Development Solutions Consultancy

Courtesy of Curtis Alan Jackson with no edits.

With increasing focus on achievement of results, role profiles are rightly replacing job descriptions even though at a somewhat slower speed than one would expect. In developing countries such as Tanzania, the use of role profiles is even scantier. It is a reflection of continued predominance of the traditional functional rather than results based outlook of the job.

A major downside of the job description is its functional focus that blurs not only the focus on but also conceptualization of results of any given job. A job description is essentially an assembly of activities related to skills and common areas of expertise. Such a configuration virtually bears no reference to results to be achieved. Continue reading...

Chances are that at least 90% of the staff and Management in most public institutions would not know exactly what results they expect to achieve at the end of a quarter or year. Often achievement is mistakenly translated as implementation of activities. In the true sense of results, most staff and Managers work without clarity of results to be achieved. It is like walking without knowing where one is going.

The tradition of working focused on implementing activities without clarity of results to be achieved is a major cause of inefficiency, poor staff motivation and poor service delivery. Consequently, return on budget, as expressed by achievement of results, remains unacceptably low. Continue reading...

Strictly speaking results based management (RBM) is another phrase for management by objectives (MBO), which was spearheaded by Peter Drucker in the nineteen fifties. It has also come to be known by other names such as performance based management (PBM). MBO is a comprehensive and systematic managerial approach that is sharply focused on the effective and efficient achievement of organizational objectives. Whatever the name, the common thread is the emphasis of focus on achievement of results as the object of any management activity.

When it is recognized that objectives and performance are nothing other than results to be delivered to customers, the connection between the different names is glaring. By definition, objectives deliver value to customers as they essentially seek to satisfy customer felt needs. Continue reading...

Management textbooks mention that a mission statement should be inspiring and motivating from the ordinary employee through Management to the Board. Although there are good mission statements out there, there is an awful lot of poor ones. Inspiring is not exactly the impression one gets when reading many mission statements from strategic plans. One usually sees a rephrasing of what organizations do and how they do it. They tend to reflect functions organizations carry out summarized in some way. Such mission statements are not exactly inspiring. So what is wrong?

To inspire, a mission statement must convey a sense of purpose, which gives a sense of why an organization exists. It is this sense of purpose that gives meaning to what organizations do and what they stand for. Without discovering the purpose an organization is without life; it is empty. Continue reading...

Welcome to another episode of the DSC podcast. In this episode David and Patrick dive into M&E, why it is important and how to do it right.

Welcome to another episode of the DSC podcast. In this episode David and Patrick talk about how Activity Based Budgeting creates more value in an organization.

Welcome to the second episode of the DSC podcast. In this episode David and Patrick talk about how to select a management consultant.

Welcome to the inaugural episode of the DSC podcast. In this episode David and Patrick talk about the importance of Strategic Planning for organizations.

I conducted a two day Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) training to Directors and Managers of the Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA) on the 14th and 15th December 2015. The training was aimed at enabling participants understand M&E in order to be able to implement it and operationalize a recently established M&E Unit in the organization. The following is the participants' anonymous evaluation of the training.

1. Did the training make you understand M&E? Continue reading...

Truett Cathy, the founder of the Chick-Fil-A restaurant chain in the United States, during a time when the company was facing a lot of competition and uncertainty said, "If we get better, our customers will demand that we get bigger". This simple but profound statement centers on the mindset of many great leaders. Great leaders focus their thinking on how to make it better because they have the foresight to know that if they make it better, then their customers will demand that they grow bigger as a company.

To make anything better, one must first engage in clarification and evaluation. In an organizational setting, clarification and evaluation is all about identifying and defining the win or the intended customer experience that an organization desires to bring forth. If the win is not clearly defined, it becomes very difficult to practice "making it better", because there is no clarity on what "it" is. In fact this win is what Peter Drucker describes as the value the customer places on a product or service. The customer does not simply buy a product or service; they buy value. Continue reading...