AWWA JTMGT61342

Many visionary managers and executives realize that a performance based culture can bring innovation and continued improvement to their organization. Therefore, huge initiatives are often presented throughout the organization to achieve that end. Unfortunately, many organizations are setting themselves up for failure by not focusing on several integral aspects of a performance based culture. Successful managers who instill such a culture realize that delegation of time and resources to the following initiatives is not sufficient, they take personal ownership of them as well. The initiatives include: Executive Ownership - through the Chief Performance Officer, or a similar executive taking personal ownership, employees realize that a culture focusing on continuous performance improvement and operational efficiency, are the norm and buy-in at all organizational levels. In addition, the executive officer can ensure that from the top-to-bottom levels of the organization, all strategic goals align. Engaged Professionals - a performance based culture is built upon the backbone of engaged professionals and managers. Professionals are the evaluators of information, (i.e., dashboards only tell what is happening and cannot interpret the results or take into account additional circumstances) and they determine what must be done to improve performance and how quickly it must be acted upon. Basically, professionals are the only element of a performance program that can actually take corrective action. Process that Works for Your Organization - a performance program will not replace an existing business process, but it can seek to influence and redirect those processes because they can be continuously improved upon. Process refinement is a natural outcome of a performance program, but it is not the goal. Appropriate Technology - to truly provide meaningful information at your fingertips, a performance management tool requires data in a timely manner and in a form conducive to rapid analysis. This involves both the adoption of the dashboard tool and the integration of source data systems. Through adoption of these elements and the holistic incorporation into the daily management of the organization, today's utility executive will have the information necessary for improved decision support at their fingertips. Includes figures.