Starting and Understanding Your Organization

Free Micro-eMBA Module #2: Starting and Understanding Your Organization

This learning module is in the organization development program. However, this module can also be used by anyone as a self-study exercise to learn more about starting and understanding an organization.

Sections of This Module Include the Following

Introduction
Outcomes
Materials for Review
Suggested Topics for Reflection and Discussion
Activities to Build Systems and Practices
Assessments
Tracking Open Action Items

INTRODUCTION

This module is useful to entrepreneurs who are thinking about starting a business, or have already started their business and what to understand more about what they’re really doing. The module also will be useful to practitioners/consultants who want broader understanding about business organizations, including how they are started. This understanding for practitioners/consultants can help them provide more effective services to clients and establish stronger credibility with leaders and managers in the workplace.

Starting an organization requires careful thought and planning. However, you can’t effectively manage an organization if you can’t effectively manage yourself. So in this module, you are first guided through some careful examination about yourself as entrepreneur (and you are an entrepreneur if you are starting an organization).

Maintaining a healthy organization requires healthy practices in boards of directors (if applicable, for example, if your organization is a corporation) and management. To truly understand and be effective at these practices, it helps greatly if board members, chief executive and employees have some basic understanding of the overall organizational “system” of their organization, including its common traits, dimensions, “personality” and life cycles.

This is not just an academic exercise. Too often, people don’t really understand the overall structures in their organization. When problems occur, they only see the specific events, and not the larger structures that cause the behaviors that cause the events — this is very important for practitioners, too. To effectively resolve problems, you have to change the structures — not just react to events.

The importance of this understanding of organizations is evident when you realize that many graduate business training programs start out with an overview of the organizational system, often in a course called, for example, “Organizational Theory”.

Also consider
Related Library Topics

OUTCOMES

Learners who complete this module will achieve the following outcomes:

Decide if You Are an Entrepreneur
Is There Really a Need for Your New Organization, Product or Service?
Answer: You Have Right Planning and Financial Skills?
Answer: What Human Resources Will You Need?
Articulate Your First Products and Markets
Verify If Those Markets Really Exist
Identify Best Approaches to Pricing
Answer: How Much Money Will You Need?
Draft Your First Strategic and/or Business Plan

MATERIALS FOR REVIEW

The following materials will help you address each of the topics and learning activities in this module.

Starting Your Organization

If your time is very limited, you can still benefit from scanning the resources and questions referenced from the following links.

Considerations About You

Many people are so excited about starting a new venture, that they forget about one of the biggest challenges — getting themselves ready first. So before undertaking the steps to start a new business, they first should think about:

There are certain traits of successful entrepreneurs. Am I really an entrepreneur?
What are my true passions? How can I retain those in my new venture?
What is my stress level now? Can I take much more?
What are my personal strengths and weaknesses. How can I use my strengths to strengthen my weaknesses?
Are there alternatives that I could do right now?
Are my personal finances in shape before I go to investors?

The following article will help you to answer each of these very important questions.
Entrepreneurs — Are You Personally Ready to Start a New Venture?

Considerations About Your Business Idea (some basic strategic and business planning)

How to Start a New Business

Understanding Your Organization

Now you will benefit from seeing the “big picture” of your organization, product or service. You need not follow links out of the following documents, but do read the content on each of the following pages.

Some readers might question why this section “Understanding Your Organization” was not included before the above section “Starting Your Organization.” The reason is that people often need to start with whatever specifics they already know about their ideas, such as the markets, customers, competitors, financing, etc., before they start thinking about the more broad — even abstract — matters in the following links. The following links help to ground and integrate the more specific information they generated in the above section.

Considerations About You

1. What are at least 3 characteristics of successful entrepreneurs? Are you an entrepreneur? How did you conclude that about yourself? See Are You Really an Entrepreneur?

2. Are your finances in shape to begin planning and starting a new organization or business? Are you sure? See Are Your Personal Finances in Shape?.

3. How will you manage the stresses involved in planning and starting a new organization, product or service? See How Will You Manage the Stresses Involved?

Considerations About Your Business Idea

1. Is there really a need for your new organization, product or service? How do you know? See Is There Really a Need for the Product or Service in Your Organization?

2. What type of organization would you start, if it’s a new organization? See What Type of New Organization, Product or Service Will You Be Starting?

3. What are at least 3 of the risk involved for you? See What Are the Risks Involved?

4. What planning and financial skills do you have? Where might you need to improve? See What Planning and Financial Skills Do You Need? (This eMBA has upcoming modules about planning and finances.)

5. So what is a summary of your plans for your new organization, product or service? See What Are Your Initial Plans?

6. What expertise, or human resources, will you need? How might they be organized? See What Human Resources Will Your New Organization, Product or Service Need?

7. How much money might you need for startup? See How Much Money Will You Need?

8. Might you draft a first-draft of a basic strategic plan or business plan now? See Write a Strategic Plan or Business Plan Document? (This eMBA has upcoming modules about strategic planning and about product and service planning.)

Understanding Your Organization

1. What is a basic definition of an organization? What is a mission? Vision? Values? See Basic Definition of Organization (which includes some optional reading about systems thinking).

2. It helps a great deal to think of organizations, products and/or services as systems, for example, when planning products or managing major changes in your organization. What is a system? (HINT: Think about inputs, processes, outputs and outcomes.) How is a system different than a pile of sand? What are some common characteristics of systems. How is an organization like a system?
(See Basic Definition of Organization (which includes some optional reading about systems thinking).

3. What metaphor do you prefer to describe organizations? Machines? Organisms? Persons? Groups? Families? Others? See Various Ways to Look at Organizations.

4. Organizations have certain dimensions and concepts in common. When designing, organizing and/or re-organizing organizations, it helps to be aware of these dimensions and concepts. Name at least three of the dimensions of organizations. Name at least three key concepts to consider when designing organizations. See Common Dimensions in Organizations and Key Concepts in the Design of an Organization.

5. The concept of culture is VERY important. Each organization has its own unique culture. When managing an organization, it’s important to acknowledge what values are really important to the organization, what behaviors typically occur and what behaviors are really treasured. Lack of understanding about culture is one of the major reasons that organizational change efforts fail. Describe the concept of organizational “culture”. See Organizational Culture — the “personality” of the organization.

6. People — like most other systems — go through life cycles. When trying to understand, manage or help a system, it’s very important to you know what life cycle the system is in. This is true for organizations as well. Organizations have life cycles. This is often forgotten when trying to work with organizations. Describe the concept of organizational life cycle. See Life Cycles of Organizations.

7. What is the “new paradigm”? What are several of the changes that might be expected in this new paradigm? What major, overall driving forces are causing this new paradigm? What are some of the characteristics of organizations in the new paradigm? What are some of the new structures that you might see in the new paradigm? See New Paradigm in Management, Characteristics of the Future Organizations and New Structures (networks, self-managed teams, learning org, self-designing org).

ACTIVITIES TO BUILD SYSTEMS AND PRACTICES

Learners are strongly encouraged to complete the following activities, and share and discuss results with peers, board members, management and employees, as appropriate.
As you proceed through the following activities, be sure to note any incomplete actions in the Action Item Planning List.
The information in the subsections “Understanding Your Organization …” is enough to give you a basic sense of your organization, including its structure and basic parts, its current (or desired) personality, and feedback among the basic parts. You’ll soon learn a great deal more about your organization as you progress through the remaining modules in this program.
If you are planning to start a new organization, it will be very helpful to obtain documents relevant to the particular rules and regulations to start a business in your state. Contact your local Secretary of State and/or Attorney General’s office and ask what documents you need to start a business. It will be very helpful if you have addressed the following activities.

Starting Your New Organization

1. Write a five- to ten-sentence description of the purpose of your organization. This is the mission statement of your new organization. What is the nature of your organization’s products and industry, e.g., services, manufacturing, wholesale, etc? For assistance, see Writing/Updating a Mission Statement.

2. If you are forming a corporation, you’ll likely need a board of directors. Find out the minimum number of people required to be on a corporate board of directors in your state. You might call, for example, your Attorney General’s office, States Attorneys office, etc. Recruit at least this number of people to join your
board. For assistance, see Overview of Board Roles and Responsibilities, Joining a Board and Recruiting Board Members.

3. Recruit expertise to help you get your organization started. A great place to start is by getting references from other small organizations. Don’t forget about finding an insurance agent. You’ll probably soon need liability and property insurance. For assistance, see Getting a Bank and Banker, Joining a Board, Hiring Consultants, Getting and Using a Lawyer and Getting and Using Accounting Services.

4. If you plan to form a corporation, then draft a set of Articles of Incorporation (or whatever other type of legal charter is required, for example, a constitution, Articles of Association, etc.). For assistance, see Articles of Incorporation.

5. Your board (if applicable) will probably need a set of bylaws (bylaws specify how your board will govern the organization and how it will be configured, for example, with a chief executive, etc.). For assistance, see Corporate Bylaws.

6. Make a draft (probably a very rough draft at this point) of a plan that includes the top 5-8 goals for the organization to accomplish over the next year. Think about what resources are needed to achieve these goals. (This is a very rough draft of a strategic plan. We’ll refine the plan later in this program.) Write down the costs for the resources and group them in major categories including: personnel, computers, office supplies, facilities (rent, utilities, etc.) and any other major groups of costs. This is a very rough draft of a yearly budget. You don’t have to go into great detail at this point. For assistance, see Basic Guidelines for Successful Planning Process and Basic Description of Strategic Planning.

7. Hold a meeting of your board of directors, if applicable. In the meeting, members should review the drafts of the Articles, bylaws, strategic plan and budget. Members should vote to approve the drafted items. Members should also vote to select officers. Your state may require that boards have certain officer roles, for example, Chair/President, Secretary and Treasurer. For assistance, see Board Meetings and Basic Sample Board of Directors Meeting Minutes.

8. Make the necessary filings for incorporation (probably to your local Secretary of State), if you are planning a corporation. That office can likely provide you continued guidance for legally registering your organization.

9. On the Action Item Planning List, make note to follow up on the following actions.
a) Contact your local city hall to identify if you need permit or license to makes sales in your locale.
b) It may be useful to obtain a employer identification number at this time, so you’re ready if and when you hire employees. You only need an EIN if you are a partnership, corporation, LLC or will be hiring employees. You can get this number by calling the Internal Revenue Service at 800-829-4933 or contacting the equivalent agency in your country.

c) Start obtaining facilities in which to operate, whether in your home, an office, etc. The link Setting Up an Office may help you.
d) Begin looking into computer equipment you may need. The link Computers, Internet & Web may help you.

Understanding Your Organization — A Systems View

1. Diagram a logic model of your organization, including its inputs, processes, outputs (tangible results) and outcomes (impacts on customers/stakeholders). Fill in the table in the Guidelines and Framework for Designing Basic Logic Model. (Note that this systems view is sometimes called an “outcomes model”, which is very useful when trying to get a clear perspective and understanding of your organizations.)

2. If possible, diagram a basic systems view of the development of each of your products in your organization, including inputs, processes, outputs (tangible results) and optionally outcomes (impacts/benefits on customers). Fill in the table in the Guidelines and Framework for Designing Basic
Logic Model. (Note that we’ll soon give more attention to products, including their design and marketing, in an upcoming learning module.)

Understanding Your Organization — Its Culture, or “Personality”

1. Write a half-page description of the culture of your organization. Include what values your organizations holds dear and what values you see reflected by the behaviors in your organization. Note that if your organization is still fairly new, you can still benefit from this activity by describing what you’d like to see as the “personality” of your organization. This activity will be useful later on during strategic planning when writing values statements. For assistance, see Organizational Culture — the “personality” of the organization.

Understanding Your Organization — Its Life Cycle

1. Write a half-page description of the life cycle of your organization. Is it in Birth? Youth? Midlife? Maturity? Include what characteristics you observe that lead you to conclude that your organization is in that life cycle. Note what life cycle will be next for your organization. Include description of any challenges that you might expect when you go through the next life cycle change. For assistance, see Basic Overview of Organizational Life Cycles.

Understanding Your Organization — Its Communications

1. In the materials for review, you learned that organizations are systems and that for systems to thrive, their needs to be continued and effective feedback (communications) between its major parts. What can you do to ensure effective communications between the key roles in your organization, including customers, board members, board committees, board chair, chief executive and employees? Effective communications requires more than good intentions. What specific structures can you use, for example, consider reports from management and employees, meeting minutes, staff meetings, etc. For assistance, see Basics of Internal Communications, Communications (Writing) and General Recommendations to Improve Communications Skills.

ASSESSMENTS

Assessments for Organizations

1. If you already have started your organization, then perhaps the following organizational assessments can help you measure the health of various aspects of your organization. If you have not started your organization, or if you just want to understand the nature and systems of organizations better, then the assessments can be helpful as well — you might give them a quick scan.
Organizational Assessment Tools

TRACKING OPEN ACTION ITEMS

1. One of the first indicators that an organization or a person is struggling is that open action items are not tracked and reviewed. (Open action items are required actions that have not yet been completed.) Instead, people only see and react to the latest “fires” in their workplaces or their lives. Whether open action items are critical to address now or not, they should not entirely be forgotten. Therefore, update and regularly review a list of open action items (identified while proceeding through this program) that includes listing each open action item, who is responsible to complete it, when it should be completed and any associated comments. When updating the list, consider action items as identified during discussions, learning activities and assessments in this module. Share and regularly review this action item list with the appropriate peers, board, management and employees in your organization. You can use the following Action Item Planning List. (At that Web address, a box might open, asking you which software application to open the document.)

2. If you have questions, consider posing them in the national, free, online discussion group hr.com, which is attended by many human resource and organization development experts.

(Learners in the organization development program can return to the home page of the organization development program.)

For the Category of Starting a Business

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

January 18, 2022September 22, 2022

Staffing and Supervision of Employees

Men-working-together looking at the screen

Free eMBA Module #9: Staffing and Supervising Your Employees

© Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting,
LLC. Adapted from the Field Guide to Leadership and Supervision in Business
and Field Guide to Leadership and Supervision for Nonprofit Staff.

This module is in the organization development program. However, this module can also be used by anyone as a self-study exercise to learn more about staffing and supervising employees and volunteers.

Sections of This Module Include the Following

Introduction
Outcomes
Materials for Review
Suggested Topics for Reflection and Discussion
Activities to Build Systems and Practices
Assessments
Tracking Open Action Items

INTRODUCTION

Staffing and supervision are two of the most critical functions of a manager. Each of the functions include various other activities, as well.

Very simply, staffing is:
a) Deciding what human resources are needed, ideally in terms of knowledge, skills and abilities regarding specified roles, jobs and tasks (ideally these roles are determined on the basis of strategic planning and are defined in terms of competencies and/or on job descriptions)
b) Recruiting the necessary human resources (sourcing, placing ads, etc.)
c) Considering outsourcing to hire outside expertise
d) Screening job candidates (interviewing, testing, etc.)
e) Selecting candidates (via job offers)
f) Equipping new hires (via orienting, training, facilities, assignments, etc.)

Very simply, supervising is overseeing the progress and productivity of direct reports, often by:
a) Mutually setting goals with direct reports
b) Supporting conditions for their motivation
c) Observing performance and giving feedback and other forms of guidance
d) Conducting regular performance appraisals/reviews
e) Addressing performance problems
f) Ensuring sufficient rewards

Staffing and supervising should be carried out according to carefully designed and approved personnel policies in the workplace.

This module provides materials and guidelines to understand staffing and supervision, along with setting up basic systems and processes in the organization in order to carry out activities in a legal and effective manner.

NOTE ABOUT THE LARGE SIZE OF THIS MODULE: This module is one of the largest in the program. Learners who have very limited time schedules might first “pick and choose” which subtopics they want to review before they proceed through this module in its entirety. Learners are encouraged, though, to print out the entire Free Basic Guide to Leadership and Supervision for reference in the future.

NOTE ABOUT BOARD COMMITTEES: Consider establishing a Board Personnel Committee to review and help guide implementation the information in this learning module. Major activities and goals from this learning module could be incorporated in that Committee’s Committee Work Plan.

Also consider
Related Library Topics

OUTCOMES

Learners who complete this module will achieve the following outcomes:

Supervising Staff, Including How to:

Define New Job Roles
Recruit Job Candidates
Screen Applicants
Orient New Employees
Delegate to Employees
Ensure Strong Performance
Fire Employees
Compile Personnel Policies and Samples
Evaluate Your Supervisory Practices

MATERIALS FOR REVIEW

The following materials will help you address each of the topics and learning activities in this module.

Basic Overview of Staffing and Supervision

Read Free Basic Guide to Leadership and Supervision — particularly the sections:

Introduction to Management and Supervision

Staffing

Employee Training

Employee Performance Management

Personnel Policies

Experience of a First-Time Supervisor

Introduction to Role of Supervisor

See What is “Supervision”? What Do Supervisors Do? and One Definition of Supervision.

1. What is a supervisor? How does that role differ from the general role of management?

2. What are the typical activities carried out by a supervisor?

3. What are some of the unique struggles and stresses of a first-time supervisor?

4. What are some of the roles of a supervisor?

5. Does a supervisor oversee the progress and productivity only of entry-level workers only — that is, can supervision occur at all levels of management?

Staffing

Defining Job Roles

See Defining a New Job Role.

1. How should new job roles be defined? What is the relationship between results of strategic planning and staffing?

2. What is a job description? How should it be developed? What should be included in a job description?

3. What factors are considered when determining the cost of a new hire? What is fringe?

4. How is a job description kept up-to-date?

5. What are at least two primary uses of a job description?

6. What is the relationship between a job description and a performance review?

Hiring

See Hiring (Advertising, Screening and Selecting).

1. What should be looked for when screening resumes?

2. When interviewing, should you ask different question to each candidate? Should you ask open-ended or yes/no questions — why?

3. What are some useful open-ended questions to ask?

4. What matters should be in an offer letter?

5. What is the purpose of a personnel file? What goes in it?

Building Teams

See Building Teams.

1. What is the importance of a team in the workplace — particularly in the future workplace?

2. Name at least three of the four kinds of teams.

3. What are the five stages of team development? What are the characteristics of each?

4. What is the first guideline for building a team? (HINT: Think about “SMARTER”.)

5. What are some considerations when determining the membership of a team?

6. What does the “structure” of a group mean?

7. What should be communicated to the group in its first meeting?

8. Name at least eight of the 12 guidelines for team building.

Employee Training

Orienting Employees

See Orienting New Employees.

1. What should be communicated in a welcome letter (sent to the employee before they begin employment)?

2. What are some of the activities to conduct with the employee during the first meeting after they have started employment?

3. Name at least four practices to help new hires learn about the organization.

4. What should be done with the new hire regarding the employee manual?

5. How often should the supervisor meet with the new employee during the first six weeks or so?

Job Training

See Job Training.

1. Name at least four of the six different reasons/situations to conduct employee training.

2. What are the four basic types of employee training?

3. Coaching is a common type of employee training. The process can mean many things to many people (coaching has become a major service to organizations and includes a wide variety of approaches). What the four basic steps (outlined in the reading) for conducting employee coaching?

4. What are the four common pitfalls in employee training?

5. What is a training goal? Learning objective?

6. What are some methods to ensure that the design and implementation of employee training are highly effective?

Employee Performance Management

Setting Goals

See Setting Goals.

1. What is one of the common problems that new supervisors experience regarding employee performance management?

2. What is the first step toward overcoming this problem?

3. Why do some people dislike the use of goals?

4. Name at least three of the four advantages of using goals.

5. What are the four types of gaps that goals can be used to address?

6. What is a performance gap? Growth gap? Opportunity gap? Training gap?

7. What can be done so that supervisors and employees have more “buy-in” to goals?

8. What does the acronym SMARTER mean — that is, what does each letter stand for?

Supporting Employee Motivation

See Supporting Employee Motivation.

1. Name at least four of the six myths about motivating employees.

2. What is the first step in motivating employees? (HINT: think about yourself.)

3. What must be done regarding the goals of the organization and the goals of employees?

4. Is each employee motivated by the same thing(s) as other employees?

5. Name at least eight of the 14 steps that you can take to motivate employees.

Observing and Giving Feedback

See Observing and Giving Feedback.

1. When providing feedback, focus on the ____ rather than the person.

2. Own the feedback — use __ statements.

3. Why should people be careful with giving advice?

4. Name at least six of the nine guidelines regarding observing employee behavior and giving advice.

Conducting Performance Appraisals/Reviews

See Conducting Performance Appraisals/Reviews.

1. What are some of the ill effects from not doing regular performance reviews?

2. What are some of the law-related requirements of performance reviews? (HINT: Think about the points made by Patricia King in Performance Planning and Appraisal — these points were included in your reading for this learning module.)

3. What items of information should be included in the standard performance appraisal form?

4. When should performance reviews be conducted?

5. What is the relationship between the performance review and the job description?

6. What should not be discussed in the performance review and discussion?

7. Always address employee _____, not characteristics of their personalities.

8. What is the best guideline to ensure that the guideline in question 7 is always followed?

9. What are some guidelines for carrying out the performance appraisal meeting/discussion?

10. Nothing should be a surprise for the employee in the performance review meeting when discussing employee’s performance. Why is this true?

Addressing Performance Problems

See Addressing Performance Problems.

1. When should the supervisor almost always convey to the employee that the employee’s behavior is a problem in the workplace?

2. When determining if an employee has a performance problem, consider the employee’s ____, not their ____.

3. When you first convey a performance problem to an employee, what two points should you convey at a minimum?

4. What might be some special circumstances to consider when addressing an employee’s performance problem?

5. What should you do right after the first meeting about the employee’s performance issue?

6. If a supervisor sees a performance problem soon after the first occurrence and reporting to the employee, what should the supervisor do? (HINT: Think about what should be said and what should be written down.)

7. What is the relevance of personnel policies when addressing performance problems?

Firing Employees

See Firing Employees.

1. What is the relevance of personnel policies when firing an employee?

2. You should consider firing an employee (for a performance problem) only if you have done at least four specific activities. What are they and in what sequence should they occur?

3. What should be included in a letter of termination to an employee?

4. What should be conveyed when meeting with the employee who is to be terminated?

5. What should be done right after the meeting with the employee?

Personnel Policies

Developing Personnel Policies

See Developing Personnel Policies.

1. What is a personnel policy?

2. Why is it important to develop them?

3. Why is it important to always consult a lawyer (who is well versed in current employee laws) when developing personnel policies?

4. Note that if management’s behaviors do not conform to the personnel policies, courts will consider the related policies to be superseded by the behaviors. True?

5. How might an organization train employees about its personnel policies?

Developing an Employee Manual

See Developing an Employee Manual.

1. What is an employee manual (or personnel policies handbook)?

2. What is at least one use of this type of manual?

3. In the case of a corporation and its board of directors, what is the role of the board of directors regarding the personnel policies?

4. What points should be included in description of the manual to the employee, that is, what points might be included in the wording on the cover of the manual?

Sample List of Personnel Polices

See Sample List of Personnel Policies.

1. Name at least five of the topics that might be addressed in personnel policies regarding work schedules.

2. Name at least two of the topics that might be addressed in personnel policies regarding hiring practices.

3. Name at least five of the topics that might be addressed in personnel policies regarding compensation.

4. Name at least five of the topics that might be addressed in personnel policies regarding payroll information and timekeeping procedures.

5. Name at least five of the topics that might be addressed in personnel policies regarding benefits.

6. Name at least five of the topics that might be addressed in personnel policies regarding compensation.

7. Name at least five of the topics that might be addressed in personnel policies regarding performance issues.

ACTIVITIES TO BUILD SYSTEMS AND PRACTICES

Learners are strongly encouraged to complete the following activities, and share and discuss results with peers, board members, management and employees, as appropriate.
As you proceed through the following activities, be sure to note any incomplete actions in the Action Item Planning List.

1. Do you have job descriptions for all employees? Do they include titles, qualifications, responsibilities and whom the role reports to? Dates on the forms?

2. Do you have a personnel policies handbook for all employees, and have all employees reviewed it and signed a form indicating they’ll comply with the policies? Has the board approved the handbook with its policies?

3. How do you ensure adequate and fair compensation for each of the roles in your organization? Are your practices described in your personnel policies?

4. How do you ensure your employees are oriented to your organization when they are hired? Are these practices described in your personnel policies?

5. How do you ensure that you’re effectively delegating to employees?

6. Do you have a written policy about how you conduct regular, formal performance reviews? Are your practices described in your personnel policies?

7. How do you ensure all management personnel are completely familiar with personnel policies? (It’s critical that they be very familiar with the policies — their behavior can be interpreted as the de facto policies of the organization.)

8. Do you have a policy about how employees are fired? Are your practices described in your personnel policies?

9. Update your organization chart with all roles and their titles in the organization.

10. Make a list of any personnel policies your organization needs and write down what you’d generally like the policies to address and how. Discuss this with your board.

11. Provide your personnel handbook (and a list of any new policies you might need) to a professional (preferably a lawyer who is well-versed in employee law) for review, and arrange to have all appropriate changes made as soon as possible. Arrange board review and approval of the policies, and training to all employees about any changes to the policies.

12. Draft an action plan with specific goals needed to improve your supervisory skills. Add how you will accomplish each goal and when.

ASSESSMENTS

1. Evaluation of Human Resource Management and Supervision Practices in Businesses

TRACKING OPEN ACTION ITEMS

2. If you have questions, consider posing them in the national, free, online discussion group hr.com, which is attended by many human resource and organization development experts.

REMINDERS FOR THOSE IN THE ON-LINE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

1. Are you exchanging feedback with others about what you’re learning in this program?

2. Are you sticking to your study schedule for this program?

3. Are you practicing your basic skills in management and leadership, including in problem solving and decision making, planning and meeting management?

4. Are you communicating throughout your organization by using your skills in internal communications?

5. Are you managing yourself? How many hours a week are you working? Are you noticing any signs of stress? If so, what are you doing about it?

6. One of the ways you might be able to tell if you’re stressed out and/or losing perspective might be whether you’re tracking details or not. Are you using the action item list referenced above?

7. Are you reflecting on learnings from past modules and how they build on the learning in this module? For example, are you seeing your organization from a systems view, as explained in the module “Starting and Understanding Your Organization?”

(Learners in the organization development program can return to the home page of the organization development program.)

For the Category of Supervision:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

January 18, 2022September 21, 2022

Role of Chief Executive Officer

Side-view- of a calm-business-woman-using-tablet-device

Free Micro-eMBA Module #3: Role of Chief Executive Officer

This learning module is in the organization development program. However,
this module can also be used by anyone as a self-study exercise
to learn more about the role of the chief executive officer.

Sections of This Module Include the Following

Introduction
Outcomes
Materials for Review
Suggested Topics for Reflection and Discussion
Activities to Build Systems and Practices
Assessments
Tracking Open Action Items

INTRODUCTION

In an incorporated organization (including in a nonprofit),
the chief executive officer (CEO) is the singular organizational
position that is primarily responsible to carry out the strategic
plans and policies as established by the board of directors. The
chief executive officer reports to the board of directors. In
other types of organizations (other than corporations, eg, sole
proprietorships), the top-level officer is often called the chief
executive officer, as well.

The goal of this module is to provide sufficient overview to
gain strong, initial perspective on the role of chief executive
officer, particularly when helping to establish the board of directors.
The chief executive officer should have at least basic understanding
of all of the systems and practices conveyed across the various
learning modules in this program. Therefore, this learning
module does not go into great depth about each of the particular
systems and practices managed by the chief executive officer —
rather, this module relies on the rest of this program to provide
that depth of information.

NOTE ABOUT THE ORDER OF MODULES (AND SOME DUPLICATION WITH
UPCOMING MODULE ON BUILDING BOARDS): The board of directors in
a corporation is legally charged to govern a corporation. Therefore,
it is often common to start training programs with an overview
of the board of directors. However, in this program, this learning
module about the role of the chief executive is presented before
the learning module about boards of directors. The reason for
this order of modules is as follows. Frequently corporations are
started by someone with a strong vision for a new product. That
person often goes on to become the first chief executive officer
of the new organization. Typically, that person also takes a very
strong role (often the leading role) in the initial organization
and development of the board of directors. Therefore, modules
in this program are organized to help the founder (and often the
first chief executive officer) maintain clear perspective about
the roles of chief executive officer and board of directors before
going on to focus attention on building the board of directors.

NOTE ABOUT BOARD COMMITTEES: If you are starting a corporation
and using this program to do so, then you will soon be building
your board. When you do, consider establishing a Board Personnel
Committee to review and help guide implementation of the information
in this learning module — that Committee could be very useful
to help develop and support the CEO. Major activities and goals
from this learning module could be incorporated in that Committee’s
Committee
Work Plan.

Also consider
Related Library Topics

OUTCOMES

Learners who complete this module will achieve the following
outcomes:

Learn What a Chief Executive Officer Is
Understand Major Functions of CEO
Understand Core Knowledge and Skills for CEO Role
Be Prepared for Building Your Board
Set Basis for Strong Board-Staff Relationships
Avoid “Founder’s Syndrome”

MATERIALS FOR REVIEW

The following materials will help you address each of
the topics and learning activities in this module.

Orientation to Chief Executive Role

Chief
Executive Role — particularly the sections:
– – – What
is the “Chief Executive Officer”? (review all)
– – – What
Do Chief Executive Officers Do? (review all)
– – – – – – General
Responsibilities (review all)
– – – – – – Typical
Functions/Responsibilities (review all)
– – – – – – Sample
Job Description (study)
– – – Core
Areas of Knowledge and Skills (click on each area and scan contents)

Basic Preparation for Building a Board

Overview
of Board Roles and Responsibilities — particularly the sections:

– – – Board
Roles and Responsibilities
– – – Sample
Job Descriptions
– – – Guidelines
for Recruiting New Board Members
– – – Sample
Board Application Form
– – – Ideas
to Generate Participation of Board Members

Basic Preparation for Working With Board

Board
and Staff Responsibilities
Sustaining
High-Quality Relationship Between Board Chair and Chief Executive
Should CEO Be On the Board? (scroll down, read
several articles)
Guidelines
for Evaluating the Chief Executive
Sample
Form for Board’s Evaluation of Chief Executive

Optional: “Founder’s Syndrome”

This is a fairly long document. Still, it’s worth a careful
read because it fully describes this syndrome which occurs so
often when starting an organization.

Founder’s
Syndrome — How Organizations Suffer — and Can Recover

Orientation to Chief Executive Role

1. What is the “definition” of a chief executive
officer? See What is the “Chief Executive Officer”?

2. In a corporation, to whom does the chief executive report?
See What is the “Chief Executive Officer”?

3. What are the five major roles of a chief executive officer?
See Major Roles of the Chief Executive.

4. What are the six major functions/responsibilities of a chief
executive officer? See Major Functions/Responsibilities of Corporate
Chief Executive Officer.

Basic Preparation for Building a Board

Note that the founder of a corporation often recruits
the first board members, and supports members to grow into their
roles as board members, as well. Therefore, the founder should
initially have some very basic understanding of the roles of
a board. This understanding will soon be enhanced later on during
further development of the board and organization.

1. Name the five duties and ten responsibilities of boards
(as listed on the materials included in your materials for review)?
(Note that various experts might offer a different mix of duties
and responsibilities. The important point here is to get a basic
sense of the overall responsibilities of a board.) See Board Roles and Responsibilities.

2. To whom is the board of directors responsible? See Board
Roles and Responsibilities.

3. What are the responsibilities of the board chair? Vice chair?
Secretary? Treasurer? Board member? Be sure you understand the
role of the board chair. The chief executive officer and the board
chair work closely together to coordinate and support board activities.
See Sample Job Descriptions.

4. Of the 10 guidelines for recruiting board members, how many
can you remember? The chief executive officer often plays a key
role in recruiting the first members of the board of a new organization.
See Guidelines for Recruiting New Board Members.

5. What information is requested by the board application (as
listed in your materials for review)? (You might customize your
own application form, of course.) See Sample Board Application Form.

Basic Preparation for Working With Board

1. Test your initial knowledge of the roles of board and staff
by completing the table at Board Roles and Responsibilities — Test Your
Knowledge. Next, compare your answers to the answers depicted
in the table Board and Staff Roles.

2. Name at least five actions that chief executives and board
chair can take to ensure an ongoing, strong working relationship.
See Board and Staff Responsibilities and Sustaining High-Quality Relationship Between
Board Chair and Chief Executive.

3. Name at least five actions the chief executive and board
members can take to ensure ongoing, strong participation of board
members. See Ideas to Generate Participation of Board Members.

4. Describe the general procedure for evaluating the chief
executive. See Guidelines for Evaluating the Chief Executive
and Sample Form to Use During Evaluation of Chief
Executive.

Optional: “Founder’s Syndrome”

“Founder’s Syndrome” can easily occur, primarily
in new organizations. Organizational leaders can avoid a great
deal of pain and hardship by understanding the basics of this
syndrome and how to avoid it. When addressing the following questions,
refer to the document Founder’s Syndrome.

1. What is “Founder’s Syndrome”?

2. What causes it?

3. How can you recognize it?

4. Name at least three actions that boards can take to address
it.

5. Name at least three actions that chief executives can take
to address it.

ACTIVITIES TO BUILD SYSTEMS AND PRACTICES

Learners are strongly encouraged to complete the following
activities, and share and discuss results with peers, board members,
management and employees, as appropriate.
As you proceed through the following activities, be sure
to note any incomplete actions in the Action Item Planning List.

Writing a CEO Job Description

1. Draft a job description for the position of chief executive
officer of your organization. If applicable, present the draft
to your board for review and authorization. See Sample Job Description. Note that this job
description should not merely be adopted as is, rather it should
be modified according to the nature of and needs of your organization.
)

Getting Ready to Recruit Your First Board Members

Basic Materials to Prepare

1. Draft a list of guidelines you can follow to being recruiting
members for your board. See Guidelines for Recruiting New Board Members.

2. Draft a board application form that you can use to begin
recruiting members for your board. See Sample Board Application Form.

3. One of the biggest turn-offs to potential board members
is the appearance of an organization that’s out of control, or
that’s in crises. The planning and systems you’ll glean from this
online program will help your organization to be attractive to
potential board members. For now, gather materials that will help
potential board members understand your organization, for example,
marketing brochures, your mission statement, etc. Give them job
descriptions of board members. (You’ll soon develop more useful
board materials in an upcoming module in this program.) See Sample
Contents of Board Member’s Manual.

Identify Potential Board Members — Focus on Skills Needed
by the Board (Eg, finance, marketing, personnel, etc.)

4. Make a list of what skills are needed by your organization.
Think about what skills — not just what people — are needed
on your board. If you’re just getting started with your new organization,
then you can use almost any help you can get — but there are
certain skills that are usually very useful early on, for example,
financial help, help designing organizational structures, etc.
Your needs will become more clear to you when you start and finish
strategic planning in an upcoming module in this program. (Reference
the Sample Board Recruitment Grid.)

5. Write a list of at least five people whom you will approach
to join your board. See Sample Job Descriptions and Sample Board Application Form.

Managing Your Board and Employee Relations

1. What problems might you foresee in working with a board?
It can be a major challenge for strong, visionary founders to
help organize and develop a group of people to whom he or she
reports. Write a list of the advantages and disadvantages to you.
How can you overcome the problems that you might foresee? Present
your concerns in an upcoming board meetings and ask for open discussion
around your concerns. Or, approach another appropriate source
of help — but do address your concerns. They’re likely to only
get worse if left unaddressed. See Board and Staff Responsibilities and Sustaining
High-Quality Relationship Between Board Chair and Chief Executive.

Building the Foundation for Board Evaluation of Chief Executive

1. Draft a set of preliminary performance goals for the role
of chief executive officer for your organization (this list of
goals will be refined in a later module about strategic planning).
The board of directors should evaluate the performance of the
chief executive officer on a regular basis. This evaluation should
be done on a regular basis and should include reference to the
responsibilities listed in the job description and performance
goals for the year. The performance goals should be closely aligned
with goals established during strategic planning. Performance
goals defined during this module should be updated as a result
of the strategic planning conducted in the upcoming learning module
about strategic planning. See Guidelines for Evaluating the Chief Executive,
Sample
Form to Use During Evaluation of Chief Executive and Performance Management (basics concepts).

2. Write a set of guidelines that will be followed by your
organization to evaluate the chief executive officer. Have the
board members review the guidelines. (Later on in the learning
module about boards, we will formally adopt a set of guidelines
for evaluating the chief executive officer.) See Guidelines for Evaluating the Chief Executive
and Sample Form to Use During Evaluation of Chief
Executive.

Optional: Does Your Organization Have “Founder’s Syndrome”?

1. Share copies of the Founder’s Syndrome document with board members,
if you already have them. Set aside 15 minutes in an upcoming
board or staff meeting to share reactions and ideas about what
you might do in the coming months in order to avoid the syndrome.
Write down an action plan of what you will do, who will do it
and by when. In the action plan, include actions the chief executive
officer and the board can take.

ASSESSMENTS

The next learning module will provide an overview of basic
management and leadership skills needed to start and manage an
organization. However, you might find it useful to begin thinking
about your own skills at this time. If so, consider the following
assessment.
1. Needs Assessments for Management Training and
Development

TRACKING OPEN ACTION ITEMS

1. One of the first indicators that an organization or a person
is struggling is that open action items are not tracked and reviewed.
(Open action items are required actions that have not yet been
completed.) Instead, people only see and react to the latest “fires”
in their workplaces or their lives. Whether open action items
are critical to address now or not, they should not entirely be
forgotten. Therefore, update and regularly review a list of open
action items (identified while proceeding through this program)
that includes listing each open action item, who is responsible
to complete it, when it should be completed and any associated
comments. When updating the list, consider action items as identified
during discussions, learning activities and assessments in this
module. Share and regularly review this action item list with
the appropriate peers, board, management and employees in your
organization. You can use the following Action Item Planning List. (At that Web address,
a box might open, asking you which software application to open
the document.)

2. If you have questions, consider posing them in the national,
free, online discussion group hr.com, which is attended
by many human resource and organization development experts.

(Learners in the organization development program can return
to the home page of the organization development program.)

For the Category of Leadership:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may
want to review some related topics, available from the link below.
Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been
selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

Related Library Topics

Recommended Books

January 18, 2022September 21, 2022

The Free Micro-eMBA for Businesses

Free Micro-eMBA for Business — Program You Can Provide

Complete, Free Business Development Program

As a free, self-paced program for entrepreneurs to develop
a business organization.
As a free, self-paced program to better understand basic
systems and practices in business.
By organizations to promptly provide a business and management
development program.

If You Want to Do the Program

There is no enrollment needed. Just pick the modules that
you want to do, and start them.
If you are using the program to start a business, do all
the modules in the order listed in the program.
There is no certification or degree — the program is entirely
for your learning. See the links below.

If Your Organization Wants to Provide the Program

Organizations can provide this program. Directions are provided
below.
Those organizations might evaluate learners’ results and
issue certifications, if they choose.
For more information, see the links below.

If You Are Focusing on Nonprofits

See Free Nonprofit Micro-eMBA(SM).

Who Can Benefit From Program

Highly motivated learners who:
– Wish to understand key principles, concepts and terms in business
– Have limited time and / or money
– Prefer to manage, schedule and locate their own learning experiences
– Prefer highly practical results from programs
Leaders and managers:
– Seeking guidance to understand business, start a business organization
or to firm up the foundation of an already established organization
Service providers (associations, training centers,
etc.)
– That wish to offer highly accessible and practical professional
and organization development programs in their areas
Middle managers or entry-level personnel
– Who desire highly accessible and adaptable means to professional
development for advancement in their careers
Consultants who
– Desire better understanding of business and organizations,
their systems and practices, in order to provide more effective
services to clients
– Wish to establish stronger credibility with clients by understanding
the world of managers and leaders in the workplace

Results for Learners and Their Organizations

Personal and Organizational Outcomes (knowledge, skills and
abilities)

Basic understanding and skills about:

Self-directed learning and self-management (in preparation
for completing this program)
Feasibility analysis during considerations to start a business
Common structures, systems, cultures and life cycles
Roles and functions of chief executive officer and board
of directors
Building and operating a board of directors (in the case
of corporations)
Basic, critical skills in management and leadership in order
to plan, organize, lead and coordinate activities in an organization
Strategic analysis, planning and implementation
Marketing, including market research and analysis, pricing,
competitive analysis, production, distribution, sales and customer
service
Financial management, including basics of bookkeeping, cash
management, financial reporting and analysis
Staffing and supervising employees, including job definition,
recruiting, hiring, performance management and personnel policies
Business ethics, including practical guidelines for managing
ethics, roles and responsibilities, codes of ethics, codes of
conduct, policies, resolving ethical dilemmas and training of
employees
(Outcomes from each module are listed near the top of each
module.)

Program Outputs (tangible results)

Learners in the program produce the following results:

Job description of chief executive officer
Management and leadership training plans
Complete resources to equip board members
Training plan and materials to train the board
Strategic plan
Operating budgets
Product marketing analysis
Public and media relations plan
Sales plan
Advertising and promotions plan
Financial reports and analysis
Customer service plan
Policies for staffing and supervising employees
Policies and codes to guide toward highly ethical behavior
in the workplace
Substantial cost savings from continued access to free, complete,
online materials for personal, professional and organizational
development

Note that the recurring processes that produce the above items
are at least as important — if not more important — than the
items themselves. This program carefully guides the learner through
those processes.

Nature of Learners Who Will — and Won’t — Thrive in this
Program

Who Will Thrive

This highly accessible and practical program is particularly
useful for highly motivated learners who:

Trust their own ability to manage and carry out their own
learning
Understand that in learning, you don’t always get what you
pay for — but you get out what you put in
Prefer practical results (along with powerful outcomes) from
a program, e.g., results such as plans, policies and procedures,
job descriptions, financial statements, etc.
Who cannot afford to pay the rapidly increasing costs of
tuition and materials
Who are geographically remote from educational facilities
Prefer to schedule and locate their own learning experiences
Can see the value of self-directed, “homeschooled”
learning with the support of peers in an atmosphere of trust
and confidentiality
Prefer to share ongoing ideas, materials and support among
peers
Lastly, learners will thrive in this state-of-the-art program
if they have a sense of adventure about new experiences and the
patience for learning new ways of doing things

Who Will Not Thrive

Perhaps the best way to convey the nature of people who won’t
thrive in this program is to point out certain myths about learning
that many of us have come to believe over the years. This program
will not be appealing to people who tend to believe (consciously
or unconsciously) that:

The prettier the content and materials, the more valid the
content and materials
The more expensive the program, the more learning that will
be accomplished (the fallacy of “executive-level pricing”)
The more books and binders in the program, the more learning
in the program
Program certification and diplomas represent guaranteed learning
that was accomplished by participants in the program
Learning occurs primarily in a classroom
Educators can always manage learners’ learning better than
the learners themselves

Program Design and Format of Learning Modules

Arrangement of Modules — From Building Basics to Organizational
Fitness Test

The program includes 10, online learning modules. Modules are “courses”
through which learners progress in the program. Materials and activities for
learning are tightly integrated with each other across various modules in the
program. A listing of the learning modules is included in the section Links
to Learning Modules, which directs learners through the learning modules.
Note that learners can choose to complete modules according to their own needs,
as well.

Learners Can Start Anywhere in the Program

The program can be highly useful to learners regardless of
the order in which they go through the modules in the program.
Learning modules are arranged generally in the order needed
to develop an organization from the ground up. Learners who are
going through the program primarily as a form of training and
development can proceed in a sequential fashion through the Links to Learning Modules,
and in each module address the a) topics for discussion and reflection
and the b) activities to build systems and practices.

Note that the activities required to build and manage a healthy
organization are usually very cyclical and highly integrated in nature — for example,
product planning often produces learning that, in turn, polishes
previous strategic planning activities. Therefore, learners are
guided to revisit certain portions of various learning modules
at various points in the program.

Format of Each Learning Module

Learning modules (other than the first and last) have the following
format:

Introduction — explains how the module fits into the program and
the overall process of business and organization development
Outcomes — lists the new knowledge, skills, practices and systems
that learns will accomplish from completing that module
Specific Materials for Review — references specific and free materials
for review and study; these are needed to respond to all suggested topics
for discussion and reflection and to the learning activities required to build
basic systems and practices
Specific Topics and Questions for Reflection and Discussion — highlights
key concepts to understand about the overall topic of the learning module
Specific Activities to Build Systems and Practices — guides the
learner to develop the basic systems and practices to successfully build and
manage the organization
Assessments — helps the learner measure and / or evaluate extent
of application of that topic to the learner’s organization
Tracking Open Action Items — guides the learner throughout the program
to consistently record and track any incomplete action items remaining from
the current and previous learning modules
Reminders to Learners — some modules pose miscellaneous reminders
for learners to ensure they’re using information and skills from previous
learning modules

Links to Learning Modules

NOTE: Various modules include optional sections about boards of directors.
This applies primarily to business organizations that are formed as corporations.
These sections can be skipped by learners who are not interested specifically
in boards of directors.

Each of the following modules suggests specific materials for
review, specific topics and questions for discussion and reflection,
and specific activities to develop basic systems and practices.
Various modules also include assessments and guidelines to record
and monitor action items from current and previous learning modules.

Module
1: Program Orientation — Getting the Most from This Program

Gain Guidelines for You to Get Most from Program
Learn Tips to Improve Reading and Studying Skills
Access Extensive Free, Online Resources for You
Design Your Best Approach to Program

Module
2: Starting and Understanding Your Organization

Decide if You Are an Entrepreneur
Answer: You Have Right Planning and Financial Skills?
Answer: What Human Resources Will You Need?
Articulate Your First Products and Markets
Verify If Those Markets Really Exist
Identify Best Approaches to Pricing
Answer: How Much Money Will You Need?
Draft Your First Strategic and/or Business Plan

Module
3: Role of Chief Executive Officer

Learn What a Chief Executive Officer Is
Understand Major Functions of CEO
Understand Core Knowledge and Skills for CEO Role
Be Prepared for Building Your Board
Set Basis for Strong Board-Staff Relationships
Avoid “Founder’s Syndrome”

Module
4: Building Basic Skills in Management and Leadership

Gain Basic Skills in:

Problem Solving and Decision Making
Planning
Delegation
Internal Communications
Meeting Management
Managing Yourself

Optional:

Review Advanced Topics in Management and Leadership
Design Your Management and Leadership Development Plans

Module
5: Building and Maintaining an Effective Board of Directors (for corporations)

Understand Roles and Responsibilities of a Board
Adopt Board Policies
Build Board Committees
Recruit New Board Members
Ensure Strong Participation of Board Members
Prepare for Board and CEO Evaluations
Build Board Calendar to Schedule All Operations
Organize a Board Manual
Train Board Members
Assess the Health of Your Board Practices

Module
6: Developing Your Strategic Plan

Understand the Strategic Planning Process
Draft Your Mission, Vision and Values Statements
Conduct Basic Strategic Analysis
Set Strategic Direction
Conduct Action Planning
Draft an Operating Budget
Write and Communicate Your Plan
Monitor and Evaluate Your Strategic Plan
Evaluate Your Strategic Planning Practices

Module
7: Marketing Your Products/Services and Promoting Your Organization

Conduct Basic Market Analysis for Each Product
Draft Your Public and Media Relations Plan
Draft Your Sales Plan
Draft Your Advertising and Promotions Plan
Draft Your Marketing and Promotions Plans

Module
8: Managing Finances in Your Organization

Learn Basics of Bookkeeping and Finances
Understand Budgeting and Deviation Analysis
Understand Basic Cash Management Practices
Recognize Major Financial Statements
Know Basics of Financial Analysis
Evaluate Your Financial Management Practices

Module
9: Staffing and Supervising Your Employees

Supervising Staff, Including How to:

Define New Job Roles
Recruit Job Candidates
Screen Applicants
Orient New Employees
Delegate to Employees
Ensure Strong Performance
Fire Employees
Compile Personnel Policies and Samples
Evaluate Your Supervisory Practices

Module
10: Managing Ethics in the Workplace

Set Up Systems to Manage Ethics, Including:

What is Business Ethics?
Myths About Business Ethics
10 Benefits of Managing Ethics
Ethics Management System
8 Guidelines for Managing Ethics
6 Key Roles and Responsibilities
Codes of Ethics
Codes of Conduct
Ethics Policies and Procedures
Resolving Ethical Dilemmas
Conduct Ethics Training

OPTIONAL: Module 11: Conducting Complete Fitness
Test of Your Business

Cost of Program and Time to Complete It

Program Costs

The cost of the program depends very much on how the learner
chooses to go through the program. If the learner chooses to go
through the program on their own (rather than, for example, as
part of a group of learners sponsored by a local service provider),
the program is entirely free. Otherwise, program costs are determined
by the local service provider who sponsors the program.

Time to Complete Program

Learners can go through all of the modules in the program or
they can choose their own set of modules and how those modules
will be completed. Consequently, the amount of time to complete
the program depends very much on how the learner chooses to go
through the program. The more time and energy that learners invest
in the program, the more they will learn and accomplish for their
organizations and careers.

Many of the learning activities in this program are activities
that organizational leaders and managers should do in the workplace
anyway to develop a healthy organization. Consequently, time to
conduct these learning activities in the program should not be
viewed only as “time in the program”; rather, this program
helps learners turn their organizations and careers into “learning
labs” where they get things done — and learn at the same
time.

As a very rough estimate, learners can spend anywhere from
10-40 hours in each module — again this amount of time depends
very much on how thorough learners are in reviewing learning materials
and conducting activities to deepen and enrich that learning.

Certain modules include more learning activities than others.
Therefore, the program sponsor and learners may choose to dedicate
more than one meeting for these modules. For more information,
Suggested Number of Meetings Per Learning Module
in Here’s How to Provide the Program.

Please Tell Others About This Program!

The vast majority of small- to medium-sized businesses have
very limited time and money — yet the majority of these businesses
still do not tap the vast reserve of free resources available
on the Internet and Web! Please help spread the word!
Please print out this program flyer and place copies appropriately
around your business community.
If you know of service providers who will see value in providing
this nature of program, please tell them. You might suggest they
read the program description at “https://staging.management.org/freebusinesstraining/program-description.htm
If you’re a service provider to businesses and communities,
please consider offering this program as a service in your area.

Thank you!!!

Providing the Program Requires Little in Resources and Expertise
— Here’s How!

Providing the program in your area requires little in resources
and expertise. See Here’s How to Provide the Program.

Within certain limits, I can also work with you to customize
the program to suit your needs, if needed. For example, you may
want to modify certain topics.

Program Not to Be Used Primarily to Generate Profits

This program was developed on a pro bono basis as a service
to the management, training and development communities. The study
materials for the program are contained in the Free Management Library, also developed as
a pro bono service. Because of the pro bono nature of the program
and its resources, the program should not be used primarily
to generate profits. Specifically, any fees to learners to
participate in this program should be no more than the very low
costs incurred to provide and operate the program.

How Do I Get Started?

Begin proceeding through the modules by referencing the Links to Learning Modules.

For the Category of Personal Development:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may
want to review some related topics, available from the link below.
Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been
selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

Related Library Topics

Recommended Books

January 18, 2022September 21, 2022

Free, Micro-eMBA!

Free Online Organization
and Management Development Program!

Leaders, managers, supervisors and employees and service providers
can complete this entire 10-module, online program for free at
any time from anywhere in the world. All materials are available
on the World Wide Web!

Online, free, learning modules include:

1. Orientation to Program — and Other Free Resources for
Your Business
2. Starting and Understanding Your Business Organization
3. Understanding the Role of Chief Executive
4. Developing Your Management and Leadership Skills
5. Building and Supporting Your Board
6. Developing Your Strategic Plan
7. Developing and Marketing Your Products and Services
8. Managing Your Finances
9. Supervising Your Employees
10. Managing Ethics in the Workplace

On the World Wide Web, see

https://tinyurl.com/yym2ph2w

(Many public libraries provide free access to the Web.)

For the Category of Personal Development:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may
want to review some related topics, available from the link below.
Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been
selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

Related Library Topics

Recommended Books

January 18, 2022September 21, 2022

Preparation for Micro-eMBA (SM) Program

Free Micro-eMBA Module #1

Preparation for Program

This module is in the organization development program. However,
this module can also be used by anyone to improve their self-directed
study habits and learn about free, online information for for-profit
organizations.

Sections of This Module Include the Following

Introduction
Outcomes
Materials for Review
Suggested Topics for Reflection and Review
Suggested Learning Activities
Assessments
Tracking Open Action Items

INTRODUCTION

This module helps you get ready for the program by providing
guidelines to get the most out of the program, along with suggesting
numerous free, online resources of which you might take advantage.

As with any learning module in this program, you’ll get the
most if you read all materials, consider each question for discussion
and reflection, discuss information and materials with others,
complete suggested activities and apply assessments as appropriate.
You should also regularly conduct action planning to record and
monitor important actions (for yourself or your business organization)
identified during the program, including what needs to be done,
who needs to do it, by when and current status on the completion
of the tasks.

Lastly, congratulations, on your own initiative and commitment
to your learning!

Also consider
Related Library Topics

OUTCOMES

Learners who complete this module will achieve the following
outcomes:

Gain Guidelines for You to Get Most from Program
Learn Tips to Improve Reading and Studying Skills
Access Extensive Free, Online Resources for You
Design Your Best Approach to Program

MATERIALS FOR REVIEW

The following materials will help you address each of
the topics and learning activities in this module.
Read the following materials according to directions in
their titles, eg, “read paragraphs till come to next title”)

Program
Design and Format of Learning Modules (read paragraphs till come
to next title)
Basics
for Learners to Get Most from Training and Development (read paragraphs
on page)
Tips
to Improve Reading Skills (read articles in “Various Perspectives”)
Tips
to Study More Effectively (read tips both for studying and concentrating)
General
Resources (be aware of the types of resources listed under that
category on the right sidebar)

SUGGESTED LEARNING ACTIVITIES

Learners are strongly encouraged to complete the following
activities, and share and discuss results with peers, board members,
management and employees, as appropriate.
As you proceed through the following activities, be sure
to note any incomplete actions in the Action Item Planning List. (At that Web
address, a box might open, asking you which software application
to open the document.)

1. Write down a schedule of when you plan to study information
and materials in the program. Share the schedule with several
people who can help you stay on track with your schedule, for
example, peers, fellow board members, management, employees, consultants,
friends, family, etc. Give them permission to pose supportive
challenges to you to help you stay on track.

2. Write and distribute a one-page memo to whomever you plan
to share feedback with (peers, board members, management and employees,
etc.) indicating your plans to complete the program and that you
plan to discuss information and materials with them (for example,
in upcoming board meetings, staff meetings, etc). Suggest the
program to them, as well.

3. Schedule regular meeting times (for example, in meetings
with peers, board members, management, employees, etc.) to discuss
information and materials from this program. Share the schedule
with others.

4. Recruit fellow learners to go through the program with you.
You could, for example:
a.) Contact local service providers to get suggestions for other
learners — or ask them if they would sponsor the program.
b.) Call several peers, for example, board members, chief executives,
managers, consultants, instructors, etc., and pose the program
to them.

5. If you have questions, consider posing them in the national,
free, online discussion group hr.com, which is attended
by many human resource and organization development experts.

6. Are there other activities that would be more suitable for
your needs and nature? Commit to undertaking these activities
— by undertaking, we mean other than thinking about or talking
about, but starting and completing the activities. Write down
your ideas and share them with whomever is going to support you
as you progress through the program.

7. Lastly, spend an hour over the coming week in which you
scan around inside the Free Management Library. There are a massive
amount of links in the Library, including about 675 topics. Get
a feel for how they are arranged.

8. OPTIONAL: The following three links are to a large amount
of free, online resources in regard to personal development, productivity
and wellness. If you have the time, you might glance around inside
the topics. If you find something that might benefit you, consider
identifying suitable actions to take. Write down these planned
actions and share them with others who can support you as you
take the actions.
Personal
Development
Personal Productivity
Personal
Wellness

ASSESSMENTS

OPTIONAL: The following self-assessments can help you
identify areas where you’d like further self-development.

Behavioral
Styles — Take a look at the following matrix of behavioral
styles. See where you fit in. How might that affect how you proceed
through the eMBA?

Be Flexible in the Face of Changing Circumstances –Are you really ready for change?
For implementing this eMBA?

Identify
Your Strengths and Weaknesses — Based on the SWOT analysis,
what did you learn about yourself? Use your strengths to take
advantage of opportunities, to strengthen weaknesses and ward
off threats. Any strategies that you should implement?

Stress Self-Evaluation — To determine how
effectively you are using your time, respond to these questions
honestly

(More self-assessments if you are interested.)

TRACKING OPEN ACTION ITEMS

1. One of the first indicators that an organization or a person
is struggling is that open action items are not tracked and reviewed.
(Open action items are required actions that have not yet been
completed.) Instead, people only see and react to the latest “fires”
in their workplaces or their lives. Whether open action items
are critical to address now or not, they should not entirely be
forgotten. Therefore, update and regularly review a list of open
action items (identified while proceeding through this program)
that includes listing each open action item, who is responsible
to complete it, when it should be completed and any associated
comments. When updating the list, consider action items as identified
during discussions, learning activities and assessments in this
module. Share and regularly review this action item list with
the appropriate peers, board, management and employees in your
organization. You can use the following Action Item Planning List. (At that Web address,
a box might open, asking you which software application to open
the document.)

2. If you have questions, consider posing them in the national,
free, online discussion group hr.com, which is attended
by many human resource and organization development experts.

(Learners in the organization development program can return
to the home page of the organization development program.)

For the Category of Personal Development:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may
want to review some related topics, available from the link below.
Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been
selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

Related Library Topics

Recommended Books

January 18, 2022September 21, 2022

Marketing Your Products/Services and Promoting Your Organization

Free Micro-eMBA Module #7: Marketing Your Products/Services and Promoting Your Organization

This module is in the organization development program. However, this module can also be used by anyone as a self-study exercise to learn more about marketing the organization and its products/services.

Sections of This Module Include the Following

Introduction
Outcomes
Materials for Review
Suggested Topics for Reflection and Discussion
Activities to Build Systems and Practices
Assessments
Tracking Open Action Items

INTRODUCTION

There is often a great deal of misunderstanding about marketing. People often consider marketing to be the same as advertising. It’s not. Advertising is only one part of marketing. Very simply put, marketing is the wide range of activities involved in making sure that you’re continuing to meet the needs of your customers and getting value in return.

Market analysis includes finding out what groups of customers (or markets) exist, what their needs are, what groups of customers you prefer to serve (target markets), what products or services you might develop to meet their needs, how the customers prefer to use the products and services, what your competitors are doing, what pricing you should use and how you should distribute products and services to customers. Results of this marketing analysis indicates the position, or market “niche”, for the organization to work from — and to be seen as having. Marketing also includes ongoing promotions, which can include advertising, public relations, sales and customer service. Various methods of market research are used to find out information about markets, target markets and their needs, competitors, market trends, customer satisfaction with products and services, etc.

NOTE ABOUT THE LARGE SIZE OF THIS MODULE: This module is one of the largest in the program. The activity of marketing an organization and its products and services is critical to the success of the organization and its products and services — the marketing process is broad and sometimes quite detailed. Learners who have very limited time schedules might proceed through this module primarily by reviewing the learning materials and then thinking about how they would carry out (rather than actually carrying out) the various activities to build structures in their organization.

NOTE ABOUT BOARD COMMITTEES: Consider establishing a Marketing Committee to review and help guide implementation of the information in this learning module. Major activities and goals from this learning module could be incorporated in that Committee’s Committee Work Plan.

Also consider
Related Library Topics

OUTCOMES

Conduct Basic Market Analysis for Each Product
Draft Your Public and Media Relations Plan
Draft Your Sales Plan
Draft Your Advertising and Promotions Plan
Draft Your Marketing and Promotions Plans

MATERIALS FOR REVIEW

The following materials will help you address each of the topics and learning activities in this module.

See the “Big Picture” About Marketing

First, scan the text on the following three pages to get a quick idea of what is included in each and differences between the three.

Then read
What’s Advertising, Marketing, Promotion, Public Relations and Publicity, and Sales? (all)

Marketing Basics, Analysis and Positioning

Marketing
- particularly the sections:

Advertising and Promotions

Basics and Planning (read introduction)
- Major Methods of Advertising and Promotion (read all)

Public and Media Relations

Public and Media Relations, particularly the sections:
- Managing Media Relations (at least 4 articles)

Sales

Optional — Customer Service

Customer Service (read at least 4 articles in “Basics and Planning”)

Basics of Marketing

1. Define marketing. Advertising. Promotions. Public relations. Publicity. Sales. In your definitions, include how these terms are similar and different. See What’s Advertising, Marketing, Promotion, Public Relations and Publicity, and Sales?

2. What is inbound marketing? Outbound marketing? See Marketing (the introduction “Marketing” — A Commonly Misunderstood Term”.

3. What is market analysis? See Basics of Marketing — introduction.

4. What is market research? See Market Research — introduction.

Basics of Marketing Analysis and Positioning

1. What is a target market? How does one define a target market? See Marketing (the introduction “Marketing” — A Commonly Misunderstood Term”.

2. What is a competitor analysis? See Competitive Intelligence — introduction.

3. What should be considered when setting the price for a product or service? See Marketing Pricing — introduction.

4. What should be considered when naming a product or service? See Naming and Branding — introduction.

5. What is intellectual property? See Intellectual Property — introduction.

6. What is a positioning statement? See Positioning — introduction.

Public and Media Relations

1. What is public relations? See What’s Advertising, Marketing, Promotion, Public Relations and Publicity, and Sales? and Managing Your Public Image.

2. Name at least three practices in maintaining strong public relations. See Managing Your Image (Public Relations).

3. What is media relations? See What’s Advertising, Marketing, Promotion, Public Relations and Publicity, and Sales? and Managing Media Relations.

4. Name at least three practices in maintaining strong media relations. See Managing Media Relations.

Sales

1. What is sales? See What’s Advertising, Marketing, Promotion, Public Relations and Publicity, and Sales? and What is Sales?

2. What are some basic steps in the sales process? See Understanding the Sales Process.

Customer Service

1. What are some basic steps in the maintaining high-quality customer service? See Customer Service.

ACTIVITIES TO BUILD SYSTEMS AND PRACTICES

Learners are strongly encouraged to complete the following activities, and share and discuss results with peers, board members, management and employees, as appropriate.
Various activities below will direct you to complete your Marketing and Promotions Plan by filling in the Framework for Basic Marketing and Promotions Plan. The Framework is written in HTML Web-based language. You might want to re-create the Framework with your own preferred word-processing software.
As you proceed through the following activities, be sure to note any incomplete actions in the Action Item Planning List.

Writing Your Marketing Plan for Each Product/Service

NOTE: This Plan should be focused on a particular product or service, because each has its own different description, features and benefits, customers, competitors and pricing.

Describe Your Product or Service

1. In the Framework for Basic Marketing and Promotions Plan, write a description of the product/service. The description should be written as if your customers are the readers. In the description, include the specific groups of customers served by the product/service, nature of the method(s) in the product/service, outcomes for customers and any other benefits to them, and where they should go next if they are interested in using the product/service. Be careful to describe the product/service in terms of benefits to customers, not to you. For example, address pricing, convenience, location, quality, service, atmosphere, etc.

List Your Target Market(s) for the Product/Service

2. In the table in Framework for Basic Marketing and Promotions Plan, write a brief description of the major groups of customers who will benefit from your product/service and the major benefits to them. Remember that the overall strategic goals of the organization very much determine whom you want to serve. For example, strategic goals might be to expand the overall number of customers or markets you have now, get new customers, get more revenue from current customers, etc. You may want to develop new services in a current or new market, or expand current services in a current or new market.

Understanding each of your product/service target markets makes it much easier for you to ensure that your product/service remains highly useful to each of them — each target market tends to be unique. Understanding your target markets helps you to focus on where to promote your product/service, including advertising, conducting public relations campaigns and selling your product/service. If you’ve done a good job so far of market research, then identifying the primary targets market should be fairly straightforward. However, it is very useful to determine several additional target markets. These additional markets are often where you should focus promotions and additional sources of assistance and revenue. (If you struggle to identify your target markets, the following links might help you, including How to Identify a Target Market and Prepare a Customer Profile and Marketing Research.)

Write a Profile of Each Target Market

3. In the Framework for Basic Marketing and Promotions Plan, write a description of each of your target markets. The more you know about your customers, the better you might be at serving them. Consider, for example, their major needs, how they prefer to have their needs met, where they are and where they prefer to have their needs met, and demographics information (their age ranges, family arrangement, education levels, income levels, typical occupations, major interested, etc). Also, consider what methods of communication they might prefer because that’s how you are more likely to be successful to communicate to them, for example, when advertising your product/service.

Analysis of Competitors

4. In the Framework for Basic Marketing and Promotions Plan, write results from your analysis of your competitors. Consider the following questions: Who are your competitors for the product/service? What customer needs are you competing to meet? What are the similarities and differences between their product/service and yours? What are the strengths and weaknesses of their product/service? How do their prices compare to yours? How are they doing overall? How do you plan to compete, for example, offer better quality services, lower prices, more support, easier access to services etc? For assistance, see Competitive Analysis.

Analysis of Collaborators

5. In the Framework for Basic Marketing and Promotions Plan, write results from your analysis of potential collaborators. Who are potential collaborators with your organization and specific to the product/service? What customer needs might you collaborate to meet? What resources might they bring and what could you bring? What could you do next to cultivate collaboration with other organizations? For assistance, see Organizational Alliances.

Pricing Analysis

6. In the Framework for Basic Marketing and Promotions Plan, write results from your pricing analysis. Several major factors influence the pricing for a product/service. Strategic goals greatly influence pricing. For example, if the organization really wants to get into a new market, then it might charge lower than usual prices in order to generate more customers who buy the service. The organization might consider changing pricing if the demand for its products/services is very high or low. Competitor pricing also has a great effect. If competitors are charging much less, then the organization might do well to lower prices. Similarly, if the competitor is charging much more, then the organization might consider increasing its own prices. For assistance, see Market Pricing.

Write Your Sales Plan

7. In the Framework for Basic Marketing and Promotions Plan, fill in the sales plan. Regarding your sales planning, consider: What target markets will be approached? What should be your sales method for each target market, for example, who will make initial contacts to generate leads, do follow-ups to initial contacts, make presentations and close sales? How much do you expect to accomplish in sales (consider terms of outputs, such as dollars made, customers recruited, or other units of service). For assistance, see Understanding the Sales Process.

Write Your Advertising and Promotions Plan

8. In the Framework for Basic Marketing and Promotions Plan, fill in the advertising and promotions plan. The plan includes what target markets you want to reach, what features and benefits you want to convey to each of them, what methods and media you will use to convey it to them, who is responsible to implement the methods and how much money is budgeted for this effort. The plan includes plans for a promotional campaign, including an advertising calendar and media plan. The goals of the plans should depend very much on the overall goals and strategies of the organization, and the results of the marketing analysis, including the positioning statement.

When selecting methods, consider what communications methods and media will be most effective in reaching target markets (groups of customers) and when. What are their preferences for media and when do they use them? (The link Basic Methods to Get Customer Feedback might be helpful now.) Consider, for example, radio, newsletters, classifieds, displays/signs, posters, word of mouth, press releases, direct mail, special events, brochures, neighborhood newsletters, etc. What media is most practical for you to use in terms of access and affordability? (The link Major Methods of Advertising and Promotion might be helpful now.)

For additional assistance, see Advertising and Promotions.

Conduct Your Customer Service Planning

9. In the Framework for Basic Marketing and Promotions Plan, fill in the customer service plan. When considering how you will ensure strong services to customers, consider: Are customers very satisfied with your services? How do you know? If not, what can you do to improve customer service? How can you do that? What policies and procedures are needed to ensure strong customer service. Include training in your considerations, including to develop skills in interpersonal relations, such as questioning, listening, handling difficult people, handling interpersonal conflicts, negotiating. For assistance, see Customer Service, Basic Methods to Get Feedback from Customers, Questioning, Listening, Handling Interpersonal Conflict, Handling Difficult People and Negotiating.

Conduct Your Production Planning

10. In the Framework for Basic Marketing and Promotions Plan, fill in section about production planning. Note that the development and implementation of various production methods do not have to be addressed in detail in a marketing plan — these topics are usually included in the operations or management planning for the products and services. However, production should be generally considered during the marketing analysis to ensure the eventual detailed production planning takes into consideration the needs of target markets and having their needs met on time. Consider: What resources do you need to build, reproduce and provide the product/service? How do you know? Will you have sufficient resources into the near future? How do you know?

Conduct Your Distribution Planning

11. In the Framework for Basic Marketing and Promotions Plan, fill in section about distribution planning. Matters of distribution of products/services can be critical for organizations, especially if they are providing critically needed products/services to specific groups of customers.

Carefully consider: What distribution channels should you consider, for example, should customers come to your facility, you visit their offices, can you provide products/services over the telephone or Internet, etc? What resources are needed to bring together your products/services and your target markets? What major steps need to occur to accomplish these distribution channels? (The link Distribution may help you.)

Note that detailed planning about developing and maintaining distribution channels is often included in the operations or management plans, rather than in the marketing plan. However, the marketing analysis should focus on selecting the methods of distribution that best meet the needs of target markets and the organization.

Updating Your Operating Budgets

In an earlier module about strategic planning, you drafted a basic operating budget. Now that you have a stronger sense of what is needed to produce and market your products, you should update the basic draft that you produced earlier.

Draft a Budget for Each of Your Major Products/Services

1. Design a budget for each of your products/services. If you completed Module 6: Developing Your Strategic Plan, then you already have started basic budgets for each of your products/services. Update those budgets with results from completing this module on product design and marketing. Consider expenses of advertising and promotions, production, distribution and customer service. Also consider any updates to expected revenues as a result of any changes in your pricing policy and as a result of your sales goals in your sales plan.

ASSESSMENTS

1. Evaluation of Marketing and Public Relations Activities in Businesses

2. Also see consider

REMINDERS FOR THOSE IN THE ON-LINE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

Reminders About You

1. Are you exchanging feedback with others about what you’re learning in this program? If not, you really should be thinking a lot more seriously about this — adults learn by doing something with new information and then exchanging feedback about it.

2. Are you sticking to your study schedule for this program?

3. Are you practicing your basic skills in management and leadership, including in problem solving and decision making, planning and meeting management?

4. Are you communicating throughout your organization by using your skills in internal communications?

5. Are you managing yourself? How many hours a week are you working? Are you noticing any signs of stress? If so, what are you doing about it?

6. One of the ways you might be able to tell if you’re stressed out and/or losing perspective might be whether you’re tracking details or not. Are you using the action item list referenced above?

Reminders About Your organization

1. Now that you’ve given more thought to the design and marketing of your products and services, go back to your strategic plan and update the plans about products, services, staffing and action plans.

TRACKING OPEN ACTION ITEMS

Therefore, update and regularly review a list of open action items (identified while proceeding through this program) that includes listing each open action item, who is responsible to complete it, when it should be completed and any associated comments. When updating the list, consider action items as identified during discussions, learning activities and assessments in this module.

Share and regularly review this action item list with the appropriate peers, board, management and employees in your organization. You can use the following Action Item Planning List. (At that Web address, a box might open, asking you which software application to open the document.)

2. If you have questions, consider posing them in the national, free, online discussion group hr.com, which is attended by many human resource and organization development experts.

(Learners in the organization development program can return to the home page of the organization development program.)

For the Category of Marketing:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

January 18, 2022March 24, 2023

Framework for Basic Marketing and Promotions Plan

Framework for Basic Marketing and Promotions Plan

(including plans for public and media relations, sales, advertising and promoting, and customer service)

Description
The following framework will guide you through completion of a basic marketing and promotions plan. Associated plans include public and media relations plan, sales plan, and advertising and promotions plan.

NOTE: The framework depicts a useful format, but should be duplicated into an editable version, for example, into Microsoft Word.

Guidelines are provided to fill in the section and links to additional resources are provided.

Readers are encouraged to work with a planning team in their organization to fill in this framework. After completing this framework, readers can move information from the framework to a more suitable document to be the final version of the plan document, if desired.

NOTE: You can download a Microsoft Word version of this

Also consider
Related Library Topics

[NAME OF YOUR ORGANIZATION!!]

MARKETING AND PROMOTIONS PLAN

[date!!]

TABLE OF CONTENTS

MARKETING AND PROMOTION OF ORGANIZATION

Public Relations Plan

Media Plan

MARKETING AND PROMOTIONS OF EACH PRODUCT/SERVICE

Description of Product/Service

Target Markets and Customer Profiles

Competitor Analysis

Collaborator/Partner Analysis

Pricing Analysis

Sales Plan

Advertising and Promotions Plan

Production Planning

Distribution Planning

Customer Service Plan

EVALUATION OF PLAN

GOALS, RESPONSIBILITIES, TIMELINES AND BUDGET

======= MARKETING AND PROMOTIONS OF ORGANIZATION
=======

Public Relations Plan
(For additional assistance, see Managing Your Public Image (Public Relations).)

Mission Statement

Portrays the basic purpose of our organization and the groups of customers that it serves. The mission statement should be referenced when designing and implementing the marketing and promotions plan. (For assistance, see Basics in Developing a Mission Statement.)

Positioning Statement

Portrays the unique role of our organization and how it fills that role. The statement depicts how we want others to view our organization. This statement is the essence of how we want the media, and others, to recognize our organization. The statement is the basis for wording used in ads and other methods of promotion. (For assistance, see Positioning.)

Script for Representing Our Organization to External Stakeholders

Portrays key points to make when representing the organization to external groups. The script is referenced by key personnel (board members, chief executive, etc.) to represent the organization to external stakeholders, for example, funders/investors, reporters, etc.

Stakeholders, Messages and Methods (Media Plan and Calendar)
Consider the major stakeholders for your organization, for example, employees, board members, funders/investors, reporters, collaborators, associations, etc. Consider what you’d like each stakeholder to think of your organization. What media do they read and listen to and when? What media is most practical for you to use in terms of access and affordability? The following link might be useful to you in this activity: Major Methods of Advertising and Promotion.

Stakeholder
Group

Message
to
Convey
(consider what’s
important to them)

Method

When to Use
Method

Additional thoughts/comments and any actions we should take:
What do we need to do to make the above happen? What major steps must occur? What must be developed? Who should be contacted? What resources might you need?

Actions in this area should be worded as specific goals and organized into the section “Goals, Responsibilities …” later in this plan. That section includes goals, responsibilities, dates for completion and the budgeted amount to achieve the goals.

Media Relations
(For assistance, see Managing Media Relations.)

Procedure for Managing Media Contacts

The following procedure and/or talking points will be used for all calls from and to reporters, or other contacts with the media, including, for example: newspapers, magazines, television, radio, etc.

Preferred Media and Contacts

The following media and contacts are preferred when promoting our organization. These media (newspapers, television, radio, etc.) and contacts have been used in the past, understand our organization and our marketplace, etc.

What do we need to do to make the above happen? What major steps must occur? What must be developed? Who should be contacted? What resources might you need?

=======MARKETING AND PROMOTIONS OF SERVICES
=======

You should consider addressing the following subsections in this overall section for each of your products and/or services.

Description of Product / Service
The overall goals of the organization very much determine what you want to do with each of your products/services. For example, strategic goals might be to expand the number of customers that you have now, expand the number of products that you have, etc.

Describe your product/service. The description should be written as if your customers are the readers. In the description, include the specific groups of customers served by the product/service, nature of the method(s) in the product/service, outcomes for customers and any other benefits to them, and where they should go next if they are interested in using the product/service. Be careful to describe the product/service in terms of benefits to customers, not to you. For example, address pricing, convenience, location, quality, service, atmosphere, etc.

Any additional thoughts/comments about the product/service description:

Target Markets and Customer Profiles

(For assistance, see How to Identify a Target Market and Prepare a Customer Profile.)

Target markets are the specific groups of people whom you want to benefit with your product/service. The target markets are determined by your strategic goals strategies.

Your Target Markets and Primary Benefits of Your Products/Services to Them

Target Markets	Primary Benefits to Them
Target Market 1 (Optional: Goals ____, Strategies ____ ) \| \| \|

Profiles of Your Target Markets (Customer Profiles)
The more you know about your customers, the better you might be at serving them. At this point, write down a customer profile, or description of each of the groups of customers (or target markets). Consider, for example, their major needs, how they prefer to have their needs met, where they are and where they prefer to have their needs met and demographics information (their age ranges, family arrangement, education levels, income levels, typical occupations, major interested, etc).

Target Market #1: ____
Make copies of this section as needed for your number of target markets

Competitor Analysis
(For assistance, see Competitive Analysis.)

Name of competitor’s organization

Name of their service

Common markets that we serve

Benefits of their product/service

Comparison of their pricing and ours

Strengths of their product/service

Weaknesses product/service

How our product/service compares

Additional thoughts/comments and any resulting actions we should take:
How do you plan to compete, for example, offer better quality products/services, lower prices, more support, easier access, etc?

Collaborator/Partner Analysis
(For assistance, see Organizational Alliances.)

Name of potential collaborator’s organization

Name of their product/service

Common markets that we serve

Similarities between our product/service

Potential areas of collaboration

Advantages of collaboration

Disadvantages of collaboration

Additional thoughts/comments and any resulting actions we should take:
What can you do next to initiate consideration of collaboration with other organizations? What needs to happen next? Who needs to be involved? What resources do you need?

Pricing Analysis
(For assistance, see Pricing.)

What’s the current fee for the product/service?

How much is it costing us to provide this product/service?

Are we recovering our costs to produce and provide the product/service?

Is the current price affordable to customers?

Is our pricing competitive?

What should be the pricing structure that we use for this product/service (for example, deferred payments, installment payments, etc.)?

Additional thoughts/comments and any resulting actions we should take:
What do we need to do to make that happen? What major steps must occur? What must be developed? Who should be contacted? What resources might you need?

Sales Plan
(For assistance, see Sales.)

Target Markets

Sales Methods

to Generate Leads,
Follow-Ups,
Presentations and
Closing Sales

Sales Goals

(number of contracts
and/or dollars in revenue
and/or other units?)

|
|
|
|
|
|

Sales Plan (Cont.)

Additional thoughts/comments and any resulting actions we should take:
Consider: What do we need to do to make the sales methods and goals happen? What major steps must occur? What must be developed? Who should be contacted? What resources might you need? Should staff attend sales training?

Advertising and Promotions Plan
The plan includes what target markets you want to reach, what features and benefits you want to convey to each of them, what methods and media you will use to convey it to them, who is responsible to implement the methods and how much money is budgeted for this effort. The plan often includes plans for a promotional campaign, including an advertising calendar and media plan. The goals of the plans should depend very much on the overall goals and strategies of the organization, and the results of the marketing analysis, including the positioning statement.

(For additional assistance, see Advertising and Promotion and Planning your Advertising.

Markets, Messages and Methods (Media Plan and Calendar)

What do you want your target markets to think about your service? What media do they read and listen to and when? What media is most practical for you to use in terms of access and affordability? The following link may be helpful to you when completing the following table: Major Methods of Advertising and Promotion.

Target Market
(customer group)

Message
to Convey
(“What’s in it for customer?”)

Method
to Convey It

When to Use
Method

Additional thoughts/comments and any resulting actions we should take:
What do you need to do to make the above happen? What resources are needed to accomplish the methods? Who is responsible to implement the methods?

Production Planning
Production includes the resources and processes needed to continue to develop the service to meet the demands of the customers. Note that the development and implementation of various production methods do not have to be addressed in detail in a marketing plan — these topics are usually included in the operations or management planning for the product. However, production should be generally considered during the marketing analysis to ensure the eventual detailed production planning takes into consideration the needs of target markets and having their needs met on time.

Will the product/service be produced in time to meet current needs of the target markets?

Will the product/service be produced in time to meet future needs of the target markets (for example, over the next three years)? What’s needed to ensure the future needs are met?

What major resources and activities will be needed in the near future?

Additional thoughts/comments and any resulting actions we should take:
What do we need to do to make the above happen? What major steps must occur? What must be developed? Who should be contacted? What resources might you need?

Distribution Planning
(For assistance, see Distribution Channels.)
Distribution includes the resources and activities required to bring your product/service together with the customer in order to benefit from it. Matters of distribution of the product/service can be critical for organizations, especially if they are providing critically needed products/services to specific groups of customers. (The link Distribution may help you.)

What is the best means to distribute the product/service to customers?
(Consider, for example, should customers come to your facility? You go to them? Are there other means, for example, services over the phone?)

Customer Service Plan
(For assistance, see Customer Service.)

When considering how you will ensure strong services to customers, consider: Are customers very satisfied with your services? How do you know? If not, what can you do to improve customer service? How can you do that? What policies and procedures are needed to ensure strong customer service. Include training in your considerations, including to develop skills in interpersonal relations, such as questioning, listening, handling difficult people, handling interpersonal conflicts, negotiating. (For assistance, see Customer Service, Basic Methods to Get Customer Feedback, Questioning, Listening, Handling Interpersonal Conflict, Handling Difficult People and Negotiating.)

Are customers highly satisfied with the product/service and how do you know?
(This section might include references to other reports, eg., product evaluations, etc.)

What should we be doing to ensure that customers are highly satisfied?
(Consider policies and procedures, staff training, scheduled evaluations, basic forms of market research, etc.)

======= MONITORING AND EVALUATION OF PLAN ============
Responsibilities and Frequencies for Monitoring and Evaluation

Plan’s section, goals, etc.	Completion date	Respon- sibility	Written description of results to:
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Key Questions While Monitoring Implementation of the Plan

The following questions should be modified to suit the nature and needs of the organization.

Monitoring and evaluation activities will consider the following questions:

1. Are goals and objectives being achieved or not? If they are, then acknowledge, reward and communicate the progress. If not, then consider the following questions.

2. Will the goals be achieved according to the timelines specified in the plan? If not, then why?

3. Should the deadlines for completion be changed (be careful about making these changes — know why efforts are behind schedule before times are changed)?

4. Do personnel have adequate resources (money, equipment, facilities, training, etc.) to achieve the goals?

5. Are the goals and objectives still realistic?

6. Should priorities be changed to put more focus on achieving the goals?

7. Should the goals be changed (be careful about making these changes — know why efforts are not achieving the goals before changing the goals)?

8. What can be learned from our monitoring and evaluation in order to improve future planning activities and also to improve future monitoring and evaluation efforts?

Additional questions:

Reporting Status of Implementation

Results of monitoring and evaluation will be in writing, and will include:

1. Answers to the “Key Questions While Monitoring Implementation of the Plan”

2. Trends regarding the progress (or lack thereof) toward goals, including which goals and objectives

3. Recommendations about the status

4. Any actions needed by management

Procedure for Changing the Plan

Regarding any changes to the plan, write down answers to the questions:

1. What is causing changes to be made?

2. Why the changes should be made (the “why” is often different than “what is causing” the changes).

3. What specific changes should be made, including to goals, objectives, responsibilities and timelines?

Reminders:
Manage the various versions of the plan (including by putting a new date on each new version of the plan).

Always keep old copies of the plan.

===== GOALS, RESPONSIBILITIES, TIMELINES AND BUDGETS ======

As much as possible, goals should be specified to be “SMARTER”, that is, specific, measurable, acceptable to those people working to achieve the goal, realistic, timely, extending the capabilities of those working to achieve the goals and rewarding to them, as well.

Goal	Respon- sibility	Comple- tion Date	Budget for Goal
====== MARKETING AND PROMOTING ORGANIZATION =========== Public and Media Relations Plan:
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==== MARKETING AND PROMOTING PRODUCTS AND SERVICES === Description of Product or Service:
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*Target Market and Benefits:*
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*Competitive Analysis:*
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*Collaborator Analysis:*
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*Pricing Analysis and Policy:*
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*Advertising and* *Promotion Plan:*
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*Production Planning:*
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*Distribution Planning:*
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*Sales Plan:*
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*Customer Service Plan:*
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For the Category of Marketing:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

January 18, 2022February 17, 2023

Basic Skills in Management and Leadership

Woman Sitting On Wooden Table in a Meeting

Free Micro-eMBA Module #4: Building Basic Skills in Management and Leadership

© Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC. Adapted from the Field Guide to Leadership and Supervision in Business and Field Guide to Leadership and Supervision for Nonprofit Staff.

This learning module is in the organization development program. However, this module can also be used by anyone as a self-study exercise to learn more about basic management and leadership skills.

Sections of This Module Include the Following

Introduction
Outcomes
Materials for Review
Suggested Topics for Reflection and Discussion
Activities to Build Systems and Practices
Assessments
Tracking Open Action Items

INTRODUCTION

In new businesses, “management” is often considered “whatever needs to be done just to keep things afloat”. However, for your business to grow and remain healthy, you must master certain basic skills in management and leadership — skills that will help you avoid the crisis situations where you have to do “whatever it takes to stay afloat”. The basic skills include problem solving and decision making, planning, meeting management, delegation, communications and managing yourself.

Those basics are also the foundation from which to develop more advanced practices in management and leadership. When organizational personnel struggle, it’s often because they’ve forgotten the basics — not because they aren’t implementing state-of-the-art techniques in management and leadership.

NOTE ABOUT THE LARGE SIZE OF THIS MODULE: This module references numerous basic skills that leaders and managers must master in order to be effective in their organizations and their lives. These skills can be practiced throughout this program and in other areas of learners’ lives. Readers who are interested in gaining broader contexts of management and leadership can review optional readings suggested in the “Materials for Review” section below.

NOTE ABOUT ORDER OF MODULES: Therefore, it is common to start management training programs with an overview of the board of directors (if the program includes focus on corporations, which are governed by boards of directors) — the board of directors is legally charged to govern a corporation. However, in this program, this learning module about basic skills in management and leadership is presented before the learning module about boards of directors. The reason for this order of modules is as follows. Frequently businesses are started by someone with a strong vision for a new product. That person often goes on to become the first chief executive of the new business. Typically, that person also takes a very strong role (often the leading role) in the initial organization and development of the board of directors. Therefore, modules in this program are organized to help the founder (and often the first chief executive) to effectively apply basic skills in management and leadership when organizing the board of directors.

NOTE ABOUT LEARNING SUPERVISION — Supervision is a major aspect of managing and leading. There are certain roles and responsibilities — and experiences — that are highly unique to the role of supervision and highly critical to the success of the organization. Therefore, the topic of staffing and supervision will also be addressed in an upcoming module in this program.

Also consider
Related Library Topics

OUTCOMES

Learners who complete this module will achieve the following outcomes:

Gain Basic Skills in:

Problem Solving and Decision Making
Planning
Delegation
Internal Communications
Meeting Management
Managing Yourself

Optional:

Review Advanced Topics in Management and Leadership
Design Your Management and Leadership Development Plans

MATERIALS FOR REVIEW

The following materials will help you address each of the topics and learning activities in this module.
NOTE: Several of the following materials for review are sections of a larger document, Basic Guide to Leadership and Supervision. An upcoming learning module “Staffing and Supervision of Employees” also references various sections of that document. Therefore, the reader might best benefit from printing that document for ongoing reference during this module and the upcoming module about supervision.

Basic Skills in Management and Leadership

Read Basic Guide to Leadership and Supervision — specifically the sections:

Introduction to Management and Supervision

What is “Management”? What do Managers Do? (don’t have to follow links out)

Core Skills in Management and Supervision

You don’t have to follow links out of the following sections:

Optional Readings — Broad Context of Management

Management (an Introduction) — particularly the sections:

Optional Readings — Broad Context of Leadership

Leadership — particularly the sections:
How to Lead Yourself

Problem Solving and Decision Making

For assistance in answering the following questions, see Problem Solving and Decision Making.

1. What are the seven steps to problem solving and decision making (as presented in your materials for review)? Describe what occurs in each step.

2. How do you typically solve problems? Do you have a standardized way of solving problems, that is, a method that you use? How do you know that your approach is effective?

3. Think of several major problems that you faced over the past three months. Where did you struggle when solving the problem?

4. As your business grows, the types of problems that you’ll face will become more demanding and complex. What can you do to be more careful about how you will solve problems and make decisions?

5. What problems might you foresee in applying the seven steps presented in your materials for review?

Basics of Planning

For assistance in answering the following questions, see Planning.

1. Describe each of the following terms: Goals. Objectives. Strategies. Resources. Budgets.

2. What are the eight steps in the typical, basic planning process (as presented in your materials for review)?

3. Who should be involved in planning a particular effort?

4. What does the acronym “SMARTER” stand for, that is, what does each letter represent?

5. How can you build in accountability to your planning processes?

6. What should be evaluated when evaluating a planning process?

7. Where is the “real treasure” during planning? HINT: Fill in the blank “the real treasure of planning is the planning _ _ _ _ _ _ _ “.

8. What is the frequently missing step in the planning process?

Delegation

For assistance in answering the following questions, see Effective Delegation.

1. What is delegation?

2. What are some benefits of delegation?

3. Why is it sometimes difficult for managers to learn to delegate?

4. What are the nine steps to delegation (as listed in your materials for review)?

5. What might you foresee as your biggest challenge to learning how to delegate? Delegation is a critical skill in the effective management of organizations. What can you do to start overcoming these challenge(s)?

Basics of Internal Communications

For assistance in answering the following questions, see Basics of Internal Communications.

1. What should be included in status reports (according to the materials for review)? How often should status reports be shared and with whom? Your wishes may disagree with those asserted in the materials for review. That’s fine — just be able to specify your own terms for status reports, including what’s in them, what’s in them, how often they are shared with whom.

2. What might you include in regular monthly meetings with all of your employees in attendance? Do you agree that you should have regular meetings with all employees in attendance? If not, then how will you really ensure that employees are aware of activities in the organization? Do they know now? Are you really sure? Seriously consider holding regular meetings. These meetings can go a long way toward building a strong sense of community and ensuring effective communications throughout the organization.

3. How do you ensure that all key employees are aware of important information and activities in the organization? As noted in the materials for review, new managers and supervisors often assume that everyone else knows what they know. This is a mistake. Seriously consider holding regular meetings with key staff. Don’t just rely on good intentions to communicate or “working harder to communicate”. Actually make some changes in policies and procedures to ensure effective communications.

Meeting Management

For assistance in answering the following questions, see Meeting Management.

1. How can you ensure that the right people are included in your meetings?

2. What’s the best way to design an agenda (according to the materials for review)?

3. What kinds of activities should be included in the opening of a meeting?

4. What is the purpose of groundrules for a meeting. How can they be developed?

5. What are some ideas to ensure that meeting time is managed as effectively as possible?

6. How can you evaluate the meeting process? How can you evaluate results of the overall meeting process?

7. What activities are including when closing a meeting?

8. What challenges do you see in implementing the meeting-management recommendations in the materials for review? What do you dislike about meetings? What do you like? What are you hearing from others about the quality of the meetings in your organization? What can you do to make your meetings more effective?

Managing and Leading Yourself

For assistance in answering the following questions, see Managing Yourself.

1. Why is the role of first-time manager and/or supervisor so stressful sometimes?

2. How many hours a week are you working now? Is that a problem? What do those nearest to you think about the number of hours that you’re working? How many hours a week do you think you should work on average? What is the largest number of hours that you should work in a week? The number of hours that you work in a week can be a clear indicator of current or oncoming problems in your stress level and effectiveness as a manager. What measures can you take to ensure that you don’t get so consumed by your job that you lose perspective and ultimately lose your overall effectiveness as a manager? Strongly consider involving someone else in helping to determine the total number of hours that you will work in a week.

3. How do you know if you’re stressed? What are the signs? Does anyone else in your life and/or your work know to look for those signs?

4. How might you recruit a mentor or coach? Think about this question very seriously. Having a mentor or coach can be the single, most effective measure you can take to ensure that you manage yourself and your job in a highly effective manner.

5. What’s the difference between matters that are urgent and those that are important? What should be your approach to handling each of these two types of issues? What advice is given in the materials for review regarding these two types of issues?

Optional Readings — Broad Contexts of Management and Leadership

1. Give brief definitions for the following terms (compare the terms with each other, noting how they are similar and different:). Board of Directors. Executives. Managers. Leaders. Supervisors. See Basics — Definitions (and Misinterpretations) in Management.

2. What does the term “management” mean (include in your answer, the four major functions of management)? See Basics — Definitions (and Misinterpretations) in Management.

3. Briefly describe each of the following four management functions. Planning. Organizing. Leading. Coordinating (or controlling) activities. Of course, these functions are not carried out apart from each other — they’re highly integrated. See Basics — Definitions (and Misinterpretations) in Management.

4. New managers and leaders often struggle to find the one, best way to manage and lead. Over time, they realize the “best way” depends very much on the situation, for example, the life cycle of the organization, the specific nature and needs of the organization — and their own nature and needs, as well. A very basic understanding of theories and styles of management and leadership can help greatly when finding the “best way”. Very briefly, what is the contingency theory of management? Systems theory? Chaos theory? What are some of the major styles of management? What is the importance of knowing the life cycle of an organization when leading and managing an organization? See Contemporary Theories in Management, What is Management? How Do I Manage? and Conventional Traits and Styles.

5. Many management experts believe that we’re coming into a “new paradigm”. What is this new paradigm? See New Paradigm in Management.

6. What is the argument that some people put forth to explain their view that managing and leading are different? What do you think? See Views That Leading is Different Than Managing.

7. By now, you might consider your own definition of “What is leading (in an organizational setting)?” Consider in your answer, setting direction for others and influencing others to follow that direction. See Definitions of Leadership.

ACTIVITIES TO BUILD SYSTEMS AND
PRACTICES

Learners are strongly encouraged to complete the following activities, and share and discuss results with peers, board members, management and employees, as appropriate.
As you proceed through the following activities, be sure to note any incomplete actions in the Action Item Planning List.

Developing Your Basics Skills in Management and Leadership

1. Conduct the following activities with each of the following practices: problem solving and decision making, planning, delegating, internal communications and meeting management.
a) Develop a basic procedure that is customized to your chosen approach to carrying out the practice, While developing your procedure, seriously consider the advice and guidelines provided in the materials for review regarding that practice.
b) Test your procedure by applying it to a current major effort in your organization or your life. What problems did you encounter? Does the procedure need to be updated?
c) Share the procedure with a friend and ask for their feedback.
d) Update the procedure as a result of your testing and feedback.
e) Communicate the procedure throughout your organization, as appropriate.
For assistance, see Problem Solving and Decision Making, Planning, Effective Delegation, Basics of Internal Communications and Meeting Management.

Learning to Manage and Lead Yourself

1. Design a personalized stress management plan. In the plan, include description of:
a) The signs that indicator that you’re overly stressed. Include the number of hours that you want to average in work per week.
b) How you will ensure that you notice each of the signs.
c) How you will conclude whether you need to make changes in your work and life styles.
d) Where you will go for help.
e) At least one friend and ask them to check in with you every two weeks to see how you’re doing. You might suggest that they do the same plan and you can reciprocate by helping them, as well.

For additional assistance, see How to Manage Yourself and How to Lead Yourself.

2. Consider getting a mentor or a coach. See Getting a Mentor see Hiring a Coach and Getting Coached.

3. Name at least three sources for networking and/or support for you, for example, a network of friends, association, club, etc. Do you feel comfortable turning to these sources when you need help? If not, contact at least one source that you feel comfortable approaching when you’re, for example, in need of suggestions for resources, feeling burned out, etc.

Optional — Management Development Planning

1. You can learn a great deal about management by using a wide variety of informal methods. The following link is to many suggestions and materials you can use for informal training.
Ideas for Activities to Learn About Management

2. Usually, the most effective way to learn a topic or skill is through use of a formal training plan. The following link is to a detailed procedure and materials you can use to develop your own highly customized management development plan. The procedure includes use of the assessments listed in the following section “Assessments”.
Customizing Your Own Management Development Plan

Optional — Leadership Development Planning

1. You can learn a great deal about leadership by using a wide variety of informal methods. The following link is to many suggestions and materials you can use for informal training.
Ideas for Activities to Learn About Leadership

ASSESSMENTS

Consider any or all of the following assessments as means to evaluate the extent of your management and leadership skills.
1. Various Needs Assessments to Help Identify Leadership Development Goals

2. Needs Assessments for Management Training and Development

TRACKING OPEN ACTION ITEMS

2. If you have questions, consider posing them in the national, free, online discussion group hr.com, which is attended by many human resource and organization development experts.

(Learners in the organization development program can return to the home page of the organization development program.)

For the Category of Management:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

January 18, 2022September 25, 2022

How to Provide the Free Micro-eMBA Program for Businesses

Free Micro eMBA — How to Provide the Program for Businesses

You Can Provide Program with Little in Expertise or Resources!

You have a wonderful opportunity to offer a highly accessible,
“nuts and bolts” program to others in your area! Offering
the program will be much easier than you think. You’ll read below
about a straightforward approach called “peer-training groups”
that you can use to design and carry out the program. This approach
requires little in expertise or resources from you.

First, we’ll review some basic considerations in offering any
management-related development program. Then we’ll review the
peer-training group approach that addresses many of the primary
considerations in offering a program.

Sections of This Document Include the Following

Primary Considerations in Setting Up
Any Development Program
How Peer-Training Groups Make It Easy
to Provide the Program
Suggested Number of Meetings Per Learning
Module
Regarding Verification and Certification
of Learning

Also consider
Related Library Topics

Primary Considerations in Setting Up Any Development Program

There are some fairly standard considerations in setting up
and offering any management and organization development program.
You’ll need to think about the following primary considerations.
(Keep in mind that the peer-training process takes care of many
of these standard considerations for you!) They include:

What do you want to accomplish overall with your Free Micro-eMBA
program? Professional development? Organization development?
Networking? Complement another training program? Other(s)?
How will learners gain the necessary knowledge, skills and
abilities to achieve the outcomes that are preferred from the
program? Will learners listen to lectures? Do readings? Have
discussion? Other(s)?
What group(s) of learners will be in your program? New entrepreneurs?
Experienced chief executives? Board members? Middle managers?
Consultants? Volunteers? Other(s)?
How will learners be organized as they go through the program?
In groups/classes? On their own? As part of another program?
Other(s)?
In the case of an online program, will your learners have
consistent access to computers and the World Wide Web?
How will you evaluate the quality of the process in your
program? How will you identify what outcomes were achieved by
learners? How will you show evidence of that learning?
What expertise might you need to offer and support the program?
Subject-matter experts? Trainers? Evaluators? Advertisers?
How will you advertise your program and recruit learners?
Advertisements? Newsletters? Classifieds in newspapers? Direct
mail? Word of mouth? Other(s)?
What materials and facilities do you need? Training materials?
Classrooms? Parking spaces? Other(s)?
What costs are involved? Trainers? Subject-matter experts?
Facilities? Advertising?
What fee will you charge learners?
Where will you get help if needed?
What is involved in kicking off the program?

How Peer-Training Groups Make It Easy to Provide the Program

Peer-Training Incorporates State-of-the-Art Methods of Adult
Development

Adults learn best when they a) actually apply new information
and materials, and b) exchange ongoing feedback with others around
those experiences. Few traditional classroom conditions support
these ideal conditions for learning. In most cases, an expert
delivers the training and afterwards learners leave the room,
seldom to see each other again. Too often, training materials
sit on shelves collecting dust — learners never really apply
their new learning. This problem doesn’t happen in peer-training
groups!

The process in peer-training does provide ideal conditions
for learning. The peer-training process is based on the action
learning process, which is used across the world for personal,
professional and organizational development. The peer-training
process was developed by Carter McNamara of Authenticity Consulting, LLC. Sponsors of
the Free Micro-eMBA can use the peer-training process to carry
out the program in a straightforward fashion that makes little
use of high-priced experts and facilities.

Before Peer-Training Begins, Sponsor Markets Program and Recruits
Learners

Before the peer-training process begins, the program sponsor
organizes learners to go through the program. This involves some
basic advertising and promoting about the program. How that marketing
is carried out depends very much on the nature and needs of the
sponsoring organizations and the locale in which the program is
being offered. The sponsor may find the program
flyer useful during the local advertising effort.

How the Peer-Training Process Works

Once the group of learners has been organized, here’s generally
how the peer-training process works. The following sequence repeats
itself for each topic in a program.

1. The sponsor provides training materials in regard to a certain
topic. (In this case, all of the materials are already completely
and available for free in the Free Micro-eMBA.)
2. Learners meet on a regular basis, for example, every two to
four weeks in three-hour meetings. Meetings are about three hours
long.
3. Between meetings, learners read the training materials in regard
to the topic.
4. Each meeting starts with some type of training activity, often
just a one-hour, open discussion about the particular topic that
the learners had just read about previous to coming to the meeting.
5. Immediately after the one-hour discussion period, learners
are organized into groups of 5-7 learners each to do a two-hour
peer-training circle (ideally, in separate rooms).
6. In their groups, learners share any materials that they brought
to share with other learners in their group, for example, policies,
plans, etc., that were developed from applying new information
and materials learned during the program
7. In each group meeting, each learner gets a specific amount
of time (a time slot of, eg, 20 minutes) to get help from other
members of the group. During their time slot, each learner addresses
five specific questions, including:
a) How did I apply the new information and materials gleaned from
the meeting of two to four weeks ago?
b) What did I learn from applying that information and materials?
(It’s highly suggested that the learner write down their
perceptions of their new learning.)
c) How do I plan to apply the new information and materials gleaned
from today’s meeting?
d) How can this group of peers help me apply the new information
and materials before the next meeting in two to fours weeks?
e) Are there any information and materials that I’d like my peers
to bring for me in the next meeting that we’ll have in two to
four weeks?
8. At the end of that meeting, each member evaluates the quality
of that meeting and specifies what could have been done to make
the meeting even better.
9. Between meetings, members apply the new information and materials
that were gleaned from the previous meeting.

Then steps 1-9 are repeated for each topic, or part of a topic
(see Suggested Number of Meetings Per
Learning Module), in the program.

Resources to Guide the Peer-Training Process

Sponsors can choose to implement the peer-training process
on their own, or they can obtain time-tested guidebooks which
give step-by-step instructions for organizing, facilitating and
evaluating peer-training groups. (The sponsor may want to pilot
a group or two of learners just to get the “feel” for
the peer-training process.)

Sponsors of the Free Micro-eMBA (which is geared to for-profit
organizations and individuals) can obtain guidebooks by going
to the Authenticity Consulting, LLC, website that includes information
about Authenticity
Circles. Authenticity Circles materials cost about $15 per
member for the entire program!

Suggested Number of Meetings Per Learning Module

The program’s learning modules vary in the amount of materials
to review and activities to conduct (in order to build systems
in the organization). Therefore, it may be prudent to use more
than one meeting to address certain modules (this is in the case
where the program sponsor has chosen to organize learners together
in meetings, eg, in peer-training groups). Note that learners
may choose to go through the program in an order other than that
specified in the Catalog
of Learning Modules. That’s fine. Still, certain modules may
require more than one meeting of learners.

Note that the following are suggested — ultimately,
it’s up to the program sponsor and learners as to how many meetings
they want to have.

Learning Module	Suggested Number of Learner Meetings (see NOTES below)
Program Orientation	1
Starting and Understanding Your Business Organization	1 about topics for reflection/discussion 1 about activities to build systems/practices
Your Role as Chief Executive	1
Developing Your Basic Management and Leadership Skills	1 about topics for reflection/discussion 1 about activities to build systems/practices
Building and Maintaining Your Board	1
Developing Your Strategic Planning	1 about topics for reflection/discussion 1 about activities to build systems/practices
Designing and Marketing Your Products/Services and Promoting Your Organization	1 about topics for reflection/discussion 1 about activities to build systems/practices
Managing Your Business Finances	1
Staffing Supervising Your Employees	1 about topics for reflection/discussion 1 about activities to build systems/practices
Managing Ethics in the Workplace	1

NOTES:

1. The above table suggests a total of 15 meetings in the program.
The number of meetings in the program ultimately depends on:
a) How many modules the learner (or the program) chooses to complete
b) The amount of time between meetings. The more time between
meetings, the more likely that learners could address a module
in one meeting.

2. The length of time to complete the program depends on:
a) The amount of time between meetings, for example, two to four
weeks.
b) How many modules that learner (or the program) chooses to complete.

Regarding Verification and Certification of Learning

Ultimately, It’s Up to the Program Sponsor/Provider to Determine

It’s up to the sponsoring organization to decide if the program
will include certification of learning, for example, a diploma,
“continuing education units” (CEU’s), certificate, etc.

It’s ultimately up to the local sponsoring organization to
decide how any verification and certification of learning is to
occur. The sponsor is in the best position to collect and evaluate
the necessary information in order to verify extent of learning
and ultimately reward certification.

Learners in circles might consider from among the following
evaluation ideas to decide their approach to evaluating their
learning in the program. NOTE: Before and after every circle meeting,
learners will complete a Session Planner Form which has learners
answering the questions about their learning, as well.

Objective Criteria That Could Be Considered for Evaluation
of Learning

The following criteria apply to programs where learners are
organized into groups, for example, in the peer-training process.

Item/activity	Evaluator*	Passing Grade	Failing Grade
attendance	facilitator	· none or one absence	· absence from two or more meetings without visible effort to make up the missed meetings
documentation of learning	facilitator	· fully completed	· not completed
reflective document with summary of learning from the program	facilitator	· integration and synthesis of learning	· lack of integration and synthesis of learning
portfolio (collection of written results from the program)	facilitator	· complete	· not completed

*The evaluator may be an outside facilitator or all learners,
for example.

Subjective Criteria That Could Be Considered for Evaluation
of Learning

Item/activity	Evaluator**	Passing Grade	Failing Grade
quality of learner’s feedback in meetings	group feedback in final meeting	· sustained high quality and quantity of feedback · build on own and others’ strengths	· minimal feedback
quality of learner’s use of their time slots in meetings	group feedback in final meeting	· well-prepared explanation of current goal · helped the group to help them · overall: took charge of their learning	· obvious lack of preparation for meetings

**The evaluator may be an outside facilitator or all
learners, for example.

Return to the Free
Micro-eMBA home page.

For the Category of Personal Development:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may
want to review some related topics, available from the link below.
Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been
selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

Related Library Topics

Recommended Books

Free Micro-eMBA Module #2: Starting and Understanding Your Organization

Sections of This Module Include the Following

INTRODUCTION

OUTCOMES

MATERIALS FOR REVIEW

Starting Your Organization

Considerations About You

Considerations About Your Business Idea (some basic strategic and business planning)

Understanding Your Organization

SUGGESTED TOPICS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

Considerations About You

Considerations About Your Business Idea

Understanding Your Organization

ACTIVITIES TO BUILD SYSTEMS AND PRACTICES

Starting Your New Organization

Understanding Your Organization — A Systems View

Understanding Your Organization — Its Culture, or “Personality”

Understanding Your Organization — Its Life Cycle

Understanding Your Organization — Its Communications

ASSESSMENTS

Assessments for Organizations

TRACKING OPEN ACTION ITEMS

For the Category of Starting a Business

Free eMBA Module #9: Staffing and Supervising Your Employees

Sections of This Module Include the Following

INTRODUCTION

OUTCOMES

MATERIALS FOR REVIEW

Basic Overview of Staffing and Supervision

Introduction to Management and Supervision

Staffing

Employee Training

Employee Performance Management

Personnel Policies

Experience of a First-Time Supervisor

SUGGESTED TOPICS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

Introduction to Role of Supervisor

Staffing

Defining Job Roles

Hiring

Building Teams

Employee Training

Orienting Employees

Job Training

Employee Performance Management

Setting Goals

Supporting Employee Motivation

Observing and Giving Feedback

Conducting Performance Appraisals/Reviews

Addressing Performance Problems

Firing Employees

Personnel Policies

Developing Personnel Policies

Developing an Employee Manual

Sample List of Personnel Polices

ACTIVITIES TO BUILD SYSTEMS AND PRACTICES

ASSESSMENTS

TRACKING OPEN ACTION ITEMS

REMINDERS FOR THOSE IN THE ON-LINE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

For the Category of Supervision:

Free Micro-eMBA Module #3: Role of Chief Executive Officer

Sections of This Module Include the Following

INTRODUCTION

OUTCOMES

MATERIALS FOR REVIEW

Orientation to Chief Executive Role

Basic Preparation for Building a Board

Basic Preparation for Working With Board

Optional: “Founder’s Syndrome”

SUGGESTED TOPICS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

Orientation to Chief Executive Role

Basic Preparation for Building a Board

Basic Preparation for Working With Board

Optional: “Founder’s Syndrome”

ACTIVITIES TO BUILD SYSTEMS AND PRACTICES

Writing a CEO Job Description

Getting Ready to Recruit Your First Board Members

Basic Materials to Prepare

Identify Potential Board Members — Focus on Skills Needed by the Board (Eg, finance, marketing, personnel, etc.)

Managing Your Board and Employee Relations

Identify Potential Board Members — Focus on Skills Needed
by the Board (Eg, finance, marketing, personnel, etc.)

Personal and Organizational Outcomes (knowledge, skills and
abilities)

Nature of Learners Who Will — and Won’t — Thrive in this
Program

Arrangement of Modules — From Building Basics to Organizational
Fitness Test

Providing the Program Requires Little in Resources and Expertise
— Here’s How!

Free Online Organization
and Management Development Program!

Leaders, managers, supervisors and employees and service providers
can complete this entire 10-module, online program for free at
any time from anywhere in the world. All materials are available
on the World Wide Web!

SUGGESTED TOPICS FOR REFLECTION
AND DISCUSSION