Defence Magazine

NASPO is an organisation of approximately 300 personnel that has been using OEP over the last three years to achieve significant improvements in the effectiveness of the internal workings of the organisation. NASPO sits in the Helicopter Systems Division inside the Defence Materiel Organisation. It has an important role in acquiring Navy aviation capability and sustaining that capability with engineering and logistics support.

Every organisation faces change – upsizing, downsizing, restructures, refocus and re-skilling. Some of the changes are driven by internal imperatives; others are forced by external factors. The challenge is to manage and implement the changes and to continue delivering the outputs required.

So how do you measure how effective you are in improving your organisation?

The OEP model proposes that three elements are critical for organisational success. The ‘Culture/Behaviour’, ‘Strategic Intent’ and ‘Business Process/Systems’ must all be effective. These three elements are broken down to 19 drivers – such as ‘Purpose and Vision’, ‘Communication’ and ‘Information and Communication Equipment’. Through an on-line survey, the organisation assesses its effectiveness across all 19 drivers.

OEP is not just another survey tool. The OEP process starts with a survey, uses team workshops to evaluate data and propose actions and then works to implement actions, both large and small, that will make a difference to how effective the organisation is. Importantly, it does this against a backdrop of understanding what is important to the organisation in delivering its outputs – its purpose or reason for being.

No, it isn’t all roses for NASPO – over the same three years the ‘Information and Communication Equipment’ driver reflected a slide in effectiveness. The data reflects reality and different teams within the organisation have different results reflecting the different issues, challenges and areas for improvement. The data backs up and reflects the gut feel. NASPO now has the data to back up the emotion.

The OEP tool also allows for ‘benchmarking’ of data against the wider organisation and the full data set (over 2 million results). NASPO data now shows equal to or better than benchmark results for 13 of the 19 drivers.

What are the resources needed?

NASPO has run the OEP program using a small group of in-house facilitators with the support of the Business Activities Section. Full day workshops for teams and a cross-NASPO workshop have taken people out for a day away from their normal activities, and resources within teams have been used to implement the actions at a team and organisation level.

NASPO feels that one of the reasons the OEP program has been successful is that it has been integrated into normal business processes. The process assists with implementing change through a ‘bottom-up’ approach. People can become part of the solution and address their local issues. NASPO has taken the standard OEP tool and adjusted it to ensure there is a good fit with the business planning, change management and continuous improvement processes. NASPO uses the OEP tool alongside section business planning activities to achieve alignment and a sense of common purpose.

OEP in Coordination and Public Affairs

Chief of Staff Australian Defence Headquarters (COSADHQ), Mr Peter Jennings, recently secured support from the Secretary and Chief of the Defence Force to run a pilot of the Organisational Effectiveness Profiling (OEP) improvement system in Coordination and Public Affairs (CPA) Division.

In his Christmas message to CPA, Mr Jennings said that to assist our improvement efforts, OEP would be utilised.

“OEP is a powerful, Internet-based tool to help us identify and address opportunities to improve our workplace processes. OEP will help us deal with factors that may limit effectiveness and support us in building on the already high standard of the Division’s work,” he said.

The project kicked off with Division meetings on 29 January 2007 in which COSADHQ presented information on priorities and opportunities for 2007, followed by presentations from each branch head and a description of the OEP project plan. The OEP diagnostic tool was distributed to the entire Division following the meetings, and CPA staff were asked to answer a series of questions that will help build a picture of how effectively groups operate in terms of their business processes, strategic intent, as well as cultural and behavioural issues. All staff will remain anonymous in the process and answers are aggregated – individual responses cannot be identified.

The OEP process will help CPA identify present success stories and areas for future improvement. Development of improvement plans and the implementation of improvement activities will be facilitated by the Defence Renewal section in Corporate Governance and Renewal Branch, ADHQ. Successful implementation across CPA will provide background for the possible roll-out of the improvement framework across ADHQ later this year.

Director of Renewal, Mr Randy Knispel, is the point of contact for OEP information on (02) 6265 7115, or by email at: randy.knispel@defence.gov.au. Mr Knispel and his team are available to explain the OEP process and its benefits for use across Defence.

Defence

Coordination and Public Affairs

Improvement from the bottom up – the OEP experience

So how do you measure how effective you are in improving your organisation?

What are the resources needed?

OEP in Coordination and Public Affairs