By Chris Foley
Have you ever thought much about freeway metering lights or the role of air traffic controllers? They both sprang out of a similar need; the need to make efficient and effective use of limited resources. They have the same simple but very important strategic goals: to reduce accidents and fatalities and to improve the predictability and duration of travel.
Take the case of metering lights. We all know the effects of too many cars trying to jam onto a congested freeway. Left on their own drivers behave quite differently; some aggressively plow ahead while others passively sit back. Merging does not go smoothly, freeway flow is interrupted or moves slower than necessary, and there are more accidents and incidents of road rage. Now let's consider air traffic and airport gate controllers. They work in cooperation to ensure airport safety and on-time departures and arrivals. Like erratic drivers, air travelers are motivated by their own needs. Given the option they would each choose to depart and arrive at a date and time to suit their own convenience. Yet we can all agree it's both impossible and unsafe for too many planes to take off at one time or to accommodate the whims of each passenger.
There are obvious constraints with air travel such as the number of runways, limited gate capacity and a finite number of planes. We understand that leaving our gate early or as soon as the door closes doesn't get us to our destination any sooner if we can't land or disembark at a gate once we get there. Spending time taxiing on runways wastes gas and can cause a delays to refuel. Likewise spending too much time in the air wastes gas, leads to over-crowded air space and risks passenger safety when circling an airport to land. When life or death is at stake we accept and even value planning and schedules.
Managing Resource Constraints
Portfolio Management without strategic goals, governance and an understanding of resource capacity, is like modern air travel without air traffic controllers. It fosters a first to the trough mentality. Every sponsor rushes to be first and too many projects take off at once. Resources become distracted and overloaded, their effectiveness is diluted; consequently progress moves much slower, budget run rates increase, windows of opportunity close, scopes creep or are drastically cut, many projects eventually crash and burn. Significant business benefits are delayed and diminished; others are never realized while non-strategic low value projects waste fuel.
Working Harder Isn't The Answer
Working harder, starting too many concurrent projects and reacting to operational problems with point solutions won't help you improve performance or stay competitive. The power of strategic focus is that it provides criteria for decision making and creates a sense of urgency about what is most important. Successful companies know when strategic goals exist and priorities are clear it becomes extremely easy to select, sequence and keep resources focused on projects that will most directly and significantly impact achieving company goals.
When you focus on what matters, such as customer requirements and solving high impact root cause problems, rather than attacking symptoms, you can dramatically improve your results.
Chris Foley is CEO/Consultant of SMART Outcome, LLC a Business Process and Six Sigma consultancy focused on helping clients improve their bottom-line results through strategic goal setting, balanced scorecards, portfolio management and the "Magic of Metrics". http://www.smartoutcome.com/
Learn more about Key Performance Indicators by browsing the Enterprise Performance Management Review KPI Library http://www.epmreview.com/KPI-Library.html
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