1. Circle the Plan (CTP ): The load levelling strategy
Engage the personnel in two short! meetings per day - a traditional “Stand-up
Meeting” each day –at the start of shift and then a second one, late in the work day,
preferably 3 hours prior to logging off. Let’s call this late meeting the “Circle the
Plan” meeting. The C T P meeting focuses at load levelling. Let’s say that, on a
particular evening, team has a task that must be done by end of the day where SLA
is same day. This task is probably going to take 2 hours of labour beyond the normal
shift hours. The CTP strategy ensures a simple strategic solution to handle this task.
Where other personnel within the team have no tasks with a tight deadline, the
affected part of the team puts in a cry for help, and manager agrees. So, a situational
team (name it Rapid Action Agents; this motivates the personnel) is formed to
complete the task using a simple formula by working out on the number of hours on
hand, number of applications to be processed and number of personnel comprising
the situational team. Thus, the task is done well and avoids burning out the affected
part of the team. And who knows? Perhaps the following evening, the roles could be
reversed or other team members might get to become Rapid Action Agents!
The purpose of conducting a CTP exercise, just after the last scan/indexing serves as
a managerial tool to doctor the status-quo and come up with a strategic solution to
keep up spirits of personnel while handling the situation effectively. As described
above within the definition, it acts as a catalyst to accelerate the performance delivery
for the up-coming hours to ensure that the SLA for the day is met with specific
emphasis to demonstrate primarily, the ability of the Manager and his team to warm
and shape up handling the method of work for the reminder of time on hand and
secondly, provides clearer avenue to eschew overtime. Or in the least, cut down the
overtime and apportion overtime amongst the team. This ensures 3 results namely
every personnel gets a right share of work-load, gets a sense of accomplishment in
completing the task and brings a sense of overall-togetherness of the team. What has
to ensue without fail is the discussion of the accomplishment of the day in the
following day’s Stand-up Meeting without specific acknowledgements to any one
personnel. The only exception is where such accomplishment of task without
specific personnel would have been certainly unaccomplished and could have ended
up as a blow either small or big to the SLA of the day.
For more information, contact harnoorsanjeev@rediffmail.com with subject line
reading “CTW”. Please keep your data ready!