Initiative-Based Outcomes

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

In a recent post, we talked about how an outcomes-based approach enables companies to rearrange roles by simply shifting outcomes between roles. Reassigning outcomes to different people makes it easy to restructure jobs because of changing conditions such as corporate growth. What we didn’t mention, but is equally valuable, is what we’ll call temporary outcomes.

Assume for a minute that a company decides to launch a short-term initiative, perhaps implementing a new technology or introducing a new product. To realize the desired benefits, those types of initiatives usually require additional work on the part of a few key roles.

Using an outcomes-based approach dramatically simplifies assigning, managing, and keeping track of that additional short-term work. Simply define the new work as a set of outcomes, and then assign those outcomes to the impacted roles. The teams and managers are already familiar with an outcomes-based approach where they consider and track the consistent production of key outcomes, so they will treat the new initiative-based outcomes the same way. Breaking the initiative into very specific outcomes significantly improves the odds of success.

Question to ponder:

• Are the people in your key roles clear on how they contribute to the success of short-term or strategic initiatives?