» 

» 

» 

» 

» 

» 

» 

» 

» 

» 

Strategic Business and Action Planning: Effective strategic and action planning can serve as the master blueprint for a successful business improvement process. Without effective planning, organizations can make costly, time-consuming mistakes that can thwart the business improvement process.

Systems Alignment: Internal systems become obsolete over time and must be assessed periodically to insure that they continue to be in alignment with organizational mission and purpose. Once identified, out-of-date systems can be brought into alignment with current organizational needs.

Process and Productivity Improvement/Cycle Time Reduction: A major component of business improvement is enhanced productivity. The first step in improving productivity is to examine the ways in which internal processes currently operate. Once existing processes have been diagrammed, it becomes possible to identify and eliminate inefficiencies by streamlining, circumventing bottlenecks, eliminating unnecessary steps, and minimizing duplicate effort.

Leadership Systems: Leadership skills are not necessarily intuitive. This consulting capability provides managers with the customized tools and systems they need to become more effective leaders. This, in turn, can have a profound positive effect on organizational improvement efforts.

Organizational Assessment: Organizational assessment provides a starting point for the business improvement process. The resulting "snapshot" can serve as a baseline by which change can be measured.

Program Evaluation: Without effective evaluation, it is impossible to assess the degree to which a program is meeting its desired goals. Lacking concrete information about which programs to expand and which to change or eliminate is a major stumbling block on the road to business improvement.

Competency Assessment Systems: As job requirements evolve over time, skill gaps may develop between the capabilities of various employees and the work they must perform. By creating competency assessment systems, it is possible to identify and address emerging skill gaps before they become problematic. This, in turn, supports ongoing business improvement efforts.

Individualized Coaching and Development Planning: Each manager has unique strengths and weaknesses. Individualized coaching and development planning provides managers with the customized help they need to facilitate change and support business improvement efforts.

Change Management: Change can be threatening. Understanding how to manage the change process can circumvent potential roadblocks and maximize an initiative's potential for success.

360 Degree Assessment and Feedback Systems: Business improvement is an ongoing process. What works this week may not be successful at some point in the future. Therefore, it is important to internalize continuous feedback systems that can be used to refine or modify processes over time.

Organizational Transformation: Organizational transformation is a dynamic process. Managers who facilitate the transformation process must be aware of how the organization is responding to their actions so that they can modify their approach accordingly. By understanding how organizational transformation works, managers can foresee and even circumvent potential stumbling blocks.

The UMass Donahue Institute creates dynamic, personalized development tools and programs to help managers develop new competencies, hone their current skills, and reach their full potential faster and more efficiently than otherwise possible. Sessions with expert coaches provide the right level of guidance to make development planning both meaningful and relevant. All coaching is customized, and focuses on the needs of the client organization.