She insisted on coming to our house, a long and confusing drive judging by her two calls for directions and a late arrival. The first question I asked made it clear she was going to be of little use. We made the best of the situation, learned a few things, and got the name of a better source so we could try again. The topic: insurance. The problem: she represented “personal lines” and, as the owner of a small business, I needed information on both “personal” and “commercial lines.” The cost: an hour and a quarter for my husband and me, half a day for her, not counting scheduling time, frustration, gas, etc. This is a classic, and not uncommon, example of a misalignment between customer needs and the organizational model and process meant to satisfy those needs. Here are some questions I’d like to ask:
My husband is developing a fondness for moss. After several years of trying to get grass to grow where moss thrives, he is finally learning to respect and welcome the moss. Why anyone would ever expect grass to be a universal solution for yards is beyond me, but that is the American way and it can be hard to shake these preconceived notions for how things should be done and how they should look. Grass simply can’t be expected to thrive in every possible situation. Preconceived notions do not just drive ludicrous lawn longings. They also drive daily business habits. Where are you trying to fill a round hole with a square peg? Where are you insisting on consistency for the sake of consistency? Where are your expectations for employees causing nothing more than frustration for them and you? Where are you striving for “green lawn” goals that aren’t really very important? Where are you hoping practice will make perfect despite no progress? If something isn’t working, stop doing it! Reexamine both the goal and your approach. If only moss will grow in your shady, sandy yard, learn to love the moss!
To celebrate the arrival of winter in New England (now that it is March), I took to the slopes of a local ski area where they have installed an electronic ticket system. Each skier gets a plastic access card to slip into a pocket. Instead of waiting in line to buy tickets, you can charge your card online. When you arrive at the hill, you simply put on your skis and go. At the lift, you slide through a turnstile that lets you pass after reading the card in your pocket. At the end of the day, there are no sticky tickets or wires to remove. Furthermore, if you are interested, you can log in and see how many runs and vertical feet you skied. The ski area benefits too by reducing staff at the ticket window and no longer paying ticket checkers at the lift lines. They can also collect great market data. They know exactly who is buying tickets, when they arrive, when they leave, how many runs they take, how fast they ski, and which lifts they ride. Sound great? In many ways it is, for both customers and the business. By using existing technology and applying it to a new situation, the company providing this new system created great value. But they missed one critical step.
Do you value best practices as a means of attracting and retaining customers while also improving the bottom line? If yes, you are not alone. Many companies devote tremendous time, effort, and money in search of the holy grail of best practices. However, most organizations have employees who are already producing great results. Whether selling, managing customers, or delivering the goods, you likely have pockets of excellence scattered throughout your organization. These employees have figured out how to: Excel in your environment, Deal with your products, Manage your customers, and Put up with your management short-comings
The local hospital has recently implemented some new procedures to “make things easier for customers,” or at least that is what they told me when I asked what was going on. I can’t imagine what problem they thought they were solving for my sake. And if their focus was on error proofing or internal efficiency, I think they missed the mark. They certainly never looked at the final process from a customer’s point of view. Here is what I encountered: I called to schedule an annual mammogram and got an appointment for the following Tuesday. So far, so good. On Friday evening, I returned home to a phone message asking me to call and pre-register. I had to listen to it 3 times to get the phone number, extension, and name of the person I was supposed to ask for. Since the office was closed for the weekend, I also had to add a note to my calendar to call them on Monday. Why are they creating work for me? What did I do wrong? Why didn’t they take this information when I was on the phone with them making the appointment?
Almost 60 years after the last bayonet charge in Korea, the Army has removed bayonets from the rifles in basic training. They have replaced long distance runs and marches with wind sprints, eliminated training on .50 caliber heavy machine guns used by few, and added 30 hours of marksmanship. They are stressing core body strength so soldiers can vault 4 feet into an open Humvee with 65 pounds of gear. And they have added training on culture and how to reduce hearing loss. (“As battlefield changes, so does Army’s basic training,” Kansas City Star) In short, they are revamping the entire basic training program to reflect: Current warfare realities and The condition of their average recruit The Army’s training regimen rooted in WWI filled a different gap, preparing a different type of recruit for a different kind of war.
Are you “doing it for ISO”? Do you spruce up your documents, records, processes and memories just before the quality auditor visits? Do you have documents that are rarely used in the interim? Do employees complain about wasted effort or grin and bear it when the quality management topic is raised? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, your quality management system is wasting your time, energy and money. Whether you are certified to ISO 9001, AS 9100 or any of several similar quality standards, you don’t want to be “doing it for ISO”.
Missed another deadline? Scrapped another part? Scrambling to do rework? Why is it so hard to get reliable, repeatable results from what seem to be straight-forward requirements and well-defined processes? There are 5 keys to getting results and the trick is to find a cost effective balance among these five. Unfortunately there is no magic wand to tell you how to find the right mix, but if you evaluate your processes relative to these five, you will likely discover ways to increase the stability of your processes.