Manage performance through collaboration

Good performance comes from focusing on measurable outcomes. Contrary to popular opinion, conforming to, or complying with, regulations and other standards is not 'performance'. They are just some of the ways that good performance is achieved. You only improve performance when people:

• Are clear about their goals and priorities
• Are encouraged and allowed to reflect on resources, inputs, tasks, outputs and constraint
• Can apply their knowledge to change the way tasks are done
• Are able to interact with their process 'suppliers' and 'customers' and change the way that process handovers are managed
• Have good information to enable them to assess their results

To achieve good performance (in complex processes inside and between organisations) is challenging, because of inter-dependencies, feedback loops and differences in goals. Success depends on effective working relationships in complex networks, both formal and informal.

People from different organisations often work together on cross-functional processes to achieve shared goals. But this just increases the level of complexity. To understand this complexity we need a rich picture of how processes actually work.

If collaboration is deemed strategic we recommend BS11000 as a guiding framework. By working with informal networks, Key Performance stimulates vastly increased collaboration. This results in the achievement of the original goals, as well as greater innovation.

To understand how collaboration can help your business, please have a browse through the diagrams below.

The challenges of collaborative business relationships

• Lack of stakeholder commitment / management support
• Lack of strategic direction
• Poor up-front planning / partner evaluation
• Cultural mismatch
• Lack of shared goals / success criteria
• Poorly defined measurement (often too many)
• Lack of benefit / risk sharing
• Hidden agendas
• Poor communication
• Ineffective blockage resolution mechanisms