The Firehose Problem
Do you ever feel like you’re drinking from a firehose? You’ve got projects you’d like to do, the organisation is changing before your eyes and you can’t work out where the resources are going to come from to deliver on the demands? Sustainable Capacity is an approach to dealing with the “too much to do; too few resources to do it” dilemma. Read on to see how it might help you.
Many organisations, particularly smaller organisations, NFP and for-purpose organisations find themselves limited for resources and funds but with big plans. The critical question is often how do they deliver on those plans whilst maintaining service to their existing customers and clients?
We often work with clients who are facing this challenge. They don’t have the resources to bring in a large group of consultants or people to backfill existing staff. In addition their staff may not have the required skills to deliver on the project or change agenda facing them.
Sustainable Capacity approach
This is where Sustainable Capacity comes in. With this approach the organisation:
- Identifies the gaps in their internal capacity and seeks very targetted assistance around those gaps;
- With that targetted assistance identifies internal staff who can be supported to deliver on the change;
- Plans the size and pace of the change to ensure that the balance between change and delivering on obligations is met.
Identify capacity gaps and fill them
This is a critical step for management. Far too often large consulting firms propose projects that involve them rolling in, delivering the project and rolling out again. This approach has several problems.
Often the cost is unsustainable for the organisation. The delivery of the project is disruptive for the organisation. Staff have high demands placed on them by the consultants. When the consultants finally leave the project may have been delivered but the organisation is often no more capable than before the project started.
With Sustainable Capacity we work with you to identify the capacity gaps and determine the minimal input needed, from us, to fill them. Examples might be around IT project management support, commercial capability and staff support and mentoring.
Identify internal staff to take on roles
Internal staff, by definition, have a “day job”. The Sustainable Capacity approach identifies which staff have potential to grow their skills and contribute to the change or the project which is planned. We then work with you to determine how to “make space” in the daily work of those staff so that they can contribute.
The goal is that all staff and management get an opportunity to grow and learn during the change. Some staff may take on new duties which will provide learning opportunities for them. Other staff may take on bigger project roles, having passed some of their current tasks to colleagues.
Management are supported to enable them to focus on the things that will be important in achieving project success. This might be a concerted training program for staff to enable them to absorb and utilise project outputs; perhaps it’s a change management plan which anticipates the challenges and needs of the planned change and delivers input to address those things.
Plan the size and pace of change
By now we know what resource we have. This allows us to move into the detailed planning stage. We shape the project and its time frames to align to the sustainable capacity which we have identified and enabled within the organisation.
Conduct of project or change
During the conduct of the project we provide the specific input that we’ve identified, jointly, as being needed. Often this stage sees us providing mentorship to staff who are learning new skills; support to the executive as they tackle areas that are new to them; project and commercial management to ensure smooth conduct of the project on time and budget; and ensuring that change management is delivered as required.
Outcomes
The overriding goal is to leave the organisation more capable, more resilient and more able to tackle the next project or the next change initiative. We get a real satisfaction out of seeing your staff members grow and develop as they deliver on their project obligations. We work to ensure that participants are stretched and challenged whilst being supported. Failure is never a good outcome and we work to ensure that participants never have a sense of failure, but of achievement and growth.
Please use our contact page if you’d like to talk to us about an upcoming project. We’re happy to engage with you to see if there’s value for you in working with us.