Month: July 2022

The RAPID FRAMEWORK® tool is referred to as the helpful tool of decision making that helps a nonprofit spell out roles to enhance its organizational decision process.

Indeed, the decision-making is becoming slower, harder, and messier with time in all nonprofits larger than a conference room. The confusions arise such as why wasn’t involved in the decision? Who made that decision? Was it decided? Almost all the people who spent some time working in a company can provide examples of when the decision-making process went frustrating and when it was unclear.

Well, the wisdom is not guaranteed through a decision-making process, but it allows to set you up for success by responding to critical questions that are revolving in everyone’s mind:

• What matter are we deciding? Is it single, multiple, or smaller decisions?
• Who should be in the team of decision making and what role should be played by whom?
• How the decision would be made? What criteria and process will be used to get help among different options and how will the decision be communicated and followed through?
• When is the decision required to be made?

The main focus of this article is to address all these questions: Who should be in the team of decision making and what role should be played by whom? The tool of decision making is RAPID FRAMEWORK, established by Bain & Company and used by the arsenal of nonprofits to make important decisions including The Bridgespan Group.

RAPID FRAMEWORK is a way to allocate characters in the entire decision process. It facilitates clarifying who offers input to a decision, who makes the decision and ultimately decides regarding it, and who keeps out the decision after being made. In the last years, we have facilitated ranks of nonprofits and NGOs known regarding RAPID FRAMEWORK and utilize it in their companies. We have got to know it to be greatly effective and also simple adaptable to dissimilar circumstances, types of companies, and team sizes. It is used to make decisions more inclusive at their best.

A couple of vital notices. RAPID FRAMEWORK is an acronym that is associated with the easy way to think regarding five significant roles in most of the decision processes that are abbreviated as Recommend, Agree, and Perform, provide Input, and Decide. But this acronym is not specified in an appropriate adoration in which it should be done. The name depicts that the RAPID framework means speed is paramount but these terms intend to help companies make decisions and clarity and responsibility at the proper speed, not as important as the RAPID framework as it can.

The Roles in RAPID FRAMEWORK

Recommend: The person who is accountable for R, the Recommender, operates the decision process, combining rational input and establishing a formal suggestion for whoever has the D. It is the role with loads of influence and recognizing someone the R makes room for another important choice to make the decision. The recommender should have wider access to authentic information and trustability with those who have the D and the D. Frequently, we see that this is where loads of the work to create a decision takes place. The recommender may be an individual or an activity force. Again with having a clear understanding regarding how to address disagreement in its ratings.

Agree: The A abbreviated as Agree while is only executed for some decisions, the person with this role must admit with the final recommendation. Consider the CFO who shares with you how much the budget enables you to spend, the lawyer who outlines the legal boundaries of a contract, or the engineer who specifies the needed structural enhancements to a building. To have the meaning of A, helps the recommender get to the viable suggestion, not to strengthen the decision after being made. A is a special role that should be considered sparingly and bound to the individual’s role and skills.

Perform: this is the team or person that will take out the decision once it is made. Many of us have seen decisions where those activities with carrying to it live were not sufficiently consulted in advance and the sad effect that can flow from that error. So it’s normally a good idea to recognize who has the P initiated in the process, where possible. By also allocating them and me, they can facilitate upfront planning and make sure that execution problems are factored into the suggestion. When a person or team occurs, they are also more likely to buy into the decision that is ultimately made.

In many processes that include some teams or less complicated decisions, the same person may have different roles. For instance, a program manager may not only have the R but also be accountable for carrying the decision to live (i.e., they have the P). Or D can be held by the associate direction that can act unilaterally, when the same person has the D and R it’s mainly significant to establish a suggestion that factors in and weights important inputs.

Input: The I role is abbreviated as Input and it refers to the people who offer information and advice to the recommender. Frequently, various people have the I that includes those who have vital expertise and knowledge or maybe importantly influenced by the decision. The concept is to ensure that the recommender has a complete view of the decision and its implication before making the suggestion. Input can also appear from beyond the company itself from partners, outside experts, or constituents. When the input is forthright and candid, it involves thoughtful perspectives and important information and may not always be persistent. As a result, the recommender will find out how to write conflicting opinions. When personally well, the input can be an important part of making effective decisions and inclusive decision processes. Therefore, when input is poorly combined or insufficiently considered, it can feel like it is primarily for a show like they don’t want to be aware of what you think.

Decide: This role refers to the person who is responsible for the decision-making and commits to the company to action. Ideally, whoever possesses the D has a great understanding of the trade-off related to the decision and sits near to where the decision will be executed as possible. If the D is bought by a group, the group should clarify the ways of exercise that should be done by the decision authority. In companies that usually use RAPID FRAMEWORK, you will frequently hear someone asking you who has the D. but do not think that it is the only important aspect of the process as every role is important for its special traits.

The Benefits of Using RAPID FRAMEWORK

RAPID FRAMEWORK is mainly used to provide clarity for managers, leaders, and staff regarding who is responsible for the decision, which is possessing which role, and who is involved. It facilitates the shared understanding among the company of how multiple types of decisions are made. Various organizations choose RAPID FRAMEWORK for their decision making train their whole staff in how it operates and make it part of the onboarding process for new workers. This, in return, makes a shared vocabulary across the company that can assist teams in technique decision rules using similar language and tools.

Companies that adopt RAPID FRAMEWORK usually focus on their most significant decision; those that are on daily basis and others that are of strategic significance. RAPID FRAMEWORK can create some repeated decisions efficiently, recruiting a case manager, inserting aspects to a curriculum or program, and enabling budget decisions by allowing explicit repeatable roles team members play. RAPID FRAMEWORK is also strengthened for vital one-time decisions, thus prime moments will shape the future of the company. Those decisions may call for more influence on involving the appropriate stakeholders in the right characters.

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The global pandemic Covid-19 that struck the world in 2020 has changed the working style of people. It made remote work popular and more common among people all across the world. We can see a shift of professionals and organizations towards this type of work known as remote work. Organizations all across the world are adopting and preferring these criteria of work.

Remote work was known before, but after the pandemic, it became more popular and people got more aware of it. Flexjobs and Global Workforce Analytics conducted a study and found out that about 4.7 million people in the US are remote workers. The number of remote workers is increasing day by day.

So if you are here to read this article, then it means that probably you are aiming to do remote work. You are planning to be a remote worker maybe as a part-timer or full-timer.

So before you make a decision, this article would help you by highlighting the pros and cons of remote work. And you should know this if you want to work as a remote worker.

As mentioned before you can work as a part-timer or even you can work as a full-timer.

But first, let’s discuss whether it is practical to be a Full-Time Remote Worker.

Yes, it is practical to do remote work as a full-time job. It is a very good way as it saves the commuting and transport expenses. It is a very great way to fulfill all your work-related tasks at your desirable place.

But one thing to note is that remote work has a quite flexible nature and it may not suit every person or every profession. Remote workers need to be flexible and have to adjust themselves according to the nature of their work.

So before making a final decision, it is better to look at all the possible pros and cons of remote work.

Every work arrangement has some advantages and disadvantages. So remote work is also having some remote work pros and cons. People who are new to this arrangement of work and are willing to adopt this criterion of remote working should consider the following pros and cons.

Pros:

1. Higher Productivity

Many types of research have revealed that people working from home or doing remote work are more productive as compared to the ones working in offices. Many reasons reveal why remote workers have high productivity.

One of the reasons can be a lesser distraction offered to remote workers because when you are working remotely, your colleague is not going to come up to your desk for discussing trivial or personal matters or have discussions about something in which you have no interest.

Another reason why remote workers have productivity is due to the timings of work. Remote workers are not bound to the limit of 9-5 office hours; they can also work outside these timings. This allows the remote workers to work at different hours when they are more productive. Employers also allow this flexible work behavior if the employees are accomplishing the tasks and meeting the deadlines on time.

2. Better Work-Life Balance

Another advantage of remote working is that it provides a better work-life balance. If you are working remotely then there is a high chance that you can have more time with your family. There is the reason why you can do this and how you can do this.

If you are working remotely, then you don’t have to waste your time commuting when you get off work. It saves your time and you can spend that time you have with your family. It is revealed that remote workers get to spend more time with their families so they are more satisfied and contented with their job as their job is allowing them to maintain a work-life balance.

From a broader perspective, this is also desirable for organizations because if the employees are happy and satisfied with their job then the employee turnover rate decreases.

3. Healthier Lifestyle

It is quite difficult to maintain a healthy lifestyle for an office worker. Many office workers complain that due to their tight and busy work schedules, they are not able to focus on their health and are not able to have a healthy lifestyle.

Office workers claim that due to their busy schedules and hustle they are not able to have healthy meals in afternoons or evenings.

But remote workers on the other hand have ample time saved in their hands. Because when you are working from your home, then you don’t have to get ready for the office or invest your time in transportation. You can use this time to maintain a healthier lifestyle. You can use this time for doing exercises and cooking yourself healthy meals.

4. More Savings And Lesser Carbon Footprint

Another benefit that remote workers get is more savings as compared to their fellow office workers. Remote workers get to save more money and reduce their carbon footprints. There are many reasons why remote workers can save more money.

Like if you are working remotely then you don’t have to pay for transportation bills, you don’t have to pay for parking tickets and you surely don’t need to eat lunch at fancy restaurants like your fellow office workers. This saves you a lot of money at the end of the year.

Apart from these advantages, you also reduce your carbon footprint by working remotely as you don’t have to commute to the office for work. It saves your fuel and also helps you in saving the environment a bit as well. So it makes you a bit eco-friendly and productive for the environment.

Cons

Apart from the pros of remote working, we have some cons as well. The disadvantages or cons are mentioned below

1.    Communication Gaps

The most common disadvantage of working remotely is the lack of proper communication. Due to remote work pros and cons communication gaps arise among colleagues. In remote working, you cannot easily approach your coworker if you want to discuss anything or any matter. Sometimes you need to talk about some matters face to face.

But if you are a remote worker, then you has to depend on messages, calls, or video calls for communication. Why we are considering this as a disadvantage because many matters can be solved by face-to-face conversation which cannot be done by remote working. Video or conference calls are not as effective as face-to-face or real-time communications.

Remote working can sometimes affect teamwork or effective team collaboration. It sometimes affects the team members’ relationships and teamwork of the team as a whole.

2.    Difficult To Stay Motivated

One should know that during remote working you are on your own with very little supervision and no coworkers around. So in such a working arrangement, it is very difficult to be dedicated and motivated toward the tasks and targets.

This is regarded as the most adverse disadvantage and the biggest remote work pros and cons face. Because at home it is very difficult to have an atmosphere like the office. The most common drawback of remote workers is that they get easily demotivate as compared to the ones working from offices.

Remote workers develop the habit of procrastinating and a laid-back sort of attitude. This is bad for not only the employee but for the organization as a whole.

3.    Lack Of Social Interaction

Another disadvantage of working remotely is the lack of social interaction. When you work from home, you don’t interact with your employer, colleagues, or other people in the office.

This type of working organization will highly impact you if you are an outgoing or extrovert sort of a person. So if you are working alone from your home, it is more likely to be possible that you may feel lonely or alone.

So in such a situation, you may lose your interactive or communication skills. You may need to put extra effort into interacting with people or your coworkers. So this can be tiring and effort-taking for remote workers.

4.    Management Challenges

There are many challenges faced by remote work pros and cons such as management challenges. Working from home may sound interesting and fun but there are many problems that remote workers have to face working from home.

They have to do everything on their own with very little or no active supervision. They have to learn how to use various apps and technologies on their own. They have to keep the internet connections intact all the time.

Remote workers have to manage all the things on their own that’s why they can have management issues and related problems.

Productivity Tips for Working Remotely

This article also provides you with tips that can help you while working remotely:

1.    Have a Dedicated Workspace and Working Hours

Even if you are working from home it does not mean that you are free to do the work in whatever manner you like. You should have a proper workspace and a proper place where you can sit and do the offices work.

You must have dedicated working hours that are only for work. You should just work randomly its better to rather have a routine specified for work and dedicated working hours. If you cannot work from home you should try to get a place like a library or a coffee shop etc. In the end, all you need is a quiet place dedicated to work.

2.    Getting Rid of Distractions

When we look at remote work pros and cons, distractions are the biggest challenge remote workers have to go through. According to a survey conducted by Salary.com in 2006, about two hours in a day are wasted by the remote worker because of distractions which can lead to a productivity loss of about $544 billion for a company in a year.

You should tell your family and kids that you are working so they do not disturb you while you are working. Remote workers have to face a lot of distractions as they are working from their homes with their families and kids.

So first you need to identify the areas where you are wasting your time. By identifying this you will be able to work on those areas and loopholes. For this, you can use the time tackling app and tools for better time management. It will be good if you schedule your tasks and make a proper routine for yourself.

So you should keep the distractions as few as possible and avoiding them and focusing on your work is your primary motive. You should make your place of work a place with lesser distraction and better focus.

3.    Tackle the Small Stuff Later

When you are working from home you may face many distractions and sometimes the temptations are so strong that it is very difficult to resist them.

So even if there is something very urgent you should try to tackle it afterward when you are finished with your tasks. So try to keep focused and delay the unrelated things as much as you can.

You should understand the fact that your work is more important compared to the little distractions and small stuff. Even if you are working from your home it does not mean that you can do injustice with your work. You must be rightful and just towards your work and you must work with full motivation and dedication.

Final Thoughts: Everything You Need to Know Before Working Remotely

As mentioned before every work arrangement has some advantages and disadvantages, So remote work pros and cons. There is a need to look over all the aspects properly. Some advantages are very desirable for people who intend to opt for remote work. And there are challenges as well that remote workers have to face while working remotely.

Want to read more: Exhausted From Work? 9 Ways To Re-Establish Your Work-Life Balance

 

 

This article is all about organizational optimization and design. It begins with the introduction to the discipline’s basic principles, followed by the discovery of the various concepts and themes that Alan Mulally so proficiently used in his rotation of Ford’s fortunes. Let’s dive into the main subject before more delay:

What Is Organizational Optimization?

Organizational optimization can be explained as the influencing and alignment of a company’s resources to observe its stated objectives/goals. Organizational optimization is present at the intersection of greater effectiveness, efficiency and high utilization of all rational and then presently accessible resources at a company’s disposal.

Why Should Organizations Have Trouble With Organizational Optimization?

They are keeping forward in the instantly changing globe. At first, organizations at this moment work in dynamic environments followed by periods of high instability, quickly evolving technology and globalization. Such factors are made even more difficult to handle by a discriminating yet inconsistent global consumer class whose preferences or tastes appear to change over time. Where efficiently exploited though, Organizational Optimization has established itself as a trustworthy driver of short-term and long-term objectives, which organizations may influence to stay ahead of their respective market forces.

The entrance of the future of work. Second, significant organizational structures are changing. Particularly, continuous workplace changes are showing the latest challenges to leaders who must now also be content with motivating and managing geographically distributed employees. Such advanced structures include a greater incidence of remote work both group and individual, higher use of part-time work by companies and an enhancing dependence on temporary and contract worker models. Handling such dispersed groups at utmost cost and performance efficiency is and will consistently be challenging and will need a structured and purposeful reorganization of organizational design.

Attaining strategic advantage. Forthcoming the corporate problem from a diverse perspective, non-accelerated companies playing in arenas based on relatively accelerated competitors risk becoming less competitive and therefore more vulnerable. By speeding up one’s organization, recruiting and organizing the appropriate skill sets and aligning objectives across one’s organization, one’s business will be better positioned to react to unpredicted changes in the marketplace and will be enhanced, able to drive towards corporate preferences instantly and more efficiently.

Acquisitive growth approaches have long been the tradition. Mergers and acquisition, as the consequence of organic growth, is at this moment, the foundation of the global corporate material. And taking the post-merger organizational structure right, aligning human resources, cultures, and workflows is frequently the prime to unlock the forecasted synergies, and value possible of the business mixture.

According to a Harvard Business Review article that transformation leans greatly on research by McKinsey & Co, around 16% of mergers provide soft and hard objectives on schedule. Additionally, 41% take more time than predicted, and only in cases of 10%, the latest organization is value dilutive instead of accretive. Here too, conscious techniques around organizational optimization provide the experienced and trustworthy roadmap for increased success.

The Organizational Optimization

According to practitioners and theorists, organizational optimization needs to focus on four key areas that have been discussed as elements;

(1) Process redesign

(2) Structured workforce development

(3) Improved role clarity

(4) Transparent goal setting

Every aspect can and is frequently implemented in isolation; therefore, the four work enormously better in the shape of the independent collective, making a completely congruent system that can drive utmost performance. A more excessive understanding of each is as mentioned:

 Process Redesign

The initial aspect of organizational optimization includes redefining and restructuring presenting workflows to yield a more efficient and effective company. This is more completed by asking the mentioned question, for each basic process and task used by the organization: at what aspects does this redesign process assist our customer? After answering the question sole-mindedly and repeatedly remove tasks where the answer can be negative or opaque. One very instantly removes non-mission important tasks that suck up precious time and resources.

More towards the subject, this process should be executed methodologically in the mentioned operating areas within the company:

(1) Costs

(2) product/service quality

(3) Process efficiency

(4) speed of deliverance or execution.

Workforce Development

Workforce development is considered the most difficult element of the four main areas, even though the most basic to the entire organizational optimization. Workforce development looks to match the appropriate skills to the correct strategic priority and looks to do so at the ideal cost. workers without having the proper skills or whose skills are out of alignment with the company priorities will both need to be retrained or will have to evolve personally as value-adding members of the risk separation or restructured company.

According to my perspective, the trustworthy set of particular steps to go regarding workforce development is as mentioned: firstly, start with the competency assessment such as the tool for recognizing unique or appropriate skills and attitudes to operate an organization, team or unit towards the main objectives. Such behaviours and skills should be evaluated in contrast to the backdrop of both the substitutable capabilities and availability of complementary across the company as well as the personnel’s needs.

It is at the core that the plan to enhance employee capabilities may then be established and executed for amazing in-class outcomes, highest cost-effectiveness and accelerated retention. Once established and widely executed, the competency evaluation process should be a consistent tool utilized regularly to establish and operate success behaviours and desired results across the company.

Role Clarity

As the name depicts, Role clarity is optimized when initially, every employee is clear regarding the priorities of the company, secondly in his unit’s role in attaining it, and thirdly regarding the tests and implementation accountabilities thereto. This involves the appropriate understanding of outputs, expectations, success metrics, timelines and behaviours. Via role clarity, companies normally experience material enhancements in separate and gathered effectiveness and as the secondary advantages are perked up can be measured and rewarded for performance.

Role clarity can be achieved by implementing the following tools:

• Explaining and communicating role responsibilities, description and skill evaluation parameters
• Developing the rules of responsibility via clear communication and documentation of what comprises success
• Making clear goals for every person or group in line with the grander corporate goals and with particular timelines in place and consistent practice, and communication of these three elements of enforcement

Goal Setting

The last but not least prime focus area is setting clear, simple and achievable objectives and aligning each person and unit accordingly. In completing this, designating visual roadmaps have been found that show how the role of each employee, despite the title and level, will sustain the achievement of the objectives or organization has no equal. In the same and improved role clarity, this roadmap was also twice as useful as motivational tools were executed in an ideal way.

Although the already discussed goal alignment can be attained via what the sector is associated with as the goal cascade. Goal cascade refers to the accomplishment by setting the greatest level of corporate objectives first and then working down the company structure so that the departments, divisions, teams and most importantly individuals and their objects are set sole-mindedly.

There are various benefits or Goal cascade in terms of organizational optimization:

• Making sure that all workers are going in a similar direction and their efforts are concentrated on the tasks that the corporate leaders have got the most significant
• Development of cross-team alignment and teamwork provided every employee across groups at each level is widely going towards the same priorities

Without question, top-down objective cascades make the important corporate infrastructure to make sure that all the strategic priorities are fulfilled. Therefore, it is significant that companies do work hard not to become too inflexible and rather enable some leniency where particular employees look to pursue their aims indirectly or instantly accretive to the management level above.

The Role Of Organization Optimization Model Structure

Simply, the organization structure figures out the responsibility and authority within the company. Where structures are not organized in support of execution strategy for organizational optimization, possibilities of success reduce materially. This is also true that regular operations are linked and most vital when an organization is trying to transform from one culture and set of incentives, behaviours, and evaluation designs to another.

Construction Of A Sustainable Optimization Program

The initial rule to establishing an organizational optimization program is that one should not consider it a single-time, short-term solution to what is likely in-depth structural challenges. While the greater advantages can be observed from the sole organizational optimization effort, the actual gains compound in the long term when the appropriate habits become part of the organization’s DNA. Therefore, establishing a culture that enforces embraces and self-propagates continuous optimization is basic to consistent effectiveness.

According to my perspective, establishing a culture of optimization and efficiency can be attained by following the mentioned steps. First and foremost, solicit buying across your company, for example from the higher-level employee to most junior resources, but specifically amongst your corporate influencer. Next, make develop and communicate the latest behavioral needs for the business to successfully transition cultures. After that, strictly incentivize such attitudes across the company. Fourth and lastly, this is the most adept and ambitious amongst you make the short to medium term problems to family engagement at all stages. And then, ongoing to enforce the practice of this latest culture and habits till said habits become the element of the company.

The mentioning are the prime elements important to organizational optimization success culture:

Unlock and translucent Knowledge Sharing: keep in mind that openness is the reason to establish trust and enhance understanding and collaboration across workers.

Association and Teamwork: Nearly associated with knowledge sharing, teamwork speeds up the effectiveness and therefore results across an unchanged resources base.

Top-to-Bottom Cost and Resource Mindfulness: continuously looking for cost improvements enhances the organization profile margin, in transformation making more financial resources for more reinvestment into further human resources, infrastructure and culture shifts to get outcomes.

Honesty and tendency to Change: normally the hardest to achieve, the culture that influences the change at both collective and individual level is very crucial to the grander culture of optimization.

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