How do you win and retain customers? Perhaps you are better than the alternatives. With superior or breakthrough products and services. Providing more value for the money. Exactly what your customers need. Maybe you are convenient, easy, friendly – a standout for all those “free” intangibles that customers enjoy when doing business with you. Or perhaps you are someone’s habit. The phone number on the notepad. You once had an edge – a superior offering, the best location, a great brand – but now you are not so sure. Inertia and familiarity may be your greatest assets.
“Why can’t my employees make decisions? Why do they always have to come to me?” Busy clients ask me these questions frequently. Are their employees unwilling, incapable or simply indecisive? The following tips will not only answer those questions, they will also help you dramatically improve employee decision making. 1. Does the employee understand what decisions you expect him or her to make? Don’t laugh. It is not at all uncommon for people to complain that someone is unwilling to do something they don’t realize they are expected to do. Unclear expectations are especially likely if you have been making certain decisions all along. Are you sure you have made it clear that you want someone else taking responsibility? Even if you have been clear, your employees may not really believe you. If they don’t think you trust them to make the decision, they simply won’t believe you really want them to do it. “I know he says it, but he doesn’t really want us to go ahead without his approval.”
Are your weaknesses controlling your course like rocks in a channel? Do your most energetic employees set the direction of your company with their energy alone? Or perhaps you tend to scurry after your competition or are propelled by the whims and ambitions of your biggest customer. Is the latest customer crisis or financial disappointment readily discernable in your list of key initiatives? Government regulations, rising energy costs, and many other external factors may be pushing you in various directions as well. Like tortuous rapids, these formidable forces can send you down a shute you never intended to navigate.
PRESS RELEASE February 11, 2008 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Ann Latham 617-939-9654 Uncommon Clarity, Inc. EASTHAMPTON, MA – Ann Latham has been elected as Chair of the Materials & Manufacturing Technology Network (MMTN) of the Regional Technology Corporation (RTC). She has also been appointed to the Board of Directors of the RTC.
Email is amazing, essential and wonderful. Unfortunately, it can waste as much time as it saves. These simple tips will save you tremendous time as well as that of others. Do not send an email when: You are upset. Don’t even write it while upset. You’ll just waste a lot of time. I recommend a walk or other form of exercise instead. If you do write email while upset, wait 24 hours and then read it carefully before sending. The message will be long, complicated, or filled with options. A long, complicated, option-packed email will likely just cause confusion. A phone call first to provide an explanation, determine interest and understanding, and narrow the focus will likely save you significant time in writing the original message, not to mention the many subsequent go-arounds you would likely trigger.
Quality is not a strategy. Books, strategic planning websites, and executives may all provide numerous examples to the contrary, but quality is simply not a strategy. Nor is process improvement. Nor productivity gains. Nor employee development. Nor improved marketing. Even growth is rarely a strategy. If these are typical outcomes of your strategy formulation, your operational focus is overpowering your strategic thinking. You are caught up in the “how,” particularly, the “how well,” and thinking too little about the “what” – what kind of value can you offer and what kind of organization could you become. You can’t expect significant gains by mostly doing the same old things a little better.
Plans fail. Based on assumptions, oversights, and an unpredictable future, how can they not? So why do we so often fail to plan accordingly? Why, instead, do we “plan harder,” trying to extract more certainty from the uncertain? The most important and most neglected aspect of planning involves identifying potential problems so you can: Prevent them, and Be prepared for those you fail to prevent For example, you try to prevent fires by ensuring wiring is in good condition, performing safety inspections, managing combustible materials appropriately, etc. But you also prepare for the possibility of fire with contingent actions: smoke detectors, fire extinguisher, and support for the local fire department. These contingent actions won’t prevent a fire, but you would be foolish not to have them ready should a fire occur.
Operational excellence requires focus. We must know our customers and focus on their needs. Resources must be unleashed on the priorities and pried away from wasteful efforts. Processes must be tuned to ensure costs are controlled while simultaneously boasting top quality products and services. But at times, that same focus can be an enemy. Every time you describe your business to someone you verbally trace the boundaries of a box that defines your business. This box is not two dimensional. No, there are many dimensions. For each dimension, you have selected a segment for your focus: markets, customers, industries, products, services, production capabilities, core knowledge, distribution channels, sales channels, supply chain models, technology, natural resources, geography, and more.
Imagine a homing pigeon without a home. It would fly aimlessly and starve to death. But with a home, the pigeon can start from anywhere and choose among many routes to return to the roost. And yet people tend to operate like homeless homing pigeons all the time. We argue about the routes to the roost without first agreeing on its location. In other words, we constantly debate the alternatives without first agreeing on the objectives. The evidence is everywhere. And the consequence is waste – wasted time, wasted money, and wasted opportunity.
When establishing a plan for a meeting, keep in mind that sometimes you want divergent thinking to expand possibilities, and other times you want convergent thinking to zero in and move forward quickly. The chart below shows these contrasting situations. Destination and/or path ill-defined Destination and path well-defined and familiar Need divergent thinking to expand possibilities Need convergent thinking and methodical progress Generally strategic, requiring brainstorming, creativity, innovation Generally tactical, requiring planning, tracking, juggling resources Plan to tackle few topics and allow enough time for each; consider brainstorming and open-ended questions to explore multiple perspectives; use frequent process checks to ensure progress Can process many topics relatively quickly in a logical sequence Provide loose guidelines that encourage participation and creativity Provide tight guidelines that encourage focus and discipline Rough time ranges Tight time ranges Ensure appropriate attendees are present Ensure appropriate attendees are prepared and understand why they are there A mixed bag of topics, some requiring divergent thinking and some requiring convergent thinking, within a single meeting is generally more difficult to manage because the mindset, skill set, and focus are so completely different. It is best to hold separate meetings but the most important part is to think this through and have a plan.