The 4 Points of Strategy for Every Operation

We’re nearing the end of the year.

It always seems to be the best time to reflect on what you’ve accomplished and what still needs work.

It’s an excellent time to plan your goals and the strategy for hitting those targets for the upcoming year – 2020 in this case.

But, you might not know what needs to get done.

There might be something missing in your operation, but it’s not always so easy to put your finger on what needs some work.

Do you agree?

Now, do you have a strategy that you follow?

Your strategy is critical.

But we’re confident you already know this.

Sometimes it requires a little help getting in the right rhythm to step up your operational game, though.

Don’t fret; we’ve got your back.

Here at 24/7 Software, we recognize the importance of strategizing each year. That’s why we want to give you the resources to optimize your operation year after year.

We’ve got four points of strategy that you can use across your operation – and even the software you use – to enhance your capabilities.

Are you ready for your operation’s annual strategy review? Let’s get started.

EVALUATING YOUR 2019 OPERATION

Here’s the tricky part of your evaluation.

It’s where you have to take that figurative look in the mirror to pull all the good and not-so-good out of your operation.

Scrutinizing your current state and performance for the year is essential.

But, we also understand that it’s tough to accept your weaknesses at times.

Push through it, and we promise, that uncomfortable feeling will go away before you know it.

Look at it this way too, the longer you subscribe to this process, the better it gets each time.

So, let’s get down to the brass tacks of your operation to see what needs attention.

• What processes do you have in place for all personnel to follow? Do protocols-to-handle control your team’s next moves, or do you train them to “use good judgment?”
• Do you know everything that occurs on your property? Does your staff know?
• Are you able to access issue and incident details from many years ago? How’s your risk?
• Is resource allocation a problem for your team to manage? Do you have the ability to deploy personnel effectively and efficiently?
• Do you always know what your staff is doing? What’s your process for ensuring accountability? Do you have policies in place to empower staff?
• What do you use to improve your operation and team’s performance continuously?
• Are you using a platform to help enhance your capabilities? What does this platform include, or what should it have?

Now, we could keep going here, and you should.

Keep asking pointed questions about your operation.

Pull your team together to move through these questions because we’re confident that more problems will arise as a result of this exercise.

Once you feel you’ve broken down your operation to where you can move forward on devising a strategy for 2020 – it’s time to gear up for the ACDA Principle™.

TAKE ON 2020 AS A PROACTIVE OPERATION

Would you say that one of the most challenging parts of your job is not knowing what to expect today, tomorrow, or next year?

It’s a stressful feeling when you oversee a property. Agree?

You have to be prepared for anything.

But, while this might be impossible, you can put the right strategy points in place to give your team the highest likelihood of being proactive, enhancing the experience, and reducing your risk.

You can use the ACDA Principle™ to help too.

The Principle takes your Strategy – the first aspect of Proactive Operations – further, so you can continuously optimize your operation.

It’s incredible, and it can apply to all areas of your operations, even your software.

Now, you’ll want to circle back to your 2019 review from the previous section of this article, and apply the following to take your operation to another level:

• Awareness
• Communication
• Documentation
• Analysis

You might have noticed something with our list.

It’s a little different than Proactive Operations, where we list Strategy, Infrastructure, and Technology in chronological order.

There’s a reason for this structure.

Proactive Operations is a methodology that requires you to build each aspect in order.

On the other hand, the Strategy is an integration of each of its four parts.

For example, your awareness of something could mean your ability to see an imminent threat approaching your property or the color-coded representations within your platform that give all personnel the knowledge of what’s occurring on your property at a specific time.

Both relate to awareness.

But, the beauty of this is the complete alignment of these points of strategy with your operation and how they come together to enhance everything.

• Awareness: put measures in place to ensure you have real-time knowledge to manage your operation proactively. For example, text communication allows your customers to communicate with your operations center in real-time to get a resolution to their issues or discretely report a severe incident occurring right now.
• Communication: the days of inefficient radio and internet-speed communication are gone. Are you able to communicate with personnel at the speed-of-type? If not, you should check out this technology.
• Documentation: we don’t like these “curse words,” but are you still using a ‘pen’ to document critical information on ‘paper?’ Yikes! Please stop doing that. All documentation must be digital, legible, and offer you the ability to review it in its entirety even years later.
• Analysis: data is now and the future. With the speed at which technology and the operational environment are evolving, you must have the ability to capture and analyze your operation’s performance data in real-time and any time after that. This information will help you during your 2020 evaluation next December.

Maximizing your performance through an expertly crafted strategy is essential and can be done.

You have to do it, and continue doing it each year.

It’s a necessity for being proactive.

OVER TO YOU

We’re setting a 2020 goal for you right now. Get these four points of strategy concrete into your operation.

Doing this will keep the momentum going while forcing you to address your awareness, communication, documentation, and analysis processes each year.

We believe that your strategy is the key to building a strong base for your proactive operation.

So, let’s make next year your best year yet!

Editor's note: This post was originally published in December 2017 and has been updated for comprehensiveness and freshness.