In the previous piece on Administration, we saw how the administrative department works better when it looks beyond its own deadlines, towards the colleagues who deal with customers and suppliers every day. Today we take a step further, with the help of an object we all know: the car dashboard.
When the dashboard only gave signals.
Anyone who drove a car a few decades ago will remember a basic dashboard: speedometer, rev counter, fuel gauge, water temperature and a few warning lights. Each indicator measured a single value and passed the signal on to the driver. Nothing more. The oil warning light is the perfect example. When it came on, the problem was already there, and often the damage too. The dashboard told you what wasn’t working, but left it to the driver to work out why and decide what to do.
When the dashboard became a system.
With the spread of electronics, the change was profound. Sensors no longer just take measurements: control units communicate with one another and coordinate the engine, brakes, gearbox and steering. If a wheel loses grip on a bend, the stability control engages the braking system as needed, reduces engine power and corrects understeer or oversteer before the driver even notices the danger.
Today’s dashboard is the visible part of this system. It suggests when to change gear, gives advance warning of maintenance and proposes the best route. From a simple status indicator, it has become a system programmed to coordinate various components and improve overall performance.
The administrative manager applies the same principle.
In a well-managed SME, the administrative function follows the same evolution. The administrative manager can no longer simply process figures to point out what isn’t working. A report showing a shrinking margin on a product line is a warning light that has come on: useful, but it only arrives once the problem is already there.
The extra step is to foster coordination among the people involved in that production process, so that together they can reach a proposed solution. Let’s think about that very shrinking margin. If the administrative manager brings together the colleague from purchasing, the production manager and the salesperson who looks after the customer, each brings their own piece of knowledge: a supplier that has changed its packaging format, a little more waste in production, a discount granted so as not to lose an order.
None of the three, on their own, had the full picture. The figure is the starting point; the value comes when it becomes the opportunity to bring around a table the people who can act.
In every colleague, there is a person.
There is one last aspect of the modern car that I find significant. Many recent cars recognise the signs of driver fatigue and suggest a break. The system doesn’t only look at the machine: it also takes account of the person behind the wheel.
If people are the great asset of every company, it is essential to understand what holds them back in their work too: an excessive workload at certain times, a tool that isn’t quite fit for purpose, information that always arrives late, sometimes a difficulty that has little to do with work. These things never appear in any report, yet they weigh on results.
Picking up on them requires a connection that goes beyond the formal one between colleagues. This does not mean intruding on anyone’s private life. It means remembering that behind every box on the organisation chart there is someone with their own skills, concerns and ideas. In every colleague, there is a person.
One piece, one system.
This post is one of the pieces of the Rubik’s cube dedicated to the Administration face. The modern dashboard hasn’t done away with warning lights: they have become part of a system that provides an information service. In the same way, the administrative function keeps producing figures, but uses them, together with other relational skills, to connect people and make the whole work better.
In the next piece, we will look at how to rethink the organisation so that it serves the operational functions, starting with simple, jargon-free language.
Is your administrative department more of a warning light that comes on or a system that coordinates?
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Kenning Consulting accompanies small and medium-sized businesses in building a growth plan supported by management control tools tailored to their development stage.