© 2000 Scott Moses

Action Management Process

Scott Moses

Assistant ProfessorSchool of Industrial Engineering

Your Career

Requested to do more than you will have time to do “I’m Swamped, I Am Working 18

Hour Days and Still Couldn’t Get It Done”…

Responsibility continues to grow – the gap between “requests” and “completions” actually increases. The result? Voice mails and e-mails don’t

necessarily get responses

People fail to meet commitments

Meetings are canceled when people don't show up

Effective management requires prioritization, delegation, and tracking of tasks “I Don’t Have Adequate Staffing

to Do That”…

Individuals and teams need to control WIP (Lead time proportional to WIP) To control the output of a factory

running at full capacity, you must selectively control starts and manage WIP. High levels of WIP will increase Cycle Time and result in Poor Quality Output.

Commitments

Successful people keep their commitments … by choosing their commitments

“Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’”

-- Jesus (Matthew 5:37)

Action Management Process

A -- Active Action Actions that are currently being worked on

B -- Action in Backlog Actions that are going to be done but are not currently being worked on

C -- Action Under Consideration Actions identified as potential good ideas but not yet sanctioned

D -- Action Delegated Actions delegated to another person or group

E -- Action Ended Before Finished Actions terminated for whatever reason

F -- Action Finished Actions completed with deliverables achieved

5

Action Management Process

Active Actions

12345

A

Delegated Actions

123

D

Finished Actions123456789

10

F

Ended Actions

123

E

Backlog Actions

123456789

10

B

C

Considered Actions123

6

The Basic Process

Process All Active Actions Relative Priority?

Should Any Be Ended?

Process All Finished Actions Were The Deliverables Achieved?

What Feedback and/or Learnings Do We Need to Process?

Process All Delegated Actions Who Owns These?

Are They On Schedule?

Should Any Be Ended?

Process All Backlog Items

Are They Still Valid?

Should Any Move To Active or Ended Status?

Process All Considered Actions

Move Any to Backlog?

Any New Ones to Add?

Should Any Be Deleted?

WEEKLY PERIODICALLY

My Implementation: Tool

Word Document

MS Word Outline View Heading

Item

Notes

XX:XX Appointment

Notes

Item

Notes

Heading

Heading

Assign Keyboard commands to easily Promote, Demote, Move Up, Move Down

My Implementation: Documents

Active.doc: Active This Week

Calendar.doc: Calendar Scheduled events and appointments for next week and beyond

Weekly.doc: Weekly Template Regular meetings (class)

Weekly-repeating Items

Monthly.doc: Monthly Template

Yearly.doc: Yearly Template Birthdays, Car registration

My Implementation: Process

Progress Each Item that is Ended or Finished: Move from

current location in Active to the Ended or Finished list for this week

Each week: Save the list of Ended and Finished Items as YYMMDDfinished.doc

Weekly Planning Copy the Weekly Template into the Active list.

Add Items from Calendar for this week.

Select Items to be done this week from the Backlog and Consider lists.

W A Cal A B AC

AE

F

My Implementation: Process

Delegate (Also if asked for response or bought something)

Put on Delegated list: “MM.DD Description”

Each week: Review the Delegated list and make follow up calls

Monthly Planning

Plan to do the Items on the Monthly Template

Annual Planning

Copy the Items from the Yearly Template into the Calendar

Mon

Year Cal

AD

Other Notes

Why keep lists of Ended and Finished Items?

These can come in handy

Retrieve notes on Ended Items that get resurrected

Retrieve notes on Finished Items that are needed later – you will have a good idea of roughly what week you made that phone call etc and can retrieve your notes

You may want to have subcategories in the Backlog and Consider lists for different categories of work.

My Implementation: Example

ACTIVE

THIS WEEK

Items to do this week

THURSDAY

Appointments and Items to do on a certain day

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

ACTIVE (Continued)

NEXT WEEK

Items that must be done next week that you become aware of this week

DELEGATED

04.01Description

ENDED

Item and description

FINISHED

Item and description

My Implementation: Example

CALENDAR

MARCH

Undated item

Undated item

MM.DD Item description

MM.DD Item description

MM.DD Item description

APRIL

MAY

…

WEEKLY

THIS WEEK

MONDAY

HH:MM Regular appointment

TUESDAY

…

SUNDAY

NEXT WEEK

ENDED

FINISHED

My Implementation: Example

YEARLY

JANUARY

FEBRUARY

…

DECEMBER

© 2000 Scott Moses

To view this presentation, go to

www.ecn.ou.edu/moses/www/teaching.htm

and click on the link for “Action Management Process”