Feb 24 2022

Protect and Improve the Enterprise

Improvement is important – but Protecting the Enterprise is important as well – maybe even more important.

I learned this phrase long ago – Protect and Improve the Enterprise.

The sequence is deliberate. Kind of a “First Things First” principle IMO.

In fact – it’s been part of my logo for quite a while now.

When I joined Motorola’s Training & Education Center in 1981 we weren’t allowed to do Testing in our T&D. Seems some supervisors had previously used test results for promotions, leading to a lawsuit where the Big M had paid out $25MM, as the tests were proven invalid in court.

Part of My Protect & Improve Approach

Is to define the enabling “Compliance Knowledge & Skills” – which include these 3 categories:

Internal Policies, Procedures, Processes, and Practices
External Laws, Regulations, Codes and Contracts
Indisurty Standards

You’ll note that I have “Company Policies & Procedures” before “Laws, Regulations, Codes & Contracts.”

That’s because I discovered back in the 1980s that for highly regulated organizations, their “Company Policies & Procedures” reflected all of the “Laws, Regulations, Codes & Contracts” – and I always hated gathering the same data twice (or more). So I always do the analysis in the sequence my list provides.

So in the following example – “Company Policies & Procedures” covered the “Laws, Regulations, Codes & Contracts” – which I did not collect.

The original Flip Chart Page

The Cleaned-up/Typed-up Page

You may not have served in the military as I have – been that “Chain of Command” is just one of many ways to get into trouble – lose your job – etc. The others could get you and/or your company fined or have people sent to jail.

You Don’t Cover EVERYTHING You Could

You only cover how the “Enabler” enables the Performance that it is linked back to. Which is why you start with the Performance Modeling – of Ideal & gap Performance.

My Books

In 4 of my last 5 books, I’ve covered these K/S Categories and provided definitions and examples – and “How To” systematically derive them.

Note – not all K/S Categories are used in every project (but have – on rare occasions).