Personal skills and self-management - Assignment Example

? Personal Skills and Self-Management The new initiative is the work of the ANZ Mortgages that entails implementing a policy requesting the non-issuance of Certificate of Titles for all the mortgages which are registered by the ANZ Bank in Western Australia. The purpose of this project is to eliminate the issuance of duplicate Titles to the bank by the Titles office. This initiative is supposed to be implemented and running in the next three months. The initiative stakeholders will involve several groups among them, customers, solicitors and a government department. This initiative will be facilitated by technology as it will reduce costs and improve service efficiency. Planning of a new project or initiative is usually difficult as many people are usually against the idea because of the perceived change of status quo. To make sure a move successful it is important to talk to all the parties involved of the benefits of such a project and the likely effects that such a project would have on them or their day to day operations. The management may also be sceptical of the idea because of the costs involved in setting up such projects. During planning the project goals need to be identified, the project deliverables need to be set, the time frame and the supporting plans need to be established in order to make the project successful. This project is relevant as it will reduce unnecessary paper work and procedures involved in keeping of duplicate titles at the titles office (Haugan, 2002, 2-39). Once the project is identified by the management or proposed by the staff as was the case for this initiative, a major decision process often begins. Several decisions have to be made whether the project should be implemented or not. In the decision making process a variety of things are involved. In this project a decision needs to be made whether this initiative is actually beneficial to the organization or not. It will be of no benefit if a project was begun which does not add value to the organization. The objective of this project as explained above is to eliminate the issuing of Duplicate Titles to the bank by the titles office. The current procedure at the Bank is that when taking security over landed assets in the form of a first registered mortgage, the client is supposed to deliver a duplicate certificate of Titles to the Department of Land Administration in Western Australia. The duplicate titles plus a copy of the mortgages are then filled in the security packet at ANZ. The problem here arises as a result of the duplication of the documents in order to have copies left in both offices. Another issue is to do with the entire system and how it operates. There are so many disadvantages of the current system namely: the risk of the certificates being lost, high cost of replacing lost certificates, expensive storage equipment are required for storing the certificates and the rental cost of the storage space. As much as it is a good thing it is a tedious process that needs to be eliminated as it wastes effort, time and space (Project Smart, 2011). According to this plan few options exist. The first option will be to continue having the current system which involves a lot of work and duplication of efforts. The second option that exists is to eliminate the process in totality so as to have a more efficient system that will utilize the available resources at an affordable cost to the organization. This is what the project proposes as it will have a lot of benefits. The benefits include the elimination of misfiled certificate and all the costs and penalties that are associated with them, reduction of the physical space required for the storage of these documents, reduction in paper handling/recording and transfer for both offices, security of the documents as they will be handled once and filed by the Bank staff and efficient customer service. Therefore the implementation of this initiative will go a long way in helping the Bank achieve its objectives and also help the titles offices in reducing unnecessary processes that waste time and efforts (Project Smart, 2011; Haugan, 2002, 2-39)). The project as seen from the above benefits will be of great importance to the Bank and the Titles office and therefore it should be implemented. There are various issues that arise from this decision of deciding to implement the project. One is the effect the project will have on the general operations of both offices. It will alter the normal working processes at the bank and the Titles office. This is because some of the staff working at this section will have to be moved to other department as they will be rendered jobless. Second certain clauses need to be worked on to enable the smooth running of the entire process. Apart from the above identified issues, the titles office is in support of the entire project and is happy that the Bank is in the forefront of ensuring this project is a success (Haugan, 2002, 2-39). The goals of this project have not been set as of now but there are a few that are obvious in order to carry out this initiative. The main goal of this project as explained earlier is to eliminate the duplication of titles. This goal will be seen as a success if there will be no duplicate files at the Titles office. The second goal of this project is to increase the efficiency the entire process through improved customer service. This goal can only be seen as successful if the customers are happy with the level of customer service they get from the ANZ mortgages. This efficiency will be achieved through the use of technology in handling and filling documents. The third goal of the project is to see to it that the Bank reduces the costs involved in the current process of handling the Titles. It is estimated that the Bank will save approximately $96,900 per annum if the project is implemented. This is good for the bank as such money can be used in implementing other projects. From the above information we can see that these goals are specific, measurable, achievable, and realistic and time bound. These are the principles of a good goal for a project. All of the above goals are SMART and therefore will go a long way in ensuring the success of the project. Apart from the said elements that a goal should have, in general the goals should be clear, complex so that people are able to work on them; they should also offer motivation and be measurable after a specific time frame (Krishna, 2007). The plan for this initiative is first to present it to the Titles office for approval before any work is begun. After the plan is accepted, which, in this case is the likely response, the instructions will be released on specified date that will be embedded as an additional clause in the mortgage document. The technology team will be there to ensure this takes place. The next step will be the progressive removal of the existing Duplicate Certificate of Title held as security is released or replaced. After the release of the security the customer can request issue of Duplicate Titles as soon as they complete the appropriate panel on the transfer of mortgage documents. The last bit will be to communicate to the settlement agents and solicitors by the conveyors that ANZ will no longer hold the Titles and that at the end of the settlement they will be retained by the Titles office. There are various problems that this project might have. These include the resistance from employees who will be moved or delegated to other duties. The second problem is the management who may not support the idea as it is coming from the staff. Most of the time ideas from the employees are often trashed and seen as having no importance to the organization. The third problem has to do with resources available for the implementation of the said project. For this initiative the Bank is already in support of the idea and therefore implementing it will not be a huge problem as thought initially. The Bank will also train the staff that will be involved in the new initiative so as to facilitate the entire process. No employee will be displaced instead they will be trained on how to handle the procedures of the new process of handling the Titles. There are adequate staffs and appropriate technology that will be used in ensuring the process sails through. Therefore the entire problem of resources is solved. There are two approaches to problem solving, one is tackling the source of the problem and second dealing with the effects of the problem. In dealing with the cause we aim to prevent, reduce or eliminate the problem. In tackling the effects we aim to cure the problem, tolerate it or redirect it. The two approaches have been used to solve the problems that are likely to emanate as a result of the initiative which include, training staff, resourcing and communicating benefits to the management (Krishna, 2007).. In conclusion it is important for project managers to realize the importance of goal setting decision making, problem solving and planning in project management. All these elements play an important role in the successful completion of a project. After an idea is brought up the first thing is make a decision on whether the idea is beneficial or not to the organization. The idea should go through a variety of stages before it is either accepted or rejected by the management. It is important to follow the six stages of decision making in order to make an informed decision on whether the idea is good or bad for adoption. The idea should be evaluated no matter the side that initiates it. The employees and the management both have a say in the on the idea and therefore all sides should be involved in making the final decision (Whetten & Cameron, 2007, 2-87). The next stage involves planning where the new initiative goes through a step by step process in order to come up with something of value. The first step is setting the goals of the project that define what the project is all about and what should be accomplished in the project. The second step is setting up the project deliverables that include what a list of things the project needs to deliver in order to meet the set goals. The third step in planning is the project schedule where the project deliverables are given the limit or time when they should be delivered. Here the amount of effort required and the people who will be involved in the project are defined. The last step is the supporting plans which comprise of human resource plan where you identify the people or organizations who will be involved in the project and their roles, the communication plan where you keep documents of who needs what information about what at what time and the risk management plan where you identify as many risks as possible to your project. The process of goal setting is important as it is part of the planning process. The goals set should be clear, offer motivation, they should be complex to warrant attention, they should be measurable and time bound. Well thought of goals ensure that the project stays on course. The goals should be SMART as in specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound, this will make them easy to achieve by the end of the project schedule (Whetten & Cameron, 2007, 2-87). Problems are part of projects and therefore they should be dealt with when they arise. There are various approaches to problem solving and all of them could be integrated to ensure that the problems are tackled well so that the project remains on course. The two approaches involve tackling them from the source or the effects. This ensures that the problems are solved appropriately. The ANZ initiative therefore having followed all the above mentioned items should be successful and offer a new challenge to the staff and the management. It should also be able to help improve the level of customer satisfaction when using the new approach as compared to the old one. References Haugan Gregory T. (2002) Project planning and scheduling. Management concepts Inc., Vienna. USA, 2-39 Krishna R. V., (2007). Project Management Goal Setting: Questions to Consider. http://www.ncmahq.org/files/Articles/418B2_CM0806_C03_-_Project_Management.pdf Project Smart (2011). Project Planning a Step by Step Guide. Retrieved 9 02, 2011, from http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/project-planning-step-by-step.html Whetten David Allred, & Cameron Kim S. (2007) Developing management skills. Prentice Hall. New Jersey. USA. 7th ed., 2-87 Read More