The Hero Method of Business Improvement

Your department must get 20% more production! 30% more clients! 40% less defects! but you really don't know how to achieve any of those things. After all, if you knew how to get more production, wouldn't you already be doing it? If you knew how to magically increase capacity or reduce defects, why didn't you do it last year? If you don't know how to get better results from your people, your teams, your processes, what do you do?

The standard approach, that I see over and over and over (and over), is what I'll call the Hero Method, and it's not a complimentary term.

As we strive for success, we rely on heroes. We try to find people who will excel despite the systems we've created. We think that if we can just get the right people in the right seats on our dilapidated bus, everything will be OK. Deep down, we know that our processes and policies and leadership are really what determines our capacities, but improving our systems seems hard; improving our leadership  approach seems hard.

So instead, we rely on heroes. We hire "only the best". We say that our people are "top performers in the industry". We praise people who get good results. And we hold people accountable when they get bad results. We blame individuals for failures, just as we rely on individuals for successes.

As a Hero Method basketball coach, we yell at players when they pass the ball instead of driving to the hoop. Then we yell when they drive to the hoop instead of passing the ball. When they try something new, we praise them if it works and yell at them if it doesn't. When we teach a play, and it doesn't work, we scream from the sidelines "just run your plays!". When players make exceptional effort to make a crappy play work, we say "that's better".

Managers who use the Hero Method are essentially powerless; as you talk to them, you soon hear their frustration and desperation. Unless they can find an exceptional person who can succeed, they don't know how they will meet their goals. If they can't find a hero, they are out of options.

If, upon reflection, you see that you have been relying on heroes, consider that there are better ways. Heroes are fine for fairy tales and comic books, but in real life, in real business, investigate the ways to achieve super-hero results from the wonderful, everyday, super-normal people that already work for you.