Post by Glenn on Aug 5, 2008 2:02:08 GMT -5
www.umich.edu/~itdtq/2.5.Management.expec.html
Management Expectations
Purpose of Management Expectations:
The purpose of a written set of management expectations is to establish a picture of what management is in a total quality organization. Many people already practice some of these expectations. As an organization we need to change to and sustain a culture of continuous improvement. These expectations will help an organization make that change. Some managers may be further along in this change process. We all need to learn and to continue to improve as the environment changes.
Management Expectations is a set of statements that reflects what is expected or anticipated, not what exists today. Our document was written for managers: those people who have been designated within the management structure to have the responsibility and authority for changing the system.
It is important for managers to learn about and practice Total Quality Management, as well as encourage staff to learn about and practice TQM. Managers must behave in a manner consistent with TQM philosophies and values. They must also study these expectations and use them.
Principle based leadership tells us that change is easier when we know why we change, what we need to change, and how we do the change. Even when we know the answers to these uestions, there still must be a desire to change. Management Expectations talks about why you change and what you change.
The next step is to determine how you will make the change.
ITD's Management Expectations has four sections: Customer Satisfaction, Working Environment, Resource Management, and Quality Improvement. The items listed in each section are examples of what it means to manage that area well in a total quality organization. Our document should be viewed and discussed within the context of the purpose and values of ITD. It should be used as a model of the cultural change required of us as we move to a total quality organization and principle based leadership. It is not a set of rules or a checklist, but rather a set of examples, principles and ideas about what it means to manage and be a manager.
ezinearticles.com/?Change-Management-and-Expectations&id=114517
When managing change, expectations are like communicating vessels between current insight and future risks. Negotiate well, knowing that every future has more risks than you can imagine. It is a matter of convincing the sponsor.
Management of expectations is an issue that is always around when dealing with change. Expectations are not present in operational business management, because there is no future or long term aspect “present”. So there is no expectation.
If you are involved in activities and plans that are prone to insecurities you are dealing with expectations.
It is the change “manager” or everybody dealing with change who needs to negotiate in such an environment.
This could be done by means of a plan. First of all, a plan could serve as a means of communication and represents more than a document. With a plan you can discuss about activities and their priorities. A planning is a means to negotiate. A project manager will have to inflate this planning with a risk premium. This is looks like pricing the activities higher because you do not know the real outcome (or maybe the future value). In this context you hear many times the saying: “Under-promise and Over-deliver”.
The more you are in the position of negotiating to the worse-case-scenario, the more you will be able to manage the expectations. You need to negotiate well, be serious, coming with sound reasons, but still negotiate and incorporate the risk premium. Experienced change managers or project managers, will apply this rule. When you are to takeover a project of someone else, make sure you have an intake where you add risks of extra insecurities you cannot oversee.
The downside of this is that if you are too extreme in negotiating the available space (money, time, quality) to manoeuvre, you might loose the project at all. In practice the external pressure will make it hard for you to negotiate. Yet where possible you should try it.
