INCREASING GROWTH

I, Christopher LaFayelle, propose a proactive, consistent, on-going approach of Increasing Growth

I N C Social R E Strategic A S I N G ROWTH

`

DEAS through nnovation, Imagination, Inspiration and creativity

EW social purpose ventures

OMMUNITY outreach through Popular Education

ESPONSABILITY and social entrepreneurship

NTHUSIASTIC voluntarism community participation LLIANCES/ partnerships through collaboration

OCIAL economic impact & SROI

NFORMATION availability and transparency

ONPROFIT and For-profit business development

of mission-related goals

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Strategic Planning I skate to where I think the puck will be. Wayne Gretzky Men, I want you to stand and fight vigorously, and then run. And as I am a little bit lame, Im going to start running now. Gen. George Stedman Which quote best describes your commitment, effort, and resolve by Professor Christopher LaFayelle in the present time (not in the past, but right now, today)? Strategic planning is designed to help public and non-profit organizations (and communities) respond effectively to their new situations. It is a disciplined effort to produce fundamental decisions and actions shaping the nature and direction of an organizations (or other entitys) activities within legal bounds. These decisions typically concern the organizations mandates, mission and product or service level and mix, cost, financing, management or organizational design. Professor Christopher LaFayelles Strategic planning was designed for use by the organization to concentrate on Increasing Growth of mission-related goals. Its also able to be applied towards public, private, and non-profit organizations that are, or can be, strategic alliances and then enter into collaborative partnerships that can benefit all involved. Strategic planning of course can be, and has been, applied to programs, projects, and/or functions - such as Popular Education, youth, healthcare, prevention, outreach, and community betterment. The most basic formal requirement of Strategic planning is a series of discussions and decisions among key decision makers and managers about what is truly important for the organization. Usually key decision makers need a reasonably structured process to help them identify and resolve the most important issues their organizations face. One such process that has proven effective in practice is outlined in Figure 1.

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The process consists of the following eight steps: 1. Development of an initial agreement concerning the strategic planning effort. The agreement should cover: the purpose of the effort; preferred steps in the process; the form and timing of reports; the role, functions and membership of a strategic planning coordinating committee; the role, functions and membership of the strategic planning team; and commitment of necessary resource to proceed with the effort. 2. Identification and clarification of mandates. The purpose of this step is to identify and clarify the externally imposed formal and informal mandates placed on the organization. These are the musts confronting the organization. For most public and non-profit organizations these mandates will be contained to legislation, articles of incorporation or charters, regulations, and so on. Unless mandates are identified and clarified two difficulties are likely to arise: the mandates are unlikely to be met, and the organization is unlikely to know what pursuits are allowed and not allowed. 3. Development and clarification of mission and values. The third step is the development and clarification of the organizations mission and values. An organizations mission-in tandem with its mandates provides its raison dltue, the social justification for its existence. 4. External environmental assessment. The fourth step is exploration of the environment outside the organization in order to identify the opportunities and threats the organization faces. Political, economic, social and technological trends and events might be assessed, along with the nature and staPage 4 of 21

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tus of various stakeholder groups, such as the organizations customers, clients or users, and actual or potential competitors or collaborators. 5. Internal environmental assessment. The next step is an assessment of the organization itself in order to identify its strengths and weaknesses. Three assessment categories include-following a simple systems model-organizational resources (inputs), present strategy (process) and performance (outputs). Unfortunately, most organizations can tell you a great deal about the resources they have, much less about their current strategy, and even less about how well they perform. The nature of accountability is changing, however, in that public and non- profit organizations are increasingly held accountable for their outputs as well as their inputs. A stakeholder analysis can help organizations adapt to this changed nature of accountability, because the analysis forces organizations to focus on the criteria stakeholders use to judge organizational performance. Those criteria are typically related to output. For example, stakeholders are increasingly concerned with whether or not statefinanced schools are producing educated citizens. In many states in the United States, the ability of public schools to garner public financing is becoming contingent on the schools ability to demonstrate that they do an effective job of educating their students. The identification of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats-or SWOT analysisin Steps 4 and 5 is very important because every effective strategy will build on strengths and take advantage of opportunities, while it overcomes or minimizes weaknesses and threats. 6. Strategic issue identification. Together the first five elements of the process lead to the sixth, the identification of strategic issues. Strategic issues are fundamental policy questions affecting the organizations mandates; mission and values; product or service level and mix, clients, users or payers, cost, financing, management or organizational design. Usually, it is vital that strategic issues be dealt with expeditiously and effectively if the organization is to surPage 5 of 21

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vive and prosper. An organization that does not address a strategic issue may be unable to head off a threat, unable to capitalize on an important opportunity or both. Strategic issues - virtually by definition - embody conflicts. The conflicts might be over ends (what); means (how); philosophy (why); location (where); timing (when); and who might be helped or hurt by different ways of resolving the issue (who). In order for the issues to be raised and resolved effectively, the organization must be prepared to deal with such conflicts. A statement of a strategic issue should contain three elements. First, the issue should be described succinctly, preferably in a single paragraph. The issue itself should be framed as a question the organization can do something about. If the organization cannot do anything about it, it is not an issue-at least for the organization. An organizations attention is limited enough without wasting it on issues it cannot resolve. Second, the factors that make the issue a fundamental policy question should be listed. In particular, what is it about mandates, mission, values or internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats that make this a strategic issue? Listing these factors will become useful in the next step, strategy development. Finally, the planning team should state the consequences of failure to address the issue. A review of the consequences will inform judgments of just how strategic, or important, various issues are. The strategic issue identification step therefore focuses organizational attention on what is truly important for the survival, prosperity and effectiveness of the organization-and provides useful advice on how to achieve these aims.

There are three basic approaches to the identification of strategic issues: the direct approach, the goals approach and the scenario approach. The direct approach-in which strategic planners go straight from a view of mandates, mission and SWOTs to the identification of strategic issues-probably will work best for Page 6 of 21

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most governments and public agencies. The direct approach is best when one or more of the following conditions prevail: (1) there is no agreement on goals, or the goals on which there is agreement are too abstract to be useful; (2) there is no pre-existing vision of success and developing a consensually based vision will be difficult; (3) there is no hierarchical authority that can impose goals on the other stakeholders; or (4) the environment is so turbulent that development of goals or visions seems unwise, and partial actions in response to immediate, important issues stem most prudent. The direct approach, in other words, can work in the pluralistic, partisan, politicized and relatively fragmented worlds of most public organizations-as long as there is a dominant coalition strong enough and interested enough to make it work. The goals approach is more in line with conventional planning theory which stipulates that an organization should establish goals and objectives for itself and then develop strategies to achieve those goals and objectives. The approach can work if there is fairly broad and deep agreement on the organizations goals and objectives-and if those goals and objectives themselves are detailed and specific enough to guide the identification of issues and development of strategies. This approach also is more likely to work in organizations with hierarchical authority structures where key decision makers can impose goals on others affected by the planning exercise. The approach, in other words, is more likely to work in public or non-profit organizations that are hierarchically organized, pursue narrowly defined missions and have few powerful stakeholders than it is in organizations with broad agendas and numerous powerful stakeholders. Finally, there is the scenario - or vision of success - approach, whereby the organization develops a best or ideal picture of itself in the future as it successfully fulfills its mission and achieves success. The strategic issues then concern how the organization should move from the way it is now to how it would look and behave according to its vision. The vision of success approach is most useful if the organization will have difficulty identifying strategic issues directly; if no detailed and specific agreed-upon goals and objectives exist and will be difficult to develop; and if drastic change is likely to be necessary. As conception precedes perception, development of a vision can provide the Page 7 of 21

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concepts that enable organizational members to set necessary changes. This approach is more likely to work in a non-profit organization than in a public-sector organization because public organizations are more likely to be tightly constrained by mandates.

7. Strategy development. In this step, strategies are developed to deal with the issues identified in the previous step. A strategy is a pattern of purposes, policies, programs, actions, decisions and/or resource allocations that define what an organization is, what it does and why it does it. Strategies can vary by level, function and time frame. This definition is purposely broad, in order to focus attention on the creation of consistency across rhetoric (what people say), choices (what people decide and are willing to pay for) and actions (what people do). Effective strategy formulation and implementation processes will link rhetoric, choices and actions into a coherent and consistent pattern across levels, functions and time. I favor a five-part strategy development process. Strategy development begins with identification of practical alternatives, dreams or visions for resolving the strategic issues. It is of course important to be practical, but if the organization is unwilling to entertain at least some dreams or visions for resolving its strategic issues, it probably should not be engaged in strategic planning. Next, the planning team should enumerate the barriers to achieving those alternatives, dreams or visions, and not focus directly on their achievement. A focus on barriers at this point is not typical of most strategic planning processes. But doing so is one way of assuring that strategies deal with implementation difficulties directly rather than haphazardly. Once alternatives, dreams and visions, along with barriers to their realization, are listed, the team should prepare or request major proposals for achieving the alternatives, dreams or visions directly, or else indirectly through overcoming the barriers. For example, a major city government did not begin to work on strategies to achieve its major ambitions until it had overhauled its archaic civil service system. That system clearly was a barrier that had to be confronted before the city government could have any hope of achieving its more important objectives. After the strategic planning team prepares or receives major proposals, two final tasks must be completed. The team must identify the actions needed over the next one to two years to implement the major proposals. And finally, the team must spell out a detailed work program, covering the next 6 months to a year, to implement the actions.

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An effective strategy must meet several criteria. It must be technically workable, politically acceptable to key stakeholders, and must accord with the organizations philosophy and core values. It must also be ethical, moral and legal.

8. Description of the organization in the future. In the final (and not always necessary) step in the process the organization describes what it should look like as it successfully implements its strategies and achieves its full potential. This description is the organizations vision of success. Few organizations have such a description or vision, yet the importance of such descriptions has long been recognized by well managed companies and organizational psychologists. Typically included in such descriptions are the organizations mission, its basic strategies, its performance criteria, some important decision rules, and the ethical standards expected of all employees. These eight steps complete the strategy formulation process. Next come actions and decisions to implement the strategies, and, finally, the evaluation of results. Although the steps are laid out in a linear, sequential manner, it must be emphasized that the process is iterative. Groups often have to repeat steps before satisfactory decisions can be reached and actions taken. Furthermore, implementation typically should not wait until the eight steps have been completed. As noted earlier, strategic thinking and acting are important, and all of the thinking does not have to occur before any actions are taken.

The Benefits of Strategic Planning What are the benefits of strategic planning? Government and non-profit organizations in the United States are finding that strategic planning can help them: 1) Think strategically; 2) Clarify future direction; 3) Make todays decisions in light of their future consequences; 4) Develop a coherent and defensible basis for decision making; 5) Exercise maximum discretion in the areas under organizational control; 6) Solve major organizational problems; 7) Improve performance; deal effectively with rapidly changing circumstances; 8) Build teamwork and expertise.

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Whats Required of us? a) Efficient and effective implementation strategies b) A current strategic plan and an annual operating plan c) An Executive Director or HR Director who is committed to this project d) An employee manual outlining organizational workplace policies e) Current job descriptions f) Basic HR systems to manage performance evaluation, hiring & recruiting, and benefits & compensation g) Staff that can invest the time to make the project succeed 1. Executive Director: 2-3 hours each week 2. Director of Program Development: 10 hours each week 3. Coordinators (2-3): 6 4. All managers: 1-4 total 5. Selection of non-management staff: 2-3 hours each total

What Will it Take to Initiate and Succeed with Strategic Planning The growing body of literature on strategic planning for the public and non-profit sectors help us draws some conclusions about what appears to be necessary to initiate an effective strategic planning process. At a minimum, any organization that wishes to engage in strategic planning should have: (1) a process sponsor(s) in a position of power to legitimize the process; (2) a champion to push the process along; (3) a strategic planning team; (4) an expectation that there will be disruptions and delays; (5) a willingness to be flexible about what constitutes a strategic plan; (6) an ability to pull information and people together at key points for important discussions and decisions; and (7) a willingness to construct and consider arguments geared to very different evaluative criteria. The criteria for judging the effectiveness of strategic planning for Non-profit Organizations probably should differ from those used to judge effectiveness in the private sector. Until the nonprofit organization gains more experience with strategic planning, it seems best to judge their strategic planning efforts according to the extent to which they: (1) focus the attention of key decision makers on what it important for their organizations, (2) help set priorities for action, and (3) generate those actions.

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Strategic Staff Development Building the right team is a challenge for most organizations, but finding and supporting the best people for the job is critical to a nonprofit's success. How can you determine what skills you need, assess your current team, and create realistic, effective development plans, with no time or budget for training?

Our Strategic Staff Development must offer a customized project to help us:

Identify the type and level of talent necessary for growth or continued excellence; Nurture your current staff and provide career opportunities that increase engagement while serving organizational goals; Create a plan to develop existing or future talent for strategic responsibilities; Make good decisions about hiring, training, on-the-job development, and task allocations; Our Approach

Strategic staffinggetting the right number of people with the right skills, experiences, and competencies in the right jobs at the right timeis one of the biggest challenges for any organization. You need solid processes for staff planning, on-the-job development, and employee engagement. Using your strategic priorities as a guide, our Strategic Staff Development shows you how to plan, build, and nourish a robust, capable staff now and for the future. Impact The specific impact of each project varies, but we can expect to: Integrate our staffing goals with our strategic objectives; Map current and desired competencies to our specific organizational needs; Align talent management practices around competencies; Identify gaps in future staff plans; Begin to systematize the talent assessment and career development planning process;

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Details Possible Project Scope and Deliverables (Actual deliverables will depend on your unique needs) Discovery interviews with a range of your staff; Strategic staffing guide that catalogues critical capabilities; Competency models that create detailed profiles for each organizational role; Development plan templates that emphasize on-the-job learning opportunities and incorporate the strategic needs of both the organization and the employee; Organization-specific best practices in workforce planning and career development Target Nonprofit Our application of a Strategic Staff Development Service Grant is most likely to be successful under certain circumstances. I recommend that we you apply since our organization meets the following requirements: A strategic plan and an annual operating plan that reflects current thinking and practice; An Executive Director or HR Director who is strongly committed to this project; An employee manual outlining organizational workplace policies; Accurate job descriptions for all or most roles; Basic HR systems to manage performance evaluation, hiring and recruiting, and benefits and compensation; At least 20 employees; Staff that can invest the necessary time to make the project succeed: a) Executive Director: 2-3 hours each week b) Human Resources Director: 2-3 hours each week c) Day-to-Day Contact (may be same as HR Director): 3 hours each week d) Select managers (2-3): 10-15 hours over the course of the project e) Selection of staff: 2-4 hours each over the course of the project

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Strategic Staff Development has 4 Parts. 1) Creating a competency model 2) Building a full profile of the strengths and limitations of the Organizations current staff. 3) Building a full profile of the Organizations ideal staff. 4) Identifying strategies for developing the Organizations staff into their ideal staff.

Professor Christopher LaFayelles Staff Development Project (SDP) Our Mission The mission of the Professor Christopher LaFayelles Staff Development Project is to help our staff reach professional and personal excellence by protecting, nurturing, strengthening and enhancing the staff development functions within the organization. This will be achieved by collaboratively working on three initiatives: Initiative #1: Staff Training This is the SDPs primary focus. This would involve identifying unmet staff training needs and then designing, developing and delivering relevant training activities at minimal cost. Initiative #2: Transfer and Application of Learning for Effective Job Performance Linked to Initiative #1 - this would involve assessing the transfer/application of knowledge and skills gained from staff training to the employee's job with effective results. Initiative #3: Promoting, strengthening and reinforcing a consistent "learning culture" within our organization.

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All of these initiatives ultimately support and strengthen excellence in service delivery, popular education, and community outreach. "We believe that learning is central and critical to what we do. Continuous and progressive learning creates opportunities, challenges how we normally see and do things, builds understanding of our mission and strengthens community connections."

Human Resources Management Action Plan Human Resources Management action plan, for it to be purposeful, must take into consideration the companys mission statement, its business philosophy as well as its strategic goals. No management philosophy can succeed unless there is a well-conceived action plan to achieve its set objectives. It is no different with the Human Resources Management (HRM). Action Planning in Human Resource Management involves a proper assessment of the future needs of man-power, recruitment and training of employees, evolving suitable methodologies to obtain optimum employee efficiency and drawing up an action plan to achieve the set targets. For example, in a project management system, a base plan is outlined which is often referred to as Project Plan which calls for some definite actions to be taken. These actions are often based on project management targets and objectives. Human resource management action plan follows the same notion and provides a foundation to HR initiatives and goals. HR Action Plan For any action plan to succeed be it short term or long term - there has to be certain appropriate and well-defined strategies. For instance, to engage the optimum number of employees and reduce staffing costs, HRM has to anticipate when additional staff will be required, decide whether to recruit them or outsource the work. The HR action plan Page 14 of 21

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should focus on optimizing individual employee potential for the overall growth of the company. The HR action plan must include strategies to keep the employees motivated and instill in them a sense of belonging so that they strive hard to collectively accomplish the companys goals. It is also a part of HR action plan to ensure that proper work ambience is created, the complaints of individual employees are promptly redressed and that there are no disgruntled employees. HR action plan must include proper and timely compliance of all statutory and legal requirements. Human resource management emphasizes on policies and guidelines which is critical in implementation like implementing a particular project. Key Factors In HR Action Plan In implementing the action plan, HR management has to consider a number of key factors:

Outlining human resource objectives and laying down policies. To scout for talent and hire persons with the right qualifications and experience. To create a work culture where individual employees develop a feeling they are doing important work. Keeping abreast of technological changes to carry out the action plan with new skills. Closely tracking changes to legislation, particularly in the compliance area. Watchful of changing industry/business trends and suitably reorienting HR policies. Evaluating HR Action Plan

Merely conceiving an imaginative action plan will be purposeless unless it is effectively implemented. Each employee must be made to understand the assigned job function and the work must be monitored on regular basis both at the macro and micro levels. Whenever the action plan lags behind or threatens to get derailed, timely corrective measures must be taken. HR action plan has a much larger role and more complex goals to achieve than merely chalking out procedures for fulfilling the basic functions. The onus is on the HR manPage 15 of 21

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agement professionals to assess the effectiveness of the HR policies in ensuring a return on investment of the existing human assets. HR processes have a direct bearing on employees' collective ability to contribute to the growth of the organization. The purpose of HR action plan is also to assist organizations in making enhanced performance and towards this end HR action plan is an instrument to accomplish the planned developments, and assigning responsibilities to individual employees for carrying out the work. There is not much difference in Project Management action plan and HRM action plan except for the fact that project management action plan is based on disintegrated needs and necessities whereas human resource management action plan is all about uniting disintegrating resources. What are some tips for having an effective human resource management plan? First of all, it has to address the facts that business fortunes rise and fall periodically, employees and talent needs change and evolve, workforces age and retire in perhaps unplanned ways that do not match business needs. Also the market value of talent changes over time, sometimes becoming more valuable or less valuable. Business focus: Be a best business place to work, not just a best place to work. Create a human resource management strategy to live with throughout the business cycle. Test some alternative solutions assuming growth and shrinkage of the number of customers and their profitability. Reward people who have helped the organization to succeed. Emphasize key skills: We must mentor staff with the crucial skills so that they grow and learn. While everyone is important, some people have skills which a business needs than do others. This means investing in the talent that is closest to the business' core competencies - capabilities which are vital in making the business a winning one. Inform everyone what the talent priorities are and build a reward solution that fits. Invest on the area

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where most of business value comes from - people with expertise that add most to the business. Communicate: Educate employees about the rules of staffing growth and reduction early in their career. During the staffing build up over the last 5 years, companies implied that jobs were more secure than they really are. Thus, when the business tide turned, workforces recalled these implied promises and interpreted them as job guarantees. It is extremely important to have people understand the actual deal the company can provide. Be clear that staffing levels would change. However, also make employees comprehend what they can do to improve their value to make it less likely that they will be picked for lay offs and salary reductions.

Measure performance: Build an accepted and valid way to judge performance before it is needed. It is important to have a credible and reliable performance management system in place when times are going well. In good times, it is easy to protect inadequate performers when staffing levels are high, but not when cutting is necessary. The best way to foster distrust, to say nothing about litigation, is to adopt a makeshift ranking system just before it is needed to reduce staff and try to use it to decide who goes and who remains. Humanity counts: Cut the workforce quickly and humanely. Spreading the pain around does not make much business sense. When there is a need to reduce staff, reduce it. Build a reputation for keeping people close to the meat of the business even when cutting is inevitable. Get it over with: Cut enough so that when it is over, it is really over. Do some staff planning and stick with it. Companies cannot continue to regain the trust of the workforce if they do not Page 17 of 21

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make the needed cuts and commence to regain business momentum. While it is very hard to predict the next possible economic fortunes of the business, the staff cutting must stop when management promises that it will.

Employee Action Plan An employee action plan describes or maps out the steps that an employee plans to take to achieve a particular goal or objective. For project oriented objectives, or complex tasks, it's helpful for an employee to create an action plan that contains his actions, the actions of other people that might need to be involved, time lines, etc. Usually, the employee, him or herself creates such an action plan since it's the employee who needs to implement it. Managers, of course, often make suggestions that can be incorporated into the action plan. The action plan can be used to monitor a project and to ensure it remains on time and on task. Employee Performance Problems One of the toughest parts of a manager's job involves dealing with employee performance problems, disciplining employees and getting the least effective performers to improve. What Is A Performance Problem? A performance problem occurs when an employee is failing to obtain the results expected of him or her, or falling short of the goals and objectives for the job. In other words, there's a gap between what the employee should be producing and what he or she is currently producing. Performance problems occur in many forms, and can range from simple poor productivity, to absenteeism, to negatively affecting the work of others. However, it's important to distinguish between performance issues that negatively affect the company, and employee actions that may simply be annoying to the manager or Page 18 of 21

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other employees. Some employees may have certain habits that do not impact on their value, but simply annoy people. These are not really performance problems, per se. In assessing whether there is a real performance problem, a good question to ask is: "What effect does "it" have on the company, or work unit, in terms of goal achievement?" Or, "If we do nothing about this "problem", will there be any negative outcomes?" What Is Diagnosing A Performance Problem? Once you have a sense that there is a performance issue or performance problem with a specific employee, the very first step involves mapping out that problem in more detail. It's very helpful to know when the problem occurs, under what conditions, and the impact the problem has on your business or work-unit goals and responsibilities. The more you understand the nature of the problem, the more likely you will be able to step in and help eliminate it. Also, to understand the nature of the problem, it's often useful to ask the employee about it in a non-accusatory way. What may seem to be a problem, without any rational reasoning behind it, may turn out to make sense, if you talk to the employee. You need to understand what's going on! So, you gather information, so you can decide if there really IS a problem that requires action. Some apparent problems are so minor that they do not require you to do anything. You'll Need To Diagnose Why The Performance Problem Is Happening. Diagnosing a performance problem is a process used to identify WHY a particular employee is performing below expectations. Its function is obvious. To solve a problem, you need to get to the root cause, the ultimate and critical cause, so you can address the cause, and not just the symptom. Remember that the purpose of the diagnosis is so you and the employee can fix the problem. It's not for the purpose of blaming, and should be carried out WITH the employee. It shouldn't be something you do TO the employee.

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There are two main causes of performance problems. The first has to do with employee characteristics. Employee performance is based on the following: employee skill levels, motivation, ability, training, and other factors that "belong" at least in part, to the employee. The second type of cause has to do with the system in which work is done. In this category are included: managerial behavior, allocation of resources, the effects of colleague behavior, and a wide range of variables that are, by and large, beyond the control of the individual employee. When trying to identify the causes of poor employee performance it's absolutely critical that both kinds of causes be examined. Even something like "poor employee motivation", something that would appear on the surface to be related to employee characteristics, is heavily influenced by the work environment. A work environment can be frustrating or demoralizing, so apparent poor employee motivation can itself be caused by a poor working environment. The reality is that many performance problems occur as a result of the system in which the person works. For example, an employee may be less productive over time if the tools s/he is given are faulty, poor or inadequate. Certainly, that is not the fault of the employee, and it's not something the employee can even control. In many situations, performance problems are jointly caused. That is, the causes lie both with the employee and the environment or system (and that includes managerial behavior). The two "causes" often interact, which is why you will find that two employees doing the same job in the same environment can be differentially productive. Anyway, the point is not to rush to judgment and attribute a productivity problem solely to the employee. It's unfair to do so, and what's worse, you aren't likely to be able to fix the problem unless you also look at the work environment. When diagnosing performance look at employee factors as contributors and the bigger picture. Progressive Discipline Progressive discipline is a managerial tool that involves applying various consequences, tied to performance in a progressive way (from less significant to more significant), to Page 20 of 21

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encourage employees to improve their performance or move the process along so that the impact of poor employee performance is reduced or eliminated. It involves communicating with the employee that there is a problem, and specifying the details of the problem, setting and communicating what will happen if the problem is not resolved, and then invoking the consequences if the problem is not resolved. The idea behind progressive discipline is to provide an opportunity for the employee to improve. It is not a method of punishment. One of the most uncomfortable things managers have to do is address performance problems and problem employees. There's no way around it. It's probably going to remain uncomfortable. However, progressive discipline can help, because the basic principle behind the way we have described it is that the least possible force and negative consequences should be used to get the performance problem address. Suggesting that the process should be started early on, and not when the only options are punishment and/or termination. Professional Growth Professional growth involves collaboration between you and your employees. You're responsible for providing training and development opportunities but they're responsible for taking advantage of the opportunities and successfully completing the training they receive.

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