The regularly scheduled one-on-one has been called the most powerful management tool we have. Yet many public sector managers are not having regular one-on-one (O-o-O) meetings with employees.

To make the O-o-O effective, it should be regularly scheduled (every other Tuesday at 9AM or every Monday at 4PM or whatever works). It should be rarely missed and its primary focus must be on the employee and their performance. Notes should be taken by both the employee and the manager. The meeting will likely last no more than 30 minutes with 10 minutes for the employee, 10 minutes for you, and 10 minutes to focus on the employee’s development.

To prepare for your next O-o-O with an employee, ask yourself a few questions:

• What positive feedback can I give the employee?

• What commitments did I make at the last O-o-O that I need to follow
up on?

• What commitments did the employee make at the last O-o-O that we
need to follow up on?

• What information have I received from outside sources that I need to
share with the employee?

• What is currently on my plate that I can delegate to the employee
that might be helpful to their development?

Some managers use a standardized form to track the outcomes of each O-o-O. The format might include notes you take from the employee’s update, notes you prepare for your update to the employee, and a list of agreements or follow-up items. The fundamental goal of the O-o-O is to maintain an ongoing dialogue with each employee about:

• performance expectations

• resources the employee needs to meet the performance expectations

• feedback on the employee’s progress

• development opportunities the employee is pursuing

So how are you doing? I’d love to hear how you approach the challenge of staying connected with your employees about their performance.

About the Author

Marnie E. Green is Principal Consultant of the Management Education Group, Inc. and is a leading expert in the management of public sector employees. Her book, Painless Performance Evaluations, is used worldwide by federal, state, and local government leaders. Contact Green at phone: 480-705-9394 email: mgreen@managementeducationgroup.com web site: http://www.managementeducationgroup.com.

We offer this article on a nonexclusive basis. You may reprint or repost this material as long as Marnie Green’s name and contact information are included.

It’s incredible how rapidly retail businesses have been able to respond to their sluggish sales and lack of need for excess inventory. However, when consumer spending collapsed and companies needed to slow the supply chain, it wasn’t about the speed of change but the efficiency, and it wasn’t there like it really should have been.

Six Sigma Training can serve to help just about any industry, despite how big or small. The retail industry can actually benefit much more from the use of Six Sigma Training than many people might realize. The most useful component of this process is simply the Lean approach, which caters to removing wastes and streamlining processes, a critical part of the retail environment. It doesn’t matter whether your company has any overt defects or needs for the Six Sigma Process, because when you dig deep enough, everybody will have some level of quality improvement which needs to be addressed.

In regards the economic downturn and the huge collapse of customer spending, so many retail businesses have found themselves crumbling in their amassed inventories, and not sure of which way they can go to get out. Of course the supply chain needs to be addressed, and since business has slowed, inventory should shrink significantly. However, getting this accomplished in a manner that’s efficient is critical. It’s worse for a business to downsize and then not have enough products than it is for them to have too much. After all, if they at least have the product in stock, they can still produce the sale they would miss by not having the right products or quantities of products in stock.
By taking the time to put into action and utilize the Six Sigma Methodology in the retail environment, many stores that were previously unsuccessful in their attempts to shorten the supply chain and downsize the inventory effectively can see results. There is no room for guesswork here, which is what most businesses have relied upon so far to cut down their inventory and orders. Instead, these businesses should be relying on verified statistics, business forecasts, and process metrics such as those offered in Six Sigma Training to figure out where reductions need to be made and how far they need to be cut.

Where manufacturers strive in productively implementing Six Sigma into their businesses to track efficiency, many retailers are not as successful. There is no actual method for being able to determine how many customers find what they need or fail to be served to the best of the store’s abilities. You can not exactly count how many customers come into a store and locate or don’t find what they are searching for every time. As such, improving operations can prove to be more than a little complicated. However, by using the tools provided by Six Sigma, many retailers might be able to get a better grasp on their inefficiencies and save themselves from the staggering economy.

About the Author

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