RADAR – The EFQM’s management tool

Posted by BPIR.com., Mar 05, 2014

You are possibly very familiar with the EFQM’s RADAR as the tool within the EFQM Excellence Model that we use to assess an organisation – identifying strengths and areas for improvement and scoring.

But did you know that when RADAR was originally launched the EFQM intended that the tool should be used in day-to-day management, and not solely for assessment? The RADAR developers realised that a truly effective tool for assessment should be based, not upon something different or additional to good management practice, but rather upon what any good manager or management team should be doing in their daily work.

A look at the RADAR logic upon which the acronym RADAR was based, will help illustrate this.

The logic suggests that as managers we should first be clear about the objectives that we are seeking to achieve within our organisation, whether at strategic or tactical levels, and that we should turn these into clear and targeted measures that upon implementation will represent the Results that the organisation is achieving. Next we need to identify and develop where necessary the Approaches required to achieve these Results. These Approaches then need to be Deployed. Finally through a process of Assessment andRefinement, we should regularly review our ongoing performance Results and identify and implement appropriate improvement action where necessary. This simple but important logic provides a framework both for effective planning – strategically and tactically, and for organisational performance reviews. The logic becomes even more valuable when used with the nine criteria within the EFQM Excellence Model. The four Results criteria stimulate thinking, particularly during strategic planning, in terms of the range of measures that could be used and challenge us as to whether our organisational objectives and corresponding measures are truly based upon the needs and expectations of our stakeholders. The five Enabler criteria help us when considering the scope of Approaches that we need to have in place and Deploy in order to deliver the Results that we have identified.

If we consider RADAR in more detail, focusing not only on the high level elements but also on the detailed attributes – such as ‘sound’, ‘integrated’ and so on, then the use of RADAR in both planning and daily management activities such as performance reviews becomes even more useful.

RADAR BASED BUSINESS & WORK PLANNING

RADAR ELEMENT:

THINGS TO CONSIDER BASED ON THE ATTRIBUTES:

RESULTS:
  1. What are the business/department/team/individual objectives that the plan addresses? e.g. increase in leadership competencies to meet future business challenges.
  2. How will we measure the successful achievement of these objectives? (the outcomes)
  3. What targets will we set for these measures and what is the basis of these? e.g. aim to better competitor ‘x’, become best-in-class, etc.
  4. What comparative data (where relevant) will we use to measure progress towards our objectives? e.g. benchmarks.

APPROACH:
  1. What will the plan deliver in order to meet the objectives? e.g. leadership training, leadership performance review process, etc.
  2. What will the plan include, and where necessary what it will not include?
  3. How were the deliverables identified, including selection criteria?
  4. What are the priorities for the various deliverables?
  5. What are the benefits of the deliverables to the stakeholders concerned? e.g. the investors, customers, employees, etc.
  6. How will the plan objectives and deliverables specifically link to the organisations vision/mission/goals/strategy?
  7. How will the plan objectives and deliverables support the values of the organisation?

DEPLOYMENT:
  1. Who will be responsible for achievement of each objective and associateddeliverable, and what will be his/her/their roles, responsibilities and accountabilities?
  2. What are the key activities related to each deliverable?
  3. What are the timescales for these activities? (start and finish, milestones)
  4. What resources are required? e.g. finance, equipment, people, skills.
  5. What constraints exist? e.g. existing process capacity, resources, regulations, laws, standards, deadlines.
  6. What risks exist? e.g. overspend, unforeseen changes in external environment, lack of commitment internally, and how they will be addressed.
  7. What communication needs exist and how they will be addressed?

ASSESSMENT & REFINEMENT:
  1. What indicator measures will we use to measure progress with the plan? (NOTE: Include measures that will enable you to predict whether outcomes listed under “Results” will be achieved).
  2. How will we ensure the integrity of the measures we use?
  3. How will we review progress with the plan, identify learning (internally and externally), stimulate creativity and innovation (e.g. in identifying and addressing ‘road blocks’ that might arise), take corrective action and make improvements?

In a similar way RADAR can be used when conducting a review of organisational performance. It stimulates the management team to consider:

RADAR BASED ORGANISATIONAL PERFORMANCE REVIEWS

(based upon reviewing a single result or a set of results)

RADAR ELEMENT:

THINGS TO CONSIDER BASED ON THE ATTRIBUTES:

RESULTS:
  1. Are we measuring the right things?
  2. Are the results segmented where needed?
  3. Is the integrity of the results assured?
  4. Are we clear on our targets and are they appropriate?
  5. How is our performance against target?
  6. Do we have any comparative data, how appropriate is it and what does it tell us in terms of our performance?
  7. Are we clear on what is causing the results?

APPROACH:
  1. What are the approaches (e.g. Leadership, Resources, People, Processes) that we have in place to deliver the result(s) we are reviewing?
  2. Are they fit for purpose?
  3. Do they align as necessary with other approaches?
  4. Are they aligned with stakeholder needs and expectations?
  5. Do they support and align with our overallgoals/objectives/strategy/values?

DEPLOYMENT:
  1. Are we implementing the relevant approaches where they need to be?
  2. Are we doing so effectively and efficiently?
  3. Does the way we implement our approaches enable flexibility and support organisational agility?

ASSESSMENT & REFINEMENT:
  1. Are our indicator measures fit for purpose?
  2. Are we learning from our own experiences (positive and negative) and from those of others?
  3. Are we generating new ideas on what to do and how to do it where needed?
  4. Are we making improvements based on our learning as needed?
  5. Are we turning good ideas into reality?

 

These are just two examples of how RADAR can be used to ensure effective planning and daily management. Perhaps you can think of other applications, or have developed and used some of your own. If so we’d be delighted to hear about them so that we can spread the word about RADAR good practices within the EFQM Community.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR – MARK WEBSTER – EFQM FACULTY MEMBER, RADAR DEVELOPER

Mark Webster is a member of EFQM’s Faculty of Trainers. He has been involved in many significant developments within EFQM over the years, and led the development of the 1999 version of the Model, which included the first version of RADAR.

This article was originally published on EFQM.com by Mark Webster

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