Joe Rael Trenton Judson English 1010 10/25/13 How to manage a successful business?

Companies invest incredible amounts of time, money and energy in employee training. Yet, one question remains largely unanswered: What is the return on the investment for all this training? When considering training, most companies start by asking, "What is the goal?" For most companies, the goal of training is either to influence what the audience knows or to influence what the audience does. The problem arises when those involved assume that classroom training can achieve either goal effectively. For example, if a class is being conducted in order to influence what an employee knows, has the trainer considered the audience's various learning styles or that much of what will be presented will be forgotten within a short time? For organizations that are providing training in order to influence what people do, has the training team considered that it may be trying to change a longstanding behavior or that the work environment doesn't support the desired change? The article Melnik, Michael S. "The Rational, Emotional & Physical Approach to Training." Professional Safety 53.1 (2008): 49-51. Academic Search Premier. Web. 25 Oct. 2013. Being rational with employees and training may help with employees focus on training each year or occasional training meetings. Imagine that employees have been told to be in the meeting room at a particular time for mandatory training. It is the same training they received last year and following that session nothing really changed. As a result, they expect rightfully

so that nothing will change this time either. This mindset leads to a belief that conducting this training is not terribly rational since the time could be better spent on production issues (Melnik). Now imagine that the class is on body mechanics teaching the audience how to lift safely. Imagine that you are sitting in the class. You have been lifting the same way for years and have never experienced a back problem. Someone at the front of the room is telling you how to do something differently than you currently do with no problems. Would this seem rational to you? Would the fact that it seems less than Rational affect the effectiveness of the training? The emotional aspect of each employee matter due to the mindset they have towards the job can make a company function better instead of having a few employees who can be high risk on the companys success. Employees often look at training from the perspective of "what's in it for me?" To get the greatest impact from the training, the company must answer this question. Consider this way. When an organization sells a product to clients, it doesn't simply hope that these clients can determine on their own what is in it for them if they buy the product. The company has a marketing department focused on helping clients see that the product has great Value to them. The department's job is to make sure the potential customers wants what the company is selling and that it will be abundantly clear what's in it for them if they do. With employees customers in the safety world, SH&E professionals present a product that they don't think they need, package it poorly boring, irrelevant, uninteresting, then leave employees to determine on their own what's in it for them (Melnik). Every employee knows what's in it for management to make sure that employees are compliant and to save money by reducing injuries. And, most employees don't believe the company wants to save money so that it can distribute those savings equally to all employees. So, while many employees understand the value of training and apply the skills learned to their daily activities, the problem is that it

Only takes a few who don't do so to create a high risk environment.

Make sure your employees understand how important it is to understand how dangerous the physical labor can be if they dont follow the right procedures taught in the training. Now assume that as an employee, you have attended a training session, heard great information and have returned to work. Does the work environment support the information that was just presented? When a company creates a physical workplace that promotes safe behaviors, the return on investment for training will increase (Melnik). Consider again the lifting training example. You attend the class, then return to work and begin lifting the old, demanding way. Does anyone approach you to correct the behavior or does it go relatively unnoticed? If it goes unnoticed, the environment does not support the change. Not only does no one say anything, but the actual task being performed may make it difficult at best and impossible at worst to do what was presented in the class. Will trainees perceive the information as rational? Will they recognize what is in it for them? Will the work environment support the information that was presented? When preparing for a new training program, few companies ask these critical questions. Only by asking these questions can a company know whether training has reached its potential. If the answer to these questions is no, it is safe to assume that the training fell short of the desired return on investment. The article by Alhashmi, S., J. Siddiqi, and B. Akhgar. "Staying Competitive By Managing Organizational Knowledge." Engineering Management 16.2 (2006): 43-45. Academic Search Premier. Web. 25 Oct. 2013. Knowledge management has recently become a fashionable

Concept, although many organizations are still unable to explain what knowledge is. More importantly, they are unable to develop and leverage knowledge to improve organizational performance, mainly because they are becoming increasingly complex in structure. This results in knowledge that is fragmented, hard to locate, leverage, share, and difficult to reuse. Data warehousing initiatives, using various data mining techniques, are now commonplace in many businesses (Alhashmi). However, as the vast majority of knowledge exists in the minds of employees, the quality of support these provide, especially for intensive queries, is somewhat uncertain. Therefore, new systems are required that not only locate, capture, store, share and leverage data and information, but also knowledge. The business world is bursting with examples where companies have not used the knowledge better than their competitors have done, whether it is supermarket retailing, financial services or manufacturing. WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE? Knowledge that supports the decision-making process is an obvious vital resource, however, knowledge has often suffered under management in the past. It is only in recent years that it has been taken more seriously. Most definitions and explanations of knowledge seem to cover the same vocabulary, concepts and words: Knowledge goes through a process of sharing tacit with tacit knowledge, tacit to explicit, explicit leverage, and explicit back to tacit; Knowledge can be created and tested; Knowledge can be distinguished from data and information; Explicit knowledge is usually filtered, stored, retrieved and dispersed across the organization; a culture that does not foster and reward the sharing of knowledge cannot expect technology to solve its problems (Alhashmi). Tacit knowledge is subconsciously understood and applied, difficult to articulate and usually developed from immersing oneself in an activity for an extended period. Explicit knowledge can be communicated easily to others through a system of

language, symbols, rules, equations and objects. Explicit knowledge is the most important for organizations; imagine an organization with no computer software or procedural documentation. Allan, Peter, and Eugene H. Nellen. "Identifying People Who Are Motivated To Manage: Don't Overlook Black Business Students." Journal Of Employment Counseling 32.3 (1995): 111114. Academic Search Premier. Web. 25 Oct. 2013. MINER'S MOTIVATION TO MANAGE THEORY. To better understand the motivation to manage. Miner formulated a theory of managerial role motivation (Miner, 1978a). According to this role motivation theory, there are certain "role requirements" that occur frequently across a wide range of management jobs at all managerial levels in a variety of large companies. Successful managers must have the motivation to fulfill these roles: otherwise the managers' performance will be relatively unsatisfactory. There are six managerial role requirements: 1. Managers should have a positive relationship with their supervisors. 2. Managers should compete actively with other managers at the same level in the organization. 3. Managers should behave in an assertive manner. 4. Managers should impose their wishes on and direct their subordinates: managers should exercise power. 5. Managers should stand out from the group and be at the center of attention. 6. Managers should carry out such routine administrative duties as their jobs may require (Miner). The motivation to fulfill the six managerial role requirements is measured by the MSCS. which contains the following seven subscales: maintaining positive relations with superiors, competing with one's peers in the organization in games, and competing with one's peers in the organization in work-related activities, asserting oneself and taking charge, imposing one's will over subordinates, standing out from the group, and handling administrative tasks.

The article by Schumacher, Steve. "Manage Your Time So Others Will Manage Theirs." Rock Products 115.1 (2012): 30-31. Academic Search Premier. Web. 25 Oct. 2013. Focus on work and personal goals. Too often, people in business do a great job of setting goals for their work life and neglect the personal goals they want to achieve. To be a whole person, and to be fair to your family, make sure you think about things you want to do in BOTH business and personal areas. If you neglect either one, you will feel a lot of stress which will further hamper your productivity. Set annual goals. Sit down once a year somewhere quiet and think about what you want to accomplish over the next 12 months. Be specific. Instead of saying "I want to lose weight" or "I need to set up training for my employees," say "I am going to lose 25 pounds by the end of the year" and "I will arrange safety training once a month for all employees." Write your goals down, or keep them electronically where you can see them regularly. Hold yourself accountable to deadlines. TBD and ASAP are NOT deadlines. Prioritize all of your goals. Use the ABC method. A's MUST be done, B's should be done, and C's should be dumped or delegated. Adjust your goals quarterly. Take time out every three months and review your personal and business goals. Are you on track? Have things changed that force you to adjust your goals? Things change at light-speed these days, so do not hesitate to adjust your goals on a regular basis. Be realistic with what you want to accomplish. Make the adjustments and move forward. Set weekly and daily goals. Once a week, take some quiet time and write out what you want to accomplish during the coming week. Again, be specific. Each morning, take 15 minutes and look at your schedule for the day and what you want to achieve. Check things off as you go. Yes, we all have bosses and they sometimes give us tasks that are outside of our plans. Don't worry about it, do what the boss asks and adjust accordingly. Plan your work and work your plan. Stop multi-tasking. Studies abound that tell us that multi-tasking does not work. We feel

like we are being more productive, but actually we are being less productive trying to do too many things at once. The overall quality of our work suffers and your stress level increases. Focus on one task at a time. Learn to say no. Become more assertive with requests from others. Be polite, but stand up for your rights with others. You can be assertive, yet not aggressive, by saying "I understand you want me to do this for you, my situation is that I need to focus on this other task." Learn to delegate more. It will free your time and develop the skills of others. "What is the BEST use of my time right now?" Ask yourself that question throughout the day. Especially when you have a fire house of things coming at you all at once. It will help you focus on your priorities and sift through all the less important items. Finally, don't procrastinate. DO IT NOW! "Seven Ways To Manage Rapid Practice List Growth." Pulse 72.21 (2012): 53-54. Academic Search Premier. Web. 25 Oct. 2013 1.Discuss with partners whether rapid list growth is right for your practice significant list growth will not be for everyone and the business case must look closely at whether the additional income will result in additional profit. Certainly for many inner-city practices, the capitated income under GMS may not be high enough to warrant expanding the list. Premises may simply not be big enough. And once a practice has embarked on a plan for rapid list expansion, it has to be ready to manage that growth proactively to ensure that neither its quality of care nor its organizational stability is compromised. The key thing before embarking on a project like this is to make sure everyone has come on side and is engaged with the challenges ahead. 2. Increase your visibility it is important to understand what factors will you help or hinder list growth. Visibility and accessibility are obvious factors. A practice on a main road in a large purpose built premises, served by several bus routes, has a clear advantage over a practice set back from a quiet side-

street. A practice that encourages additional footfall by co-locating with a pharmacy or a dentist, or accommodating community-based activities like expert patient or parenting classes, yoga or weight management, can advertise itself in a subtle but effective way. 3. Treat patients with respect Receptionists should be trained in customer service skills and eye contact and a smile being the basics. Use technology such as automatic telephone and online appointment booking systems to create better access and reduce the demand on staff, ultimately saving money. The staffing really should be rearranged to cope with peak times for call volume. Keep the practice website up to date: these days it may be the first point of contact for a new resident wondering where to register. Develop and invest in your patient forum and e-forum, and listen to what patients are saying in the forum or on NHS Choices for signs that things are going wrong. Don't forget to market the changes that you make so patients know you're responsive. 4. Plan your recruitment strategy clinical staffing at the Barkantine is reviewed every quarter and recruitment options are considered. Standard benchmarks combined with local experience are used for example; we have an access plan of 80 appointments per week per 1,000 patients to maintain 48-hour access, which drops to 65 over the summer. We aim for list growth to be a smooth process with additional clinicians joining the team just before they are needed. One of the challenges we face is attracting clinicians, particularly GPs, to our shift-based working pattern. We are open 8am to 8pm every day not something that appeals to everyone. But we know that short-term staffing by locums is not a good solution and patients prefer the continuity offered by permanent staff. Bigger lists will also require more capacity in some administrative functions, for example secretarial services and summarizing notes. It is important to understand these functions and to know, for example, the average time taken to summarize a set of notes, or how many referral letters per 1,000 patients are written, and to review capacity. Practice work

force planning is essential but considers also the effects on attached services such as health visitors or midwives, whose caseloads will grow. Keep them aware of the rate of growth and provide them with more information if you can. We hope, give us the influence to do more than just manage need - in Tower Hamlets, local practices have successfully supported the business case for the creation of five new health visitor posts. 5. Make your premises work for you it is one thing to ensure you are recruiting the staff to see all your new patients, but have you got enough consulting rooms to accommodate them? Consider how to make the best use of clinical space. Combining extended hours with a four-hour shift system means a room can be used three times a day (8am till midday, midday till 4pm, 4pm till 8pm) compared with the typical twice-aday usage, creating an instant 50% increase in room space. Bigger lists I have an impact on attached healthcare services in the longer term, think strategically: new residential developments, changes at neighboring practices and options for premises growth are the key areas to keep an eye on. We have recently taken on a second site with five consulting rooms. At the current rate of list growth of 15-17%, this will be fully utilized in less than three years. 6. Keep staff engaged more patients mean more income and more profit for the partners, but what is in it for the staff, apart from more work? It is essential to continue consulting with staff through any period of change, which rapid list expansion most certainly is. Communicate your plans for recruiting more staff to cope with the increasing activity so that your existing staff is reassured about workload issues. As your workforce grows, consider how to integrate new workers with old hands. Opportunities for internal promotion are positive in terms of individuals' career progression. Make sure recruitment processes are open and transparent to avoid disappointing unsuccessful internal candidates. A large practice that is growing rapidly risks becoming impersonal and losing the human touch. Involve staff in quality improvement or patient

education programmes, and take fresh approaches to interaction with patients. Barkantine's Summer Baby competition, sponsored by a local telecommunications company and the on-site pharmacy, invited parents to send in photos of their babies. Staff organizing the competition have enjoyed tackling new issues such as the ethics of commercial sponsorship and found it was an easy way for staff to show extra care for young patients, for example making sure immunizations are up to date. 7. Manage data closely A rapidly growing list requires a close eye to be kept on prevalence recording, the OOF and assimilating medical records and other data gathered by other practices (and in the case of the Barkantine, overseas healthcare professionals). Reconciling childhood immunizations or cytology schedules from, say. Eastern Europe, with our own UK schedules is a challenge and time has to be invested to ensure targets are still met. Make sure you have the capacity to deal with bigger volumes of data by making accurate estimates of the administrative burden that, say, 1,000 new patients will create. Ensure that commissioning and prescribing budgets attached to the practice are updated to reflect the bigger patient list as well, otherwise you risk missing out on the financial benefits of the growth. Commissioning budgets are mainly just indicative at the moment - but they will become more of an issue soon.