Customer
More than 70 organizations across various industries currently use Connections Online
to better define, communicate, and execute their organizational strategies.
The Impact of Using Connections Online
Comments from a recent Connections Online Customer Survey
Productivity Improvement
Measure Results:
- Beating an aggressive plan again this year
- More profitable business was booked
- 39% increased earnings over two years
- Strongest financial position ever
- Met all profitability goals
- Put $500,000 on the bottom-line after six months
- Aligns organization wide measurements with the vision and strategy
- After 23 years in 6 markets...entered a seventh within six months with three more
to follow
Work Efficiency:
- Eliminated wasted work effort
- Now focused on results rather than activities
- Developed managerial discipline and sustained work on all our projects so they actually
got completed
- Provided a purpose and focused us on who we were and what we wanted to become
- Moved from “latest crises/first priority” to a focus on a common vision and the
ability to stick to our priorities
- Not working on the wrong things anymore
- Cycle time has improved
- Eliminated non-essential management reports, procedures and processes
- A flexible approach toward monitoring priorities and altering course without losing
focus
- Provides clear responsibilities and tracks progress
Communication Effectiveness
- Significantly reduced paper reporting because all relevant information is retrievable
online
- Used to discuss, adjust, and eliminate barriers to achieving performance to plan
- Has provided a "common language" for the organization
- Has changed the executive staff meetings... now at the 5000 foot level (no longer
wasting time at ground level)
- It provides a framework for ongoing discussion of goals and priorities
- Provides the CEO with a clear window to the organization to know what is going on
with every priority and goal at any time
- Significantly reduced the number of meetings, as well as improved effectiveness
of the meetings held
- Not rocket science... common sense... logical approach
- Helps the CEO, whose plate is already full, look at what is being done on each priority,
and adjust as necessary
Teamwork
- Departments know what resources are, and are not, available to apply to new company-wide
or departmental projects
- Improves team coordination and effectiveness because everyone understands their
role on the team, resources required, and how the team will be evaluated
- Significantly reduces wasted team effort when a team concentrates on results, not
activities
- CEO was out ill for three months and the organization didn't miss a beat (prior
to Connections Online, his absence would have crippled the organization)
- Promotes teamwork, resulting in a united company without silos or walls because
everyone knows what the priorities and goals are and how the organization, teams,
and individuals are progressing towards those goals
- Resources are far better coordinated through just-in-time communication of team
information
- Has eliminated silo behavior
- Took our team training to a new level
Employee Commitment
Satisfaction and Retention:
- Set a four year goal for employee satisfaction and achieved it in one year
- Improves employee satisfaction every year
- Retains knowledge workers because best leadership practices are embedded in the
program
- Employees make comments like "I know exactly where I stand"
- Authority Matrix provides a shared contract for decision making... no more gray
areas
- Helped greatly with a refocus of incentive compensation so that the compensation
plan is now aligned with business goals
- Provides a phenomenal orientation for new managers
Employee Development:
- Non-performers are easier to identify and develop into performers because it's objective,
not subjective
- Got away from parent/child to adult-to-adult conversation and relationships
- Employees are connected to the vision
- Builds leadership through on-the-job delegation, accountability and authority—minimizing
the need for outside leadership development
- Encourages internal mentoring of professional and managerial competencies, lessening
the need for outside training
- Better and more accountable managers are developed quickly
- Alignment happens within the organization