New Year’s Resolutions: My BRM Improvements for 2016

by Ryan Ogilvie

Every year, I promise myself that I will not write a post predicting the coming year, but the New Year rolls along and boom, here I am starting to think about what 2016 will hold. And here I am writing a post about it!

I’ll be honest with you—if you were to look back at my past end-of-the-year posts, many of the same process-centric activities would pop up time and time again (much like dieting or quitting smoking). Eventually, it does start to sound like a broken record, unless you have a plan, a trusted guide, and solid intentions to change—all of which, thanks to BRM Institute, I now have. (That is, when it comes to my career as a BRM. No one said anything about actually dieting or quitting smoking). Anyway, moving on now.

Below you can find a few general subjects I hope to re-examine and improve this year within the BRM capability in my workplace.

Focus on Adding Business Value

Ask yourself this: do you really know what your business does? What about its goals and desires? In many cases, business functions make assumptions about what the business does or needs, based on general ideas that are often unfounded. In some cases, this is also true of business operations; they may also assume that their needs and desires are clear (and therefore, do not need to be communicated further).

Simply put, the practice of making assumptions will not be enough in the year(s) ahead. The BRM capability should seek to understand what the business needs, as well as what business functions have to offer. Once equipped with this knowledge, the BRM capability will be able to influence and shape business demand like never before, as well as clarifying common dependencies and links to initiatives, objectives, technology, and measurement.

Furthermore, the relationship between business operations, functions, and the BRM should not be kept a secret, for the sake of its effectiveness. This year, make it your mission to be more inclusive with people from various teams, by ensuring that any conversations that take place are open and not ‘invite only.’ Additionally, it is critical to market these conversations in a way that ensures that all teams are aware of this initiative. Generate some excitement around it! These conversations will provide all teams with valuable opportunities to learn from one another.

Workplace Culture

Simply put, workplace culture is the way in which we interact with one another in our work environment, based on our values, beliefs, and shared assumptions within an organization. Since there is always room for improvement, it is important to take a closer look at your workplace culture and outline an improvement strategy for it, since workplace culture plays a critical role in how people behave in organizations. Remember that culture sets the tone, and it plays heavily into the BRM level of maturity from the business function’s perspective.

Leveraging the BRM Capability to be a Strategic Partner

As they say, it takes two to tango, and like all great relationships, it takes some work to bridge business operations and functions.

The initial challenge that some business functions find is that they are positioned as “order takers,” rather than strategic partners. This results in feeling as though they are playing catch-up all the time. Additionally, even when business functions realize that they want to improve, they are often unsure how to proceed.

First, they must realize that this is a marathon, not a race. It will take time to make improvements and gain the trust of the business partners, so you have to pace yourself. The first thing to do is begin a dialogue, followed by understanding what today looks like and what you want tomorrow to be—in short, your roadmap. Afterwards, it is critical to review your achievements and drawbacks regularly. While you may need to make course corrections, don’t forget to celebrate the successes! That is how you build momentum and keep up morale.

Maximizing Potential

Whether it is online or in person, make it one of your 2016 goals to take the time to connect with the people in your community. This doesn’t necessarily mean attending a conference (although if you do, I obviously recommend BRMConnect). You can also connect to other BRMs on social media platforms and get engaged in online learning and webinars when they are available. Better yet, most of the information you can absorb online is free, and you can even bounce ideas off one another to further improve your understanding.

Earlier I mentioned getting to know the business and its goals more intimately, but we can also leverage our colleagues in our communities by asking questions and seeing what they did in particular situations. Find yourself a mentor to give you some insight that you might not otherwise have, and in turn, you should also consider mentoring others as a way to further develop your community. You will find that this type of interaction will pay dividends on your understanding of how to better serve your own business.

If goal setting for the new year has taught me anything, it is that keeping the momentum in a positive direction is something that should be done every day. We don’t need to identify that only with January 1^st—start today!