Operating model review

The Managing Director knew he had an efficiency problem, but he didn't know what was causing it.

All the operational problems were coming to Moo, the MD, and he didn't understand why his team weren't able to execute without him. His primary focus is on site delivery and he's being pulled into the day-to-day office operations.

He found himself being dragged into the minutia, specifically the office operations of the business.

Although he instinctively knew what the problems were, he didn't understand the root causes or how to solve them…

I needed to understand how the business operates, what the expectations are and how each person delivers what is expected. I started with Moo; what does he expect, what does he think is actually happening and why does he think it's not happening as expected?

I worked down through every employee asking the same questions; What do you do? What do you think's expected of you? Where do you think problems are in the business and why? Each started like an interview and grew into a personal conversation, hearing their perspective on the company and how it's run. It wasn't about getting quantitative results, it was about quality conversations.

I understood SMD's core systems, who's responsible for each and how each person interacts with them.

After interviewing all employees - from the directors to the office and building site teams - I was able to map together how SMD operates, why it operates the way it does, the failure points and what can be done to overcome them.

I identified 6 key themes across the business where there was a clear breakdown of expectation vs reality. It ranged from cross-department communication and strategy execution to process inefficiencies and people problems. It all came down to how leadership, people and systems are intertwined and how they work together (or not, in some cases).

One big discovery was Moo was inadvertently making himself the bottleneck. He thought his team always needed his approval. The team thought he always wanted to give approval. A feedback loop paradox! I was able to give guidance to both Moo and the ops team on how to navigate it, resulting in less stress for leadership and an increased sense of purpose for the team.

A proposed solution to one theme was the implementation of an invoice approval flow system. The intention was to accelerate and automate the approval process, reduce the chance of human error and increase efficiencies in the accounting department. I implemented and handed over the system within 3 months.