Why are we so passionate about this subject?

We want to help to improve the quality of the working lives of the millions of people, all over the globe, who work in the back offices of service operations. These people make up the bulk of the modern workforce, helping us to get a mortgage, or claim on our insurance, or helping us to have our taxes assessed accurately or our benefits paid appropriately.

Team leaders represent the layer of managers who have the greatest direct impact over the quality of the working lives of these unsung heroes and they therefore also have a profound influence over the ability of the companies they work for to exist, survive and thrive.

We want to help these team leaders to help the people in their teams to be the best they can be: to help them find pride and passion in their work; help them to feel in control – not buffeted from one crisis to another, constantly putting out other people’s fires; and help them to know they are a core part of the success of their operation.

We want to achieve this by encouraging a culture of Active Management, where everyone feels trusted, empowered and engaged. Where people look forward and plan how to succeed, not look backwards to find who to blame. Where people take ownership of problems and look creatively for solutions, and where people feel that although they might be working for a big organisation they are also, to a large extent, actually working for themselves.

We believe the way to achieve this culture is to draw upon the very best of modern management theory to create a shared method for collectively planning work and managing performance.

For that method to work we further believe that team leaders, and other front line managers, need to be given training in the skills to support the method, and they need to be given simple, easy to use technologies that allow them to do their job as well as they possibly can.

ActiveOps is the only company we are aware of – anywhere in the world – that provides the kind of technology that support this vision of the world of back office operations.

So, what are we going to be talking about?

Here are some of the subjects that strike us as particularly relevant in today’s world:

1. Service Operations as a source of competitive advantage. Far from being the Cinderella discipline, back office operations can make or break an enterprise. It is the shop window. It is where promises made become promises delivered – or not. So we discuss how modern technology can create a management operating system that takes operations up the maturity curve towards helping an enterprise to rise above its competition. – Download Now

2. Cobotics – Introducing robots without tears. We all know robots are coming into the work place and whether you think that is a good way of removing drudge work or a quick way of alienating the human workforce, the robot is here to stay. We will discuss the implications of the blended human/robot workforce and how smart firms will turn this new phenomenon to their advantage – while continuing to recruit, retain, engage and motivate the best carbon-based workers on the planet. – Coming Soon

3. The importance of engaging the real heroes of operations – the front line workers. Engaged workers are those who feel respected and involved in their work; who believe in the service they provide to the customer; and who feel they can make a real, positive difference. These people can deliver greater productivity, are less likely to go sick or quit, and are more likely to part of the solution – not part of the problem. We will discuss how operations managers can harness the full potential of their people, as well as pointing out some of the pitfalls of using the wrong methods or technologies. – Coming Soon