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Becoming a Closed-Loop Organization Seeing the road Imagine driving a vehicle and not knowing what it is, its capabilities and the road it is on. Furthermore, imagine that when you turn the wheel, you receive no indication of what direction and by how much the vehicle actually changes course. This is precisely the challenge many managers face, especially in large distributed organizations. The communication process is the means by which a manager implements course corrections and feedback is the communication component that enables a manager to ensure a course correction has the desired result. The closed-loop organization seeks to complete the communication process in a way that ensures feedback -- a vital and frequently overlooked component of communication -- is implemented. The seven components of communication are:
Feedback ensures that a message was received and understood. Without it, a manager cannot be certain that objectives are being met and most importantly, take appropriate corrective action when they are not. Feedback is not new. Indeed, it is the cornerstone of many management techniques. In quality, the Shewhart cycle or Deming wheel relies on feedback as a central component of the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) technique. In manufacturing, closed-loop MRP ensures that changes in the supply chain and on the shop floor are quickly identified and incorporated into the planning process. There are others, but invariably the purpose of feedback is to ensure that a process is on target, and if it is not, identify the problem and corrective action that must be taken. Short communication cycle times ensure that when there is a negative deviation, its impact is minimized and smaller corrective actions can be taken sooner with better results. What is the closed-loop organization? A closed-loop organization is one that employs feedback in every management process. The most difficult arena in which to develop a closed-loop organization is the top-level communication process in a large distributed organization. It is challenging to identify appropriate receivers because their number is very large, they are frequently geographically and often culturally diverse, and there is no mechanism to track and ensure the message was received, understood, and if necessary, acted upon. Furthermore, dynamic organizations, those that regularly change structure and where individuals frequently change roles pose an additional challenge. The benefits to developing a closed-loop communication culture and the infrastucture required to support it are significant. These organizations · have a clear and accurate understanding of their proficiencies · have a clear and accurate understanding of their deficiencies · have a clear and accurate understanding of their operating environment · can target communications to those who have specific information · can target communications to those who need specific information · can ensure vital information was received and understood · can manage the results of information gathering, enabling managers to adjust plans quickly Before exploring technical solutions that address these challenges, it is necessary to understand the basics of evolving into a closed-loop organization. Becoming a closed-loop organization: There are two primary challenges to becoming a closed-loop organization. The first is cultural and involves developing a management environment that embraces targeted communication and feedback. Managers must forgo shotgun techniques of the past that involve blasting out edicts to everyone and then moving on without verifying they were received, understood, and implemented. The second is developing a technological infrastructure that enables directed communication coupled with results monitoring and feedback. There are three core steps: · Map Map the organization. The organization map is critical to future projects because it ensures that communications can be targeted to those who need to know or those who posses required information. · Track Identify initiatives that require feedback. It is at this point that the cultural foundation for the closed-loop organization is set. Once managers understand that the organization is mapped and targeted communications that result in a rapid return of relevant information are possible, creative application of this capability to solve management problems evolve. · Feedback Provide the means through which outbound communications can be targeted, responses collected and analyzed, and non-responses escalated. Technically, the most difficult elements in the implementation are Map and Feedback. Mapping the organization involves establishing a central repository that identifies every person in the organization, their role, their manager, their direct reports, experience, education, work history, training history, location, current projects and other information that paints a clear picture of the organization's logical, physical, and cultural structure, and the strengths of its human capital. Mapping is the first initiative in becoming a closed-loop organization and the information collected becomes the cornerstone for all future directed communications. The information in the organization map has significant intrinsic value. For example, large decentralized organizations frequently already have the skills in-house for new projects and yet do not have an expeditious way of determining, maintaining and exploiting this information. The organization map, in part, contains this information and continues to grow in detail as additional attributes are sought. The Track step is a process by which managers identify initiatives that require closed-loop communication. For each the following must be defined: · Objectives · What needs to be known · Who knows it · How are they reached · What is the feedback timeframe The manager defines the objective, what information is required, and then leverages the organization map to determine which individuals are most likely to possess the information. Frequently managers can quickly identify areas where they feel like they are managing blind. They do not know to whom communications should be directed, whether the message got through and whether it was understood. All to often there is a need to communicate with a very large audience that exceeds any person’s ability to comprehend the results. Once a means for providing directed communication and feedback is implemented, however, the floodgates open to ideas for gaining additional insight into the organization and its activities. The issue then becomes one of focus. The Feedback step leverages the first results of the first two steps. A communication is sent based on the organization map to individuals who possess the required information or have a need to know specific information. The results are automatically compiled. Successful feedback ensures that the message was received, a response was returned, and if it was not, an escalation is generated. A technical solution Different forms of communication provide varying degrees of feedback and reach. For example, a face-to-face conversation provides tremendous and immediate feedback but reaches a very small audience. An advertisement reaches a very large audience but provides very little opportunity for feedback and assurance it was received and understood.
The best technical solution for becoming a closed-loop
organization is a communications channel that reaches everyone, can be targeted,
and also provides a means to require and collate responses.
Email by itself cannot achieve this, but it does reach everyone within,
and even outside an organization. It
lacks a true organization map that can grow and adapt with change.
In addition, it lacks an automatic means for tracking responses and a
repository for the information gathered.
Even with these limitations, managers still try to use email as a means
for providing closed-loop communication. The
challenges are significant though as the manager must: · Determine who should receive a message · Create a distribution list for the communication · Send the message and then manually track who has responded · Analyze unstructured responses to message and infer results For all its limitations, email is frequently the best mass communication channel for large distributed organizations and there are technical solutions that enhance email by adding targeting and true feedback capabilities. One such solution is a product from eKnow, of Arlington Virginia, called 6P. It leverages email’s strength as a means to communicate with large numbers of people quickly. It enhances email by enabling the creation of structured memos that are accessed from an email message through a browser. Recipients, who are targeted for a communication based on an organization map stored in 6P, respond to a structured memo. Responses are stored in 6P’s object database. The sender defines the structured message and the information it will collect, targets recipients based on the organization map, and monitors the results. The sender can view the progress as a message penetrates a target audience and view results as they are collected. Conclusion Managers in closed-loop organizations recognize that feedback is the key to making sound decisions and they leverage technologies that automate the feedback element in the communication process. They understand that targeting a communication cuts down on problems associated with information overload and that targeting ensures that accurate pertinent information is returned. A targeted communication results in information that shows a clearer view of the organization and the status of ongoing initiatives. By striving to get and organize information from the field quickly, smaller course corrections are possible resulting in desired results. Those who manage closed-loop organizations have a clear view of the road ahead. They know the capabilities of their organization and receive rapid feedback when they make course corrections. They stay on the road they have chosen, can change course rapidly, and reach their destination quickly and efficiently.
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