVES—THAT HAVE INDICATORS OF HOW YOU WILL KNOW WHEN YOU HAVE ARRIVED. (Mission Statement Plus Success Criteria)

It is vital to state, precisely, measurable, and rigorously, where you are headed and how to tell when you have arrived.[xi]  Statements of objectives must be in performance terms so that one can plan how best to get there, how to measure progress toward the end, and how to note progress toward it.[xii]

Objectives, at all levels of planning, activity, and results, are absolutely vital. And everything is measurable, so don’t kid yourself into thinking you can dismiss important results as being “intangible” or “non-measurable.”  It is only sensible and rationale to make a commitment to measurable purposes and destinations. Increasingly organizations throughout the world are increasingly focusing on Mega-level results.[xiii]

Critical Success Factor 5: DEFINE “NEED” AS A GAP BETWEEN CURRENT AND DESIRED RESULTS (Not as Insufficient Levels of Resources, Means, or Methods)

Conventional English-language usage would have us employ the common world “need” as a verb (or in a verb sense) . . .to identify means, methods, activities, and actions and/or resources we desire or intend to use.[xiv] Terms such as “need to,” “need for,” “needing,” and “needed” are common, conventional, and destructive to useful planning. What? 

As hard as it is to change our own behavior (and most of us who want others to change seem to resist it the most ourselves!) it is central to useful planning to distinguish between Ends and Means. We have already noted this as Critical Success Factor 2.  In order to do reasonable and justifiable planning we have to (1) focus on Ends and not Means, and thus (2) use “need” as a noun.  Need, for the sake of useful and successful planning is only used as a noun, as a gap between current and desired results.

If we use need as a noun, we will be able to not only justify useful objectives but we will also be able to justify what we do and deliver on the basis of costs-consequences analysis. We will be able to justify everything we use, do, produce, and deliver. It is the only sensible way we can demonstrate value added. 

Critical Success Factor 6: USE AN IDEAL VISION AS THE UNDERLYING BASIS FOR ALL PLANNING AND DOING (Don’t Be Limited to Your Own Organization)

Here is another area that requires some change from the conventional ways of doing planning.

An Ideal Vision is never prepared for an organization, but rather identifies the kind of world we want to help create for tomorrow's child. From this societal-linked Ideal Vision, each organization can identify what part or parts of the Ideal Vision we commit to deliver and move ever-closer toward.  If we base all planning and doing on an Ideal Vision of the kind of society we want for future generation, we can achieve “strategic alignment” for what we use, do, produce, deliver, and the external payoffs for our Outputs.

            So?  Mega thinking and planning is about defining a shared success, achieving it, and being able to prove it. Mega thinking and planning is a focus not on one’s organization alone but upon society now and in the future. It is about adding measurable value to all stakeholders.

            Mega thinking and planning has been offered for many years, perhaps first formally with Kaufman’s 1972 Educational System Planning and further developed in Kaufman & English, 1979, and continuing through 2005. In one form another, using a societal frame for planning and doing has shown up in the works of respected thinkers, including Senge (1990) and more recently Prahalad (2005). For some reason, there continues to be some resistance to Mega thinking and planning; a resistance that seems to be increasingly evaporating as witnessed by the articles in this Special Issue of PIQ and indeed other professional contributions around the world. I that there continues this migration from individual performance as the preferred unit of analysis for performance improvement to one that includes a first consideration of society and external stakeholders; It is responsible, responsive, and ethical to add value to all.

Some Basic References

Barker, J. A.  (2001). The New Business of Paradigms (Classic ed.).  St. Paul, MN: Star Thrower Distribution.  Videocassette.

Brethower, D. M. (2005: Feb.). Yes We Can: A Rejoinder to Don Winiecki’s Rejoinder About Saving the World with HPT. Performance Improvement. Vol. 44, No. 2. Pp. 19-24.

Clark, R. E. & Estes, F. (2002). Turning Research Into Results: A Guide to Selecting the Right Performance Solutions. Atlanta, GA. CEP Press.

Kaufman, R. A.  (1972). Educational system planning.  Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. (Also Planificacion de systemas educativos [translation of Educational system planning].  Mexico City: Editorial Trillas, S.A., 1973).

Kaufman, R., & English, F. W.  (1979). Needs assessment: Concept and appli­cation.  Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Educational Technology Publications.

Kaufman, R. (2002/May June).  What Trainers and Performance Improvement Specialists Can Learn from Tragedy: Lessons from September 11, 2001. Educational Technology.

Kaufman, R. and Forbes, R. (2002).  Does Your Organization Contribute to

 Society? 2002 Team and Organization Development Sourcebook;

           McGraw-Hill NY, 213-224.

Kaufman, R. & Lick, D. (Winter 2000 – 2001).  Change Creation and Change Management: Partners in Human Performance Improvement. Performance in Practice, 8-9.

Kaufman, R, & Unger, Z. (2003: Aug.) Evaluation Plus: Beyond Conventional Evaluation. Performance Improvement, Vol. 42, No. 7, Pp. 5-8.

Kaufman, R.  (1998).Strategic Thinking: A Guide to Identifying and Solving Problems. Revised. Washington, DC & Arlington, VA: The International Society for Performance Improvement and the American Society for Training & Development. (Recipient of the 2001 International Society for Performance Improvement “Outstanding Instructional Communication Award.”)  Also, Spanish edition, El Pensamiento Estrategico. Centro De Estudios: Roman Areces, S.A., Madrid, Spain. 

 Kaufman, R. (2000). Mega Planning: Practical Tools for Organizational Success. Thousand Oaks, CA. Sage Publications.

Kaufman, R. (2004: Oct.). Mega as the Basis for Useful Planning and Thinking

           Performance Improvement (2004: Oct.)  Vol. 43, number 9. Pp. 35-39.

Kaufman, R. (May-June, 2005). Choosing Success: The Rationale for Thinking, Planning, and Doing Mega. Educational Technology, Vol. 45, No. 2, Pp. 59-61.

Kaufman, R., Watkins, R., & Leigh, D. (2001). Useful Educational Results: Defining, Prioritizing, and Accomplishing. Lancaster, PA., Proactive Publishers.

Kaufman, R, Oakley-Browne, H., Watkins, R., & Leigh, D. (2003).

           Practical Strategic Planning: Aligning People, Performance, and Payoffs.

           San Francisco, Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer.

Kaufman, R., Guerra, I., and Platt, W. A. (2006) Practical Evaluation for Educators: Finding what Works and What Doesn’t. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press/Sage.

Lagace, M. (2005: Jan.) How to Put Meaning Back into Leading. Working Knowledge. Harvard School of Business, Cambridge, Mass.

Peters, T. J. and R. H. Waterman, Jr. (1982).  In Search of Excellence:  Lessons Learned from America's Best Run Companies.  New York: Harper & Row.

Prahalad C. K. (2005). The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits. Upper Saddle River, NJ. Wharton School Publishing/Pearson Education, Inc.

Senge, P. M. (1990).  The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization.  New York: Doubleday-Currency.

Schneider, E.W. (2003) Applying Human Performance Technology while staying out of trouble. Performance Improvement review, ISPI. April 2003.