Blog | 24/7 Software

The ACDA Principle™: How Professional Operations Achieve Peace of Mind

Written by 24/7 Software | Apr 23, 2015 11:45:00 AM

How does a professional operation achieve peace of mind?

Achieving peace of mind is what drives us.

After working with so many of the finest professional operations for many years, the ACDA principle™ was born.

You might be wondering:

What is this principle we speak of and how does it relate to you achieving peace of mind?

We’ll get to that. But first…

We want you to envision what your operation currently consists of and what you believe might be missing overall.

The reasoning behind this linear process? Frankly, we want to understand your perspective, first.

After we share the truth behind our groundbreaking ACDA principle, we want you and your team to quickly move towards enhancing your operation and achieving peace of mind.

Before You Understand the ACDA Principle, You Must First Understand Your Current Operation

Sorry to keep you waiting, but before we unveil what the principle entails it’s important that you dive deep into your current operation.

We want to know how you view your operation and all its aspects before we give you this superpower for taking full control of your operation.

Not sure of what we mean? No problem. Here are some questions to get your neurons firing.

  1. What processes do you have in place in regards to your emergency management plan? Have you implemented and enforced protocols-to-handle?
  2. Do you know everything that occurs in your operation, at all times? Does your staff know?
  3. Are you able to access incident details from many years ago? How does your liability defense measure up?
  4. Is resource allocation a headache? Do you have the ability to effectively deploy your security and emergency response teams?
  5. Do you always know what your staff is doing? What’s your process for ensuring accountability?
  6. What tools do you use to continuously improve your operation and team’s performance?

These are only six of the many questions we’d like to ask you, but they’ll help you answer some vital questions about the state of your current operation.

Know this:

We understand that if you continue to do things status quo, you’ll never be able to achieve peace of mind – we don’t want you there. You need to know what you’re leaving behind so you can avoid it in the future at every turn.

These questions will guide you through this exercise. But you need to keep evaluating your current operations. As you begin answering these questions in your mind (or on paper), concepts will begin flowing. Next thing you know, you’ll have the best understanding of your current operation that you’ve probably had in years.

Why? You’ve turned off the noise for a brief moment in time. You can finally focus attention on you and your operation, look at it and then really see it.

It gets much better:

Once you’ve mapped out your current operation, it’ll make unleashing this superpower principle 1,000,000 times easier.

Are you ready for the ACDA Principle™?

4 Pillars of a Remarkable Approach to Taking Full Control of Your Operation

Over the years, we’ve really…really listened to the industry.

Every organization. Every client. Every expert.

These experts have opened our eyes to the four factors that make up a professional operation.

Now:

Some operations have all four in place, some have three, and some have none. Today, we’re going to change that.

The ACDA Principle used by professional operations in order to achieve peace of mind consists of:

  • Awareness
  • Communication
  • Documentation
  • Analysis

If you have all of these ‘pillars’ in place and humming, you’ve got yourself a recipe for success.

We’re going to dive deeper in each aspect of the principle simultaneously demonstrating how software can supplement your execution of the principle.

Software is the Vehicle to Execute Your Purpose

Unfortunately, you won’t be able to snap your fingers and see awareness, communication, documentation, and analysis appear in your operation.

Look:

If you strive for full awareness, enhanced communication, accurate and complete documentation, and smart analytics – you’ll need some innovative solutions in your arsenal.

Full awareness in your operation

Increased awareness affords you and your staff the ability to respond to one more incident in a little less time. It gives you the liberty to take care of your other responsibilities.

Provide text communication as a channel for your guests to instantly report issues. It’s also useful for your staff that don’t have radios.

In the past, your incidents might have slipped through the cracks.

But:

With full awareness in your operation – not anymore.

Text communication software opens up a lot of intangible value. It offers the ability to have thousands of eyes to assist in reporting issues as they occur.

Valuable time can be saved for staff by eliminating the need to first find a supervisor with a radio in order to report an incident.

Give your team the power to log into a web-based system, such as an incident management system, from any location. Your team can simultaneously enter and update incidents for anyone with departmental permissions to see in real time.

Make sure that data is never lost due to bad Wi-Fi connection. Have a system that allows your staff to enter data in an offline environment for future upload. Get important information synced as soon as Wi-Fi is available.

What’s the key here for peace of mind? Your team knows exactly what’s happening and when.

It’s how you ensure all issues are quickly being handled. This will always keep your guests and staff safe.

Enhanced communication between your guests and staff

Arming your staff with incident management mobile apps to easily and effectively report incidents is how you close the communication gap.

It gets better:

Your real-time communication will lead to real-time data, which we’ll get to in a bit.

Create an easy-to-learn set of communication procedures inclusive of:

  • Incident management mobile apps
  • Automatic alerts and notifications

This gives you a painless and manageable way to quickly train staff too.

Automate information to empower your staff and you’ll see communication throughout all departments rapidly improve.

Your complete operation is ‘in-the-know’ when you enhance communication abilities.

Accurate and complete documenting of your incidents and issues

Accurate documentation is the ultimate factor in providing your operation with clear-cut liability defense.

You never know when you’ll need it; therefore you must document every incident, every time with all of the details.

The use of an incident management system will let you eliminate illegible handwritten notes and replace them with the right information – in a digital format – that you can access at a moment’s notice.

Even if notes need to be accessed in the future, there’s no need to find the employee who created the report, because:

  1. You no longer need to decipher illegible handwriting
  2. Your digital records are complete and reliable

Digital records are generally accepted in liability defense…

Handwritten notes are not.

Here’s the thing:

Digital records are tracked in these solutions. Any changes and updates are logged into the incident management system so you know who wrote what and when changes to the record were made.

Give your staff the ability to attach and reference documents with each incident:

  • Pictures
  • Video
  • Audio Statements
  • Signatures

The key to gaining accurate documentation is to create a system that allows your staff to record information at the same time they’re performing their job. Get the job done in real time and on-the-fly.

Putting these systems and protocols in place ensure their job performance is never compromised by the need to document everything they’re doing.

Don’t forget this:

It’s an incident management system…not just a reporting system.

Professional operations make smarter decisions with useful analytics

These days, data can help you make incremental changes leading to the difference between a high-stress workplace and peace of mind.

It’s important you know:

You can’t analyze what you don’t know.

  1. ‘Own’ the documentation so you can measure your risk.
  2. Communicate what you know to your team.
  3. Repair any flaws so you can plan for the future.

Having and using analytics is crucial for the efficiency of ANY operation. Teach your team how to create lasting, positive memories for your guests.

Use your analytics to improve your processes and ensure protocols-to-handle are actually executed.

Analytics give you the insight into your operation so you can improve every event.

Here’s a perfect example:

Response times.

Response times influence every area of your operation, positively and negatively. Faster response minimizes short term and long term impact of incidents occurring during your events.

Think about it – how vital are response times to the success of YOUR operation and how YOU look to YOUR guests?

  • Slip and falls
  • Assaults
  • Bomb threats
  • Allergic Reactions

Responding to these quickly should be at the top of your priority list. Analytics provide you the insight to appropriately allocate your resources for expeditious response.

Each pillar that holds this principle together is connected. It’s a living, breathing organism for taking full control of your operation so you can achieve peace of mind.

So, once you scrutinize your data – don’t waste any time – communicate it to your team.

Trust us, having the ability to effectively communicate important incident details, issues and protocols is what sets the professional operations apart from the rest.

We know this because we’re in the business of providing peace of mind to the world’s greatest operations.

Over to You

Where do you currently measure up and do you want peace of mind? Will you introduce this game-changing principle into your operation?

Let us know your thoughts.