People Centred Performance Enhancement

The Performance enhancement Programme (PeP) lays the foundation for establishing a People Centred Organisation capable of delivering a turnaround in the most unlikely circumstances through People Centred Performance Enhancement. Born in the challenge of a University turnaround the PeP was nurtured in the private sector and given its biggest test in a huge national public sector turnaround. The PeP offers a road-map to turnarounds in both the public and private sectors. The Director-General of the South African, Department of Justice and Constitutional Development wrote the following in the year ended 31 March 2003, Vote 23 Annual Report. “Although management is striving towards improving financial management within the Department, it is concluded that there are still control weaknesses due to the following: Inadequate management. Non-compliance with rules and regulations. Non-compliance with laid down systems. Lack of accounting knowledge and under standing. Lack of discipline and disciplinary actions against offenders. Lack of accountability and responsibility. Lack of financial management capacity. Inadequate training. Lack of supervision. Negligence.” A PeP was launched with the commitment of many. The end result of which was: “Honourable Members, Last year the Dept. obtained, for the first time ever, an Unqualified Audit on its vote account in respect of the 2003/04 financial year. This was an exciting moment because it had never been done in the history of the Department. This major achievement was made possible by the commitment and dedication of the former Director-General, Adv. Vusi Pikoli; the CFO Alan Mackenzie and all the staff. For this I salute and thank them.” Ms. Brigitte Mabandla Minister for Justice and Constitutional Development addressing the National Assembly in Parliament on 20 May 2005. Read this Book to Achieve Success through a 360° PeP. The book is not about the above Dept. It is about the PeP used for success by many.

The Performance enhancement Programme (PeP) lays the foundation for establishing a People Centred Organisation capable of delivering a turnaround in the most unlikely circumstances through People Centred Performance Enhancement. Born in the challenge of a University turnaround the PeP was nurtured in the private sector and given its biggest test in a huge national public sector turnaround. The PeP offers a road-map to turnarounds in both the public and private sectors. Many books explore turnarounds. Few have explored the common ground between the public and private sectors. Even less have offered a 360 degree guideline to implementing a People Centred Performance Enhancement Programme that’s found favour in small services to large international manufacturing and national public sector entities. In today’s modern world, must one declare allegiance on “people first?” What’s a manager to do? Well, for one thing, forget the hype around complex solutions. Realize that the solution lies in building a 360 degree People Centred Organisation and know that you must cover all the bases. If you are going to do a partial test then, you SHOULDN’T. All the foundations of People, Operations, Funding and Culture are individually necessary but not sufficient for success through Vision and Strategy. Understand why being able to assess personality is as important as a balanced scorecard. Take up the offer of downloadable forms, templates, spreadsheets and tables. Read about researching to find a Vision that is compelling and which packs a punch! Read about why voluminous strategy documents are best used for ambiance as wallpaper! Read about crowd shaped data collection and when it crosses the line to giving customers the jitters about being watched! Read about a unique budget framework that has an equal focus upon what you do at the margin and that which you do not do. Realise that the time is right for reaping the rewards from establishing a People Centered Workplace Ubuntu! You’ll be invited to join a web based implementation club where you can share ideas. Dedicated to some 2,000 people that have implemented a PeP. The book presents detail on the framework used in both the public and private sectors. The PeP was first published as a Case Study in the international journal: The Public Fund Digest of the ICGFM. The case study reported the success of a “Base 80 budget framework” that revolutionizes choice in public sector budget decision- making. The Base 80 framework is discussed in detail with links to download administrative documentation. The PeP Aligns and Integrates the Essential Elements for Success. Individually Each Element is Necessary but not Sufficient for Success. The book unpacks the detail of the framework under headings that include the following: Vision Vision: Crisp, Clear & Real | Aligned | Detailed PeP Champion: War Room | Project Management | Operations Monitoring Unit Communication: Fuel Gauge | Speedo | Rev Counter Strategy Strategy: Wall Paper | Scorecards | Execution Structure: Centralised |Decentralised | Mixed Leadership: Authoritarian | Participative | Self Directed People Responsible: Task Mapping & SLA’s | What: Delegations & Instructions | Meaning Empowered: Skills Audit | How, Video Production Unit | Training is Everyone’s Business Accountable: Timeliness | Accountability | Rewards Operations Systems: Supportive | Operational | Utilised Processes: Mapped | Displayed | “As Is/To Be” Policies: Trust | Innovation | Standardisation Funding Budget Formulation: Base 80 | Strategy Focused | Top Down/Bottom Up Budget Execution: Supply Chain Mgt. | Commitment Accounting | Delegated Spend Authority Budget Reporting: Volumes & Values of Service | Monthly, Daily etc Accounts | Multi Yr Focus Culture Attitude: Team ID/Uniforms | What’s Right not Who | It’s My Job Personality: Profiling | No Stripes Leadership | The Value of Diversity Corruption: Prevention | Detection | Reaction

At the age of 29 Professor Alan Mackenzie found himself to be the Head of an under performing Department of Accountancy and an Associate Professor of Financial Management and Information Technology. It was a position he had just accepted and together with a small team of peers they together set about the challenge of effecting a turnaround. At the outset they faced closure and in two short years they were rated to be the joint top university for the education of Chartered Accountants in South Africa. What few thought to be possible, was achieved by building a People Centred Organisation. From here Alan embarked upon a career that saw him hone his turnaround skills in small to large private sector businesses and later, at a national level, in the public sector. As his career progressed his reflections upon the turnaround challenges that he faced lead to the development of a framework that later he branded to be the Performance enhancement Programme or PeP. When Business Against Crime South Africa (BACSA), was approached to address the financial management performance of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development (DoJ&CD), national and international consultancies declined the opportunity as they felt that it was an impossible task. Alan accepted the challenge and in his first week in office he started to coach thousands of people to back his winning PeP plans. Not only did Alan accept the challenge; he lead it from the front and together they delivered, in a few short years, the first unqualified audit, ever! BAC is a National NGO supported by Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA). BACSA was formed at the request of then President Mandela and is committed to assisting Government through the provision of experts with advanced business skills. At the time of his secondment to the DoJ&CD as their CFO, at the level of Deputy Director General, Alan was the CEO of BACSA. Alan has worked in groups that have written highly successful national strategies and in an International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) advisory group that oversaw the writing of Exposure Draft 27 (The then proposed International Public Sector Accounting Standard on the Presentation of Budget Information in Financial Statements). Married with two children Alan’s pastimes include oil painting and recreational aviation.