Operations – The Basics

Different organisations carry out different work activities, but the basics of organising this work are the same.

Here is what you need to do …

Make a List

First you need to know what work you need to do.

Make a list of all of the work activities that your organisation must carry out.

• Scope out each activity – try to keep it self-contained.
• Is it ongoing / time limited / periodic?
• Who is responsible for it? – someone needs to be – and it’s better if it’s just one person rather than many.

Make sure the list covers everything you do.

• Keep the list live – whenever you come across a new work activity, find it a home, or create a new home for it.
• Make one person responsible for the list, or if it’s long, split it and assign clear responsibilities for each part.

Have a Plan

Have plans to carry out every work activity on the list.

Those responsible for the work activity should own – build and update – the respective plan.

Plans may be project plans for time limited activities, but they can take many other forms:

• Rolling task lists for ongoing activities.
• Monthly / quarterly / annual calendars for periodic activities.
• Ad hoc to do lists.

Plans are never cast in stone – they are just your current best guess – so accept that they will change and keep updating them.

Resource the Plans

Plans can only become reality if sufficient resources are in place to carry out the planned work.

Ask the plan owners to figure out what resources – people and kit – they need to execute their plans within the timeframe they state.

• Make sure they are honest – realistic timeframes for realistic resources.
• Accept that just like the plans themselves, resource plans will change and need to be kept up to date.

Manage Your Resources

Make another list – this time listing all of the resources you have – people and kit – to carry out work.

• List resources that are under your control – both internal and external – both full time and part time (shared resources).

Allocate your resources against the resource plans for each and every work activity.

• Use a calendar – since allocations will change with time.
• Allocate just less than 100% of the resources you control – so that you leave some slack for those plan changes.
• Never over allocate any resource.

It’s this allocation of resources to work activities that ultimately defines the rate of work progress within your organisation.

• Plans can only progress at the rate their resources allow.
• Resources are finite and can only properly resource a limited number of plans.

Until you’ve put in place all the steps listed here, you will never really know the rate at which your organisation can carry out work.

And if you’re not happy with that rate of work progress then you need more resources!

Points to take away …

• Make a list of all of the work activities that your organisation must carry out.
• Have a plan to carry out every one of these work activities.
• Figure out how much resource each plan will need to keep to the planned timeframe.
• Count all of your resources and allocate them over time to each and every work plan.