Right Diagnosis precedes Right Advice (Rapid Organization Diagnosis Aid)

Top Managers in several organizations often run to outdo each other in adapting latest management concepts and introducing new initiatives with a hope that these initiatives will help address performance gaps. These initiatives may fall in the areas of strategy redesign, restructuring, process reengineering or automation. Sometimes these initiatives deliver, and most often, not. And the fault may not exactly be with the initiative design or execution, but with the areas of intervention itself. Disillusioned by outcomes of internal initiatives, clients often look towards Consultants for advice.

With due respect to fellow consultants, they also often move towards providing advice based on inadequate diagnosis, that is more selective and biased towards building case for initiatives that consultants excel in. And organizations are no better off after initial euphoria of implementing Consultants’ recommendations wear off.  All this reiterates the need for having right diagnosis.

There are several management frameworks and models such as BLM, 7s, business excellence models, which provide guidelines on undertaking comprehensive review, encompassing all organizational dimensions and their linkages.  These frameworks require extensive data collection and are often time and resource intensive efforts, which may not be feasible in all cases. 

How about having a rapid diagnostic aide that helps identify problem areas fast- the typical physician way- using a set of questions, developed on most frequently observed organizational infirmities.

Rapid Organization Diagnosis Aid is based on the premise that successful firms are able to manage four key areas well.  These four key areas are:

1.     Establishment of Organization Fundamentals
2.     Alignment of Organization Elements
3.     Appropriateness of Apparatus
4.     Accountability for Performance

Accordingly, the problem identification process focuses on reviewing the state of these four areas within the organization. Based on experience here are a set of 19 questions that will help undertake RAPID and RIGHT diagnosis.  

The reality check would be best achieved by evaluating how effectively the organization is responding to the key questions under each of the four key areas. 

Click here to read the full article and view the complete set of questions