Every initiative to scale-up comes with its own specific set of opportunities and constraints. Multiple elements are involved in getting an OPD to work:
~ people & objective
~ knowledge & process
~ cultures & mindset.
Some of the above elements need preparation and planning. Some aspects like the objective should be upfront shared in the existing organization and needs acceptance to enable participation and support at the different layers in the organization that will have a role in the formation and operationalizing the OPD.
The other aspects of Organizational Preparedness are:
* Executive level support for the OPD endeavor - to ensure that the people responsible for this initiative on both the Parent Organization and the OPD sides are sufficiently empowered to make timely decisions and are not left to defend and justify all their actions and decisions. This is best enabled by having an executive level member entrusted as the Single Point of Contact on the parent organization side.
* Organizational focus from all involved departments in setting up the OPD - to ensure that the needed support from the different functions across the organization happens in a coordinated manner without having to chase all the stake holders to pitch in for their part.
* Acceptance at the employee level to adopt, mentor and work with new setup without the typical fears associated with outsourcing - by keeping the employees informed on the background and objectives the chances of being motivated to participate and support this endeavor are high.
* Organization culture enabling participation (openness, transparency, trust) - to ensure that both at the parent organization side and especially at the OPD side people feel comfortable to discuss the real issues and realistic options without the fear of being shot down for identifying/reporting improvements. There can be no perfect plan to enable an OPD. A lot of improvisation has to happen as the OPD starts rolling out. Hence a culture that enables participation, delegating responsibility and building trust between the existing and new units is a big enabler.
Some of the elements can be tamed and amended to suit the needs. However some of them cant be solved (for e.g. culture, it existed much before this endeavor, your best bet would be to get the different cultures to work together). The overall approach should be to in-source solution(s) and not out-source your problem(s).
In the next part, I will share my experiences on the aspects of working with smart knowledge workers and setting the right expectations from the OPD.
~ people & objective
~ knowledge & process
~ cultures & mindset.
Some of the above elements need preparation and planning. Some aspects like the objective should be upfront shared in the existing organization and needs acceptance to enable participation and support at the different layers in the organization that will have a role in the formation and operationalizing the OPD.
The other aspects of Organizational Preparedness are:
* Executive level support for the OPD endeavor - to ensure that the people responsible for this initiative on both the Parent Organization and the OPD sides are sufficiently empowered to make timely decisions and are not left to defend and justify all their actions and decisions. This is best enabled by having an executive level member entrusted as the Single Point of Contact on the parent organization side.
* Organizational focus from all involved departments in setting up the OPD - to ensure that the needed support from the different functions across the organization happens in a coordinated manner without having to chase all the stake holders to pitch in for their part.
* Acceptance at the employee level to adopt, mentor and work with new setup without the typical fears associated with outsourcing - by keeping the employees informed on the background and objectives the chances of being motivated to participate and support this endeavor are high.
* Organization culture enabling participation (openness, transparency, trust) - to ensure that both at the parent organization side and especially at the OPD side people feel comfortable to discuss the real issues and realistic options without the fear of being shot down for identifying/reporting improvements. There can be no perfect plan to enable an OPD. A lot of improvisation has to happen as the OPD starts rolling out. Hence a culture that enables participation, delegating responsibility and building trust between the existing and new units is a big enabler.
Some of the elements can be tamed and amended to suit the needs. However some of them cant be solved (for e.g. culture, it existed much before this endeavor, your best bet would be to get the different cultures to work together). The overall approach should be to in-source solution(s) and not out-source your problem(s).
In the next part, I will share my experiences on the aspects of working with smart knowledge workers and setting the right expectations from the OPD.
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