Improving Performance: How to Manage the White Space on the Organization Chart

Book description

Streamline the processes vital to optimum performance

With over 100,000 copies sold worldwide, Improving Performance is recognized as the book that launched the Process Improvement revolution. It was the first such approach to bridge the gap between organization strategy and the individual. Now, in this revised and expanded new edition, Rummler and Brache reflect on the key needs of organizations faced with today's challenge of managing change. With multiple charts, checklists, hands-on tools and case studies, the authors show how they implemented their Performance Improvement methodology in over 250 successful projects with clients such as Hewlett-Packard, 3M, Shell Oil, and Citibank.

Table of contents

  1. Copyright
  2. PREFACE
  3. THE AUTHORS
  4. INTRODUCTION: THE CHALLENGES FACING AMERICAN BUSINESS
  5. A FRAMEWORK FOR IMPROVING PERFORMANCE
    1. VIEWING ORGANIZATIONS AS SYSTEMS
      1. The Traditional (Vertical) View of an Organization
      2. The Systems (Horizontal) View of an Organization
      3. The Organization as an Adaptive System
      4. The Reality of Adaptation
    2. THREE LEVELS OF PERFORMANCE: ORGANIZATION, PROCESS, AND JOB/PERFORMER
      1. I: The Organization Level
      2. II: The Process Level
      3. III: The Job/Performer Level
      4. The Nine Performance Variables
      5. Organization Level
      6. Process Level
      7. Job/Performer Level
      8. A Holistic View of Performance
      9. Using the Three Levels Framework
  6. EXPLORING THE THREE LEVELS OF PERFORMANCE
    1. THE ORGANIZATION LEVEL OF PERFORMANCE
      1. Exploring the Organization Level
      2. Understanding and Managing the Organization Level
      3. The Performance Variables at the Organization Level
      4. Summary
    2. THE PROCESS LEVEL OF PERFORMANCE
      1. What Is a Process?
      2. Understanding and Managing the Organization Level
      3. Why Look at Processes?
      4. The Performance Variables at the Process Level
      5. Summary
    3. THE JOB/PERFORMER LEVEL OF PERFORMANCE
      1. What Is the Job/Performer Level?
      2. Taking Action at the Job/Performer Level
      3. The Performance Variables at the Job/Performer Level
      4. Summary
  7. APPLYING THE THREE LEVELS OF PERFORMANCE
    1. LINKING PERFORMANCE TO STRATEGY
      1. What Is Strategy?
      2. Why Do Strategies Fail?
      3. The Three Levels of Strategy Implementation
      4. Linking Performance to Strategy: An Example
      5. Summary
    2. MOVING FROM ANNUAL PROGRAMS TO SUSTAINED PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT
      1. Four Examples of Flawed Performance Improvement Efforts
      2. Organizationwide Performance Improvement
      3. Two Case Studies
      4. Summary
    3. DIAGNOSING AND IMPROVING PERFORMANCE
      1. The Three Levels Approach to Performance Diagnosis and Improvement
      2. A Situation Requiring Diagnosis
      3. Project Definition and Plan
      4. Organization Improvement
      5. Process Improvement
      6. Job Improvement
      7. Implementation
      8. Summary
    4. REDESIGNING PROCESSES
      1. Phase Ø: Performance Improvement Planning
      2. Phase 1: Project Definition
      3. Phase 2: Process Analysis and Design
      4. Phase 3: Implementation
      5. Time
      6. Examples of Process Improvement Projects
      7. A Word on "Reengineering"
      8. Phase 4: Process Management
      9. Summary
    5. OVERCOMING THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS OF PROCESS IMPROVEMENT
      1. Sin 1: Process Improvement is not tied to the strategic issues the business faces.
      2. Sin 2: The Process Improvement effort does not involve the right people, especially top management, in the right way.
      3. Sin 3: Process Improvement Teams are not given a clear, appropriate charter and are not held accountable for fulfilling that charter.
      4. Sin 4: The top management team thinks that if it's not "nuking" the existing organization ("reengineering"), it's not making significant improvements.
      5. Sin 5: Process designers don't sufficiently consider how the changes will affect the people who have to work in the new process.
      6. Sin 6: The organization focuses more on redesign than on implementation.
    6. MEASURING PERFORMANCE AND DESIGNING A PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
      1. Why Measure?
      2. Requirements for Effective Management of the Organization System
      3. Performance Logic
      4. Summary
    7. MANAGING PROCESSES AND ORGANIZATIONS AS SYSTEMS
      1. Process Management
      2. Institutionalizing Process Management
      3. Managing the Vertical and Horizontal Organizations
      4. The Role of Top Management
      5. Process Improvement and Management and the Three Levels of Performance
      6. Managing an Organization as a System
      7. Evaluating the System
      8. The Systems Management Processes
      9. The Systems Management Culture
      10. Summary
    8. DESIGNING AN ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE THAT WORKS
      1. Designing an Organization Structure
      2. Designing an Organization Structure That Works
      3. Summary
    9. CREATING A PERFORMANCE-BASED HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT FUNCTION
      1. Two Views of Performance Improvement
      2. Determining Training and Development Needs
      3. Designing Training
      4. Evaluating Training
      5. Designing and Managing the HRD Function
      6. Summary
    10. DEVELOPING AN ACTION PLAN FOR PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT
      1. Step 1: Organization Level
      2. Step 2: Process Level
      3. Step 3: Job/Performer Level
      4. Summary
  8. REFERENCES
  9. BIBLIOGRAPHY
    1. The Foundation
    2. Further Reading
    3. Organization Level
    4. Process Level

Product information

  • Title: Improving Performance: How to Manage the White Space on the Organization Chart
  • Author(s): Geary A. Rummler, Alan P. Brache
  • Release date: May 1995
  • Publisher(s): Jossey-Bass
  • ISBN: 9780787900908