For those who think there is business software for every function under the executive suite, Derrick Van Mell begs to differ.
After years of consulting for and listening to local business clients, the longtime Madison consultant has developed an online Index of Management Terms & Practices that he insists is unique — not just different from other commercial management software products.
“There never really has been a standard framework for management, itself, that organizes all of the functions of management,” Van Mell said.
In December 2024, the Index was reintroduced by the Center for Management Terms and Practices, which Van Mell founded in 2017. It presents the standard language of management, which helps leaders communicate clearly.
The original Index was a glossary of management terms and practices, and while it has been improved to make it easier for managers to communicate among local and remote departments, Van Mell said it remains a simple-to-use, single-screen framework of general management that enables faster and better collaboration among leadership, work groups, and individual employees.
“The next generation of managers are asking: how are we making the world a better place? Everybody needs to answer that and our answer — it’s really my prime motivation here — is that the jargon of management is really a barrier, an exclusionary barrier to lots of people who can’t afford an MBA or to keep up with the Wall Street Journal,” he said. “So, having a standard language allows everybody to communicate.”
The Index offers a checklist of management issues that provides clarity, especially when organizations are making strategic decisions. Itincludes a best practices library of advice and resources on marketing and other aspects of operating a business. Its related tools are designed to help managers better understand organizational development and management.
For those struggling with business meetings that lack focus and are unproductive, it also includes basic tools such as a free, quarter-page meeting planner that Van Mell said can help cut meeting times in half.
The Index was tested in a 2017 pilot program by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and peer reviewed by Gilson, a global company based in Middleton, SCS Engineers and Lerdahl Workplace Interiors in Madison, and the UW–Milwaukee Lubar College of Business Executive MBA Program — all of whom are “robust users,” according to Van Mell.
One of them is Erin Lavery, training and development manager for Gilson, which makes liquid handling, purification, and extraction products and consumables for the laboratory market. Lavery is in her third year of working with Van Mell to roll out the Index to a global set of managers, which involves translating some of the information into Italian, French and German. Gilson has offices in eight countries, and since language is a means of inclusion, Lavery said the Index allows Gilson’s global management team to feel more connected.
“Half of our leadership team is in the United States and the other half is in France,” Lavery said. “All our team members are experts in their fields and knowledgeable about management. However, the terms used in each country are not always the same and are often confusing.
“Even though our meetings are in English, engagement before we started using the Index was not optimal. The Index changed how our leadership team interacted.”
Kristi Thering, executive vice president and partner for Lerdahl, has incorporated the Index into the business for leadership training and planning. Its sales team uses the quarter-page meeting planner to prepare for client meetings.
“Our company does not want to have a bad meeting ever. … The meeting planner helps us discover what is keeping our clients awake at night and how we can help them solve their problems through their workspace,” Thering said. “It’s a great way to get them talking.”
For Van Mell, these are the best endorsements for the Index, which can be accessed on a computer, tablet, or smartphone. “It just works,” he said. “I’ve seen people use it on their smartphone. They’re literally holding it under the desk, looking down, and scrolling through the Index so they can contribute a good question, or understand the context, or just figure out what the heck everybody else is talking about.”
Van Mell said it can be used by any organization and while managers and project teams could initially be reluctant to use such a crutch, he said it’s similar to a doctor using electronic medical records to reference care protocols for various conditions.
“It doesn’t capture literally everything, but I’m confident that other people will say that it gets you far enough along and that it gives you a full enough picture of what you’re in need of,” Van Mell said.
Van Mell said the Index was not developed as an open source project, where an online community makes contributions, because he wanted to focus on common understandings of best practices. While the meeting planner is free and only requires registration, there is an annual subscription fee of $144 for users who upgrade to a paid toolkit for planning, projects, and process management.
