It’s that time that comes around once every 5 years. Where the PR24 literature starts flowing with all the narratives around the difference between this one and the last one. Having read a few bits and pieces here and there on the latest round it takes my thinking to ‘methodologies’. So that’s the conversation for this month.

What is the purpose of having a methodology?

There are a whole host of reasons why we use these things. Here are some of the main ones:
-To help us deliver outcomes
-To create alignment
-To provide a means of control
-To enable us to communicate effectively

Would you put any of those above any others?

I would.

Delivery of outcomes should be the main driver, shouldn’t it. Everything else is in support of delivery. Outcomes can be short or long term of course (some would argue 5 years in the water sector is short). They could be cross sector or within company. PR24’s main purpose is to control the price in support of an outcome for the Customer (this is my understanding anyway). So what should we make of the methodology when the bills start going up and up? (it’s coming isn’t it)

 

Doing the same thing…

What was it that Einstein said about insanity….doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

Here comes another Price Review and a set of 5 year plans. There could be an argument that up until now the methodology has worked. Bills haven’t spiked just yet.

This, unfortunately is a one dimensional view IMO. Step back and look at the whole journey. Where we are going next could and should be partly attributed to the methodology being used in its entirety. In the end it will probably have failed to achieve its purpose.

 

We can learn a lot from this

Yes we can.

At a company level there are a bunch of methodologies flying around. You might have change ones, leadership ones, improvement ones. They will be called all sorts of things. PMO, Lean, Operational Excellence, Managing Performance, Asset Mgt. You will have your own names for them.

Some of these will be homegrown. Some will be from elsewhere. The fact of the matter is, they are all in play to serve a purpose. To achieve an outcome(s).

What if we aren’t achieving those outcomes?
Do we scrap it? Only to come back around years later and do the same thing again but call it a different name.
Do we just keep going? We’ve put that much into this and if we stick to it we believe it’ll work in the end.

Often we are wedded to these methods either because we had a hand in creating them OR we had success with the same elsewhere OR someone with credibility told us it was the best thing.

We can change our thinking

It is ours after all and you weren’t born with these methods in mind.

Where methodologies are concerned thinking its crucial.

When you are open to learning about what’s working and what isn’t you create the opportunity to adapt. Then if you choose you can adapt the methodology.
What do you mean adapt it. These things are written in stone.

Therein lies the problem.

Often the thing the important thing is a principle and not the interpretation.

What works over here may not work the same over there. You need to be willing to adapt for your outcome.

 

Sound principles are the foundation

At the core of this all is our principles on which we have built. The absence of these may point to the problem.

Ones that are not consistent with the outcome i.e. wanting a people shaped outcome but not having people centric principles may be an own goal. You could argue a principle of learning and adapting might be useful as well.

Quite often we can articulate some sound principles but then the reality shows that we aren’t putting them into practice. The number of times I have seen and heard leaders sign up to a principle of ‘leaders showing commitment’ (or something like this) and then not ‘doing it’, is larger than it should be.

Identify the principles that will underpin your methodology and then make sure you back them up.
When the method isn’t quite working. we need to be open to challenging it, learning and adapting more.

So, if you’re results aren’t quite where they need to be, have a think about PR24 and what can be learned about the need to challenge your own thinking and adapt your chosen methodologies to achieve your desired outcomes.