Latching On To The Wrong Part of an Idea

A small businessman has read about W. Edwards Deming and really enjoyed the idea that he was a self-proclaimed "insultant." The idea of being disruptively critical appeals to this businessman so much that he uses a brusque, arrogant approach to his clients, basically implying that they are not very bright if they don't use his services. Now Deming was an innovator and was certainly disruptively innovative, but the idea that "being insulting" was somehow his most important achievement really misses the boat.

Too Soon, Too Eager, Too Pushy

A few incidents observed at a networking event this week demonstrated some frequent communication mistakes:

Too Soon

A sales guy was introduced to an executive from a key potential client, a new contact with whom he had no previous relationship. Very early in the conversation, the sales guy asked directly for a meeting to talk about becoming a supplier. The executive visibly winced and his body language completely changed. Within a few seconds, the executive cut short the conversation and moved on to talk to someone else.

Too Eager
The owner of an industrial supplier was introduced to a possible client, who asked a simple question about what the supplier does. Grasping the opportunity, the owner started listing off all of his company's capabilities in considerable detail. The client's eyes soon glazed over, and then started to search the room for someone else to talk to.


Too Pushy
Another business owner started grilling an executive with aggressive qualifying questions designed to lead the executive down a sales path. The executive tried repeatedly, with decreasing civility, to deflect the conversation to more general conversation, but the owner doesn't hear or see any of the signals, and continued to push his agenda.

What We've Got Here is a Failure to Communicate

Why do our organizations get off track? Why do our projects go off the rails? Are the reasons technical - problems with the actual mechanics of doing the work - or is something else going on?

Looking at projects with themes as diverse as software implementation, change management, time management, business development, strategic planning, efficiency, and retention, a little digging reveals that "what we've got here is a failure to communicate" - Cool Hand Luke (1967)

Five examples:

1. Management of a 200-person service organization regularly issued a newsletter to employees, and considered this adequate notification of important strategy and policy changes. The reality was that less than 30% of staff actually read the lengthy newsletter, and the writing style was long-winded and hard-to-understand. Uptake of key messages was only running around 10% of personnel, so very few staff knew what was going on and morale was very low. Still, management ranked themselves "very good" at communicating with their staff.
2. The new CEO of a non-profit hired a consultant to help with strategic planning, and invited the board of directors to the facilitated sessions. The chair of the board aggressively disrupted the first session saying "Why are you wasting our time? We already have a strategic plan!". The CEO was shocked - he had been trying to find the organization's plan continually since being hired a few months earlier, without success.
3. Very high turnover in a 30-person technology company was concerning management, and they decided to review their wage policy since competitors were "obviously poaching [their] best employees." Retroactive exit interviews revealed that several people had left because they were convinced that the company was on the verge of bankruptcy. Rumours had circulated months earlier about some significant financial troubles. The rumours had actually been true, but the company had since restructured their debt and essentially eliminated their cash flow problem. There was no open communication with employees about "shareholder issues". With no communication, the rumours escalated, and contributed to several key people leaving.
4. Leaders of a transportation company held focus groups to gather employee input on an upcoming technology change. When the change was actually implemented, none of the employee suggestions had been incorporated. Morale plummeted and, despite management's well-intentioned attempt, the consensus among employees was that "They never listen to us. They ask us for our suggestions, but then they just shove [their original #%$^&* plan] down our throats."
5. The relationship between a sales agent and the manufacturer she represented went septic, and accusations flew wildly back and forth. The manufacturer accused the sales agent of not adequately representing them, and decided to withhold commissions on numerous accounts. The sales agent felt cheated by this apparent breach of contract by the manufacturer, and ended up starting legal action against the manufacturer after discussions failed. One key factor that emerged was that the sales agent did not do any reporting of her considerable business activity to the manufacturer, so the manufacturer had no idea how much work she was actually doing. Another factor was a product weakness that had affected most of the reference accounts to whom the company routinely referred new prospects. The company and the agent were both unaware of these problems. So, the reference accounts were giving poor reviews, weakening the agent's ability to sell.

More and more, I'm seeing problems resulting from failures in communication, rather than failures of a technical nature. And, many of the technical failures seem to have communication failures as their root causes as well.

I'm not saying that technical problems don't happen, but I'm clearly seeing the value of investing considerable time and effort in thorough, relentless, two-way communication and clarification.

Friendly, But Not Friends

At a meeting of our Masterminds Breakfast Club for business consultants, we were talking about how to develop repeat business with clients, something of interest to all businesses, not just blood-sucking parasites (er, I mean, consultants). In addition to the somewhat obvious need to provide true value and keep in regular contact, the notion of relationship came up. And, the idea of being "likeable" or "well-liked" arose. A lively debate ensued.

Is it important for your customers to like you? Personally? Should you strive to be buddies with your customers? Should you hang out, go to the bar, go for dinner, and go to hockey games? How important is the personal relationship, the friendship, to the business relationship?

Everyone agreed that if customers don't like you, they will be less likely to want you around. But there were a lot of opinions on how close you should get. At some point, you will need to collect money from them. Or charge them for something they'd like for free. Or tell them something they don't want to hear. Or fire them as a customer. Or be told that your services are no longer required.

And, the question again came up: Do you need to be liked? Or, instead of being liked, is it more imporant to be respected? And, though we certainly don't want to be dis-liked, perhaps we don't really want to be friends?

Scott, from Abonar Business Consultants suggested that maybe "You want to be friendly, but not friends". In other words, behave courteously. Be polite. Be positive, supportive, and friendly. But maintain enough separation so that you can effectively manage the business relationship.

It's the same in an employer/employee relationship; be friendly towards employees, but maintain enough separation so that you can do what needs to be done to effectively manage the company. If you are always socializin' with the staff because you want to be liked and be their friend, how do you let one of your friends go when their performance just isn't adequate?

The lively debate continued, and no one imagined that there is one right answer that applies to every situation and every personality. But, if what you're doing hasn't been too effective, think about what you might change so that you can be friendly, without being friends.

Maybe You Don't Need a Plan

Working on business development for a company selling industrial LED lighting into the Saskatchewan market, their sales manager felt there was no need for a plan. "It's simple. Show a sample of the product. Do an energy audit. Ask for a pilot project. Then it'll sell itself. We don't need marketing. We don't need a plan. We just need someone to get out there, roll up our sleeves, and get to work."

That does make good sense and there is truth to the idea that you don't need a plan to succeed. Clearly, if you don't get out there to sell, the chances of success are very small. So, if you do get out there to sell, the chances of success are much better. But, if you do get out there to sell, and you also have the support of good marketing materials, and you know what your competitors are offering, and your prospects already have a warm feeling about you because of your local advertising and communications and sponsorships, and your sales people are approaching the most lucrative markets because you've identified them in your plan, then your chances of success are MUCH better.

So, maybe you don't need a plan. You can just roll up your sleeves and get to work. But if you come up against a competitor who's rolled up their sleeves AND also has a plan, they'll likely whup your pasty white tush. And, in business, that's not as fun as you might imagine.

So, yes, roll up your sleeves and get to work. But do it with the direction and support of a great plan. It's more efficient. It's more effective.

Why is the Landlord Business Different?

In response to one Regina apartment owner giving their tenants notice of a 70-100% rent increase, the Saskatchewan government is considering a longer rent notice period, currently set at six months. The intent would be to prevent "unacceptable" rent increases, whatever that means.

It's curious that the business of being a landlord is targeted for such regulation, while other businesses are not.

If you own a restaurant, you can set your prices however you want. If you set them too low, you'll lose money and go broke. If you set them too high, you'll lose customers, and go broke. If the cost of bacon, lettuce and tomatoes goes up, you'd better raise the price of a BLT or you'll go broke. If the price to own a restaurant building doubles, you'd better raise your prices or you'll go broke.

The same is true whether you sell groceries, gas, clothing, cars, or diapers. Charge too much, and people won't buy your product. Charge too little, and you won't make any money.

Why are the owners of residential properties singled out for this kind of regulation? In any other business, even if they deal with the necessities of life, companies are free to increase their prices. If they increase it too high, people will stop buying from them.

If a landlord increases the rent too much, tenants will stop renting from them. Tenants will move out. If the owner of the property is willing to risk losing their tenants, how is that different from any other business that decides to raise its prices? If a landlord can charge more rent, and still keep their building full, doesn't that mean that the price is not too high?

Why is the business of being a landlord so different?

What's Your Problem?

If you're in business, you need to know what your problem is; what is the problem that you are in the business of solving?

T. Harv Eker, high-octane creator of Secrets of The Millionaire Mind, says that an entrepreneur is someone who solves problems for a profit. Good definition. The more problems you solve, the more profit you make. The bigger the problems you solve, the more profits you make.

When you realize this, and look at your business in terms of solving customer problems for a profit, you can't get to problems fast enough. Bring them on! Seeing problems as opportunities for profit is quite a bit different from seeing customer problems as a nuisance to be avoided.

One household appliance company kept hearing laments from their customers about how hard it was to get rid of their old clothes washers and dryers. Apartment dwellers especially had a problem, with no place to store their old appliances until they could hire someone to eventually haul it away. While the company had ignored this customer problem for years ("We're in the new appliance business, not junk hauling!"), an employee suggestion led them to consider the opportunity it presented.

They were delivering the new appliances anyway. They had capable staff onsite with the equipment needed to move appliances. They had space on the delivery truck, since they had just unloaded the new appliances. The staff were returning to the truck empty handed. The truck was returning to the depot empty. The company decided to offer a removal service, charging a small but highly profitable fee to haul away the old appliances at the same time as they delivered the new ones. They built a relationship with a recycling organization and a used-appliance outlet to get rid of the old equipment. The customer problem was solved, the company's profits increased.

How many more problems might they be able to solve?

• Customers have a problem unpacking, installing and connecting the new appliances. It's often pretty complicated and needs a good handy man to complete. Solve that problem with some cross training and a few tools, and you have an on-the-spot installation crew. More profit opportunity.
• Customers have another problem getting rid of all the packaging and large cardboard boxes from the new appliances. Solve that problem by taking the packaging back in the mostly empty truck. More profit opportunity.

So, next time your customers complain, or share a problem with you related to your business dealings with them, think about how you might solve that problem and turn it into profit. Because that's what entrepreneurs do.

Do Some Homework Before You Make the Call

A salesman called the busy CEO of a midsize technology company to say "I'm going to be in your city and would like to come and see you." The salesman wouldn't say what his company did, and didn't know anything about what the technology company did.

So, the CEO clarified, "You won't tell me what you do, and you don't know anything about us, but you want to meet with me when you're in town? You should have done some homework - don't call me again" and hung up.

If this is your cold calling approach, you'd better get used to a whole lot of rejection.

The people you're calling on are busy. Do your homework, present your value proposition, and don't waste their time.

You've Got to Listen

A small SK software company has a truly great product that could save large industrial companies millions of dollars. The company has made great efforts to convince some large customers that their product is truly great. They've sent out information about their product, they've done presentations, and they've itemized the benefits of their software. But the company has not made any significant sales.

The company has truly failed to communicate. They've "spoken" lots, but they've truly failed to listen. That's four truly's so far (five now), and I truly mean every one of the them (six!).

This company, as personified by its founder and owner, actually seems incapable of listening to others. Have you dealt with people like this?

• Suggestions from salespeople on how to improve the sales model are brushed off as whining;
• Suggestions from customers on how they'd like to test the product before buying are brushed off as cheap;
• Suggestions from colleagues on how the company might better present the solution are brushed off as unnecessary.

In the owner's mind, the product speaks for itself, and is perfectly suitable, as is. The sales people should just get out there and sell it, and any customer that doesn't buy it ain't too smart.

There is still a chance that this company will succeed. But there's a greater chance that this company, and this great product, will become obsolete without ever making the impact that it should.

No matter how smart you are, make sure you learn to listen.

It is truly the most important part of communication, and the most important part of running a business.

Truly (eight!)

Costs Don't Matter

Two comparable business owners were looking to purchase the same software package.

One focused extensively on the cost of the software, aggressively negotiating price, challenging the vendor's recommendations for training, and doing everything in his power to keep the costs down.

The other focused extensively on what the software could do for his company, looking at how it could free up time and resources, add capacity, and improve efficiency. Really looking at how much more money they could make by using the software.

Both ended up buying the software, but the second had far greater success with the implementation, even though he paid more for both the software and the training. Sure, it's important to manage cash flow, and not spend foolishly. But if a purchased solution is going to help your business earn ten times the cost of the solution, the question shouldn't be "got anything cheaper?" but "how soon can we start?"

The cost of a solution doesn't really matter. The value of the solution, in comparison to the cost, is what we ought to focus on.

Have You Built a Tower of Babel?

To mess up the ambitious plans for construction of the Tower of Babel, God "confounded the language of all the Earth."(Genesis 11:5-8). In a bit of a mischevious intervention, God divided the people by getting them to speak different languages, where before they had spoken one. Without the ability to communicate, they were unable to coordinate their efforts. There was no possibility of getting the job done at all, let alone getting it done on time or under budget.

In the 1967 sci-fi short story "Babel II", available in War Games, Harry Crosby (aka Christopher Anvil) describes a world where the technology has gotten so complicated, where the degree of professional specialization has become so extensive, that none of the professionals can understand each other, and no-one understands completely how the technology works. Their attempts to build an Esmer-drive starship are doomed!

In your company, it's very likely that the people in purchasing have no idea what any of the stuff they're buying is used for, or how to tell a good flux capacitor from a bad one. Your people in operations probably have no idea what finance means when they talk about "Net changes in non-cash working capital items related to operations". As we divide our companies into departments, into specialists that speak different languages, we build a Tower of Babel where people are truly unable to understand each other.

As you examine the sequential steps that your organization takes to satisfy your customers, you'll see many handoffs from one department to another, from one language group to another. More often than not, the handoff is not well understood by either group. A complete order, for the sales department, means they got a deposit or purchase order from the customer. A complete order for the shop means all the line items are correct and all required materials are in stock. A complete order for shipping has no back orders and clear delivery instructions and address.

When we try to improve, it's common to work within a department, trying to make our work as efficient as possible. We aim to meet our departmental targets in the belief that this will achieve the company targets. We work to improve our individual departments in the belief that this will improve the organization. Paraphrasing a little more of "Babel II": All the departmental curves showed progress. It was natural to assume this meant company progress. But what about the connections between the departments, between their managers and between people generally. It would be possible to carry this specialization so far that nobody understands anyone in any other line of work, and then what will we have?

What we'll have is the typical modern company, where departments speak their own languages and work to improve within themselves, but the real flow of work and value never gets much better.

Five Truths in Today's Horoscope

LEO (July 23-Aug 22) "The ones who do well in business know how to tolerate the ups and downs. It won't always go smoothly, and you have to be able to sustain a certain degree of loss. Practice endurance, and in the end you'll succeed. Keep going."

That was my horoscope today in the StarPhoenix, and, today only, even if you're not a LEO, you can adopt this as your own. All businesses experience ups and downs, successes and failures, periods of growth and periods of crisis. Heck, everything in life goes up and down, and we need to learn to deal with this more effectively.

Here are five thoughts to help you handle the ups and downs of business:

1. Not all ups warrant celebration, and not all downs require intervention. We tend to take credit for successes, jump on the bandwagon, and strike up the band with every little uptick in results - the TSX is up 0.4% - hooray! Yet we also tend to blame others for faliures, jump off tall buildings, and strike out at others when our measures drop - the Dow Jones is down 45 point today - aaaarrrrggghhh! Most of the variation we see in our daily results is just the random dance of hundreds of common little factors. Calm down about it, and learn to see variation differently. The world of statistical process control gives us powerful tools for separating the wheat from the chaff, from telling us whether today's change is something significant. Learn to "tolerate the ups and downs."
2. Stick with your process. You create a long-term vision and mission statement, whip up a business strategy and operating plan, standardize the daily work for yourself and the little people, and set out on your path to success on a going forward basis. Then, after three weeks/three months/three quarters of staying the course, everybody panics because the desired change has not yet materialized. Doubts well up, blame is bandied about, and everybody frantically scrambles to figure out what they should do differently. Reorganize! Re-brand! New business cards for everyone! Sure, sometimes you have to adjust your course; sometimes you choose the wrong direction. But very often, in my experience, you need to trust your original plan, trust your original process to produce results, and "keep going."
3. Expect downturns. Believe it or not, your business will not always be strong. You will not experience unending growth and success. There is no such thing as endless summer; winter will always return! Yet so many owners and leaders seem completely blindsided when a downturn hits, when the sales chart no longer climbs, when their industry stops being the poster child of business success. Once you've been through a couple of downs and ups, through a few completely "unpredictable" crises, you start to realize that unpredictable crises are actually quite expected, quite normal. So, despite enjoying growth in the summer sunshine, make sure you can "sustain a certain degree of loss."
4. Business is Personal. There is a pervasive delusion that business is somehow separate from us, that it is something "out there" that deals only with facts and figures and production and sales. True, we have human resources departments, but we treat it as just another cog in the big mechanistic machine that is business. If we're honest with ourselves, we realize that this is hogwash - business is intensely personal. Business is first and foremost about relationships, about belonging to a group, about feeling competent and valued, about being able to express our creative drives, and about having fun or living through personal hell. If you're a business owner, you know intimately how personal business is - your whole identity is wrapped up in the daily progress of your company. So when our horoscope says "Practice endurance, and in the end you'll succeed," we see the connection between our company's success and our success. We need to be able to handle ups and downs in our business, and this means we each need to learn to handle ups and downs in our lives.
5. All horoscopes are crap. If you use astrology to make management decisions, you should stop.

Company Loses Million Dollar Account

A large Saskatchewan metal fabrication company was well into a Lean Enterprise transformation and was buying $1 million/year of product from a particular supplier. The supplier produced parts using a combination of in-house and 3rd-party fabricators with considerable transportation of work-in-process between their facility and others and back.

As part of their supplier development process, the customer tried to convince them to examine their processes and get rid of all this transportation waste (one of the Seven Lean Wastes), so they could reduce lead times and reduce costs. They were willing to share the savings, but needed supplier improvement to help them meet their own customers' ever-more-demanding requirements. Unfortunately, the supplier wasn't willing to explore Lean, and repeatedly told the customer that their processes were efficient enough.

Another supplier, eager for work, was willing to embrace Lean improvement initiatives and accept the offered supplier development assistance. As a direct result, the first supplier lost $1 million/year in profitable business.

This is what is happening around the world. If you're not willing to embrace continuous improvement and Lean, you can bet someone else will. And they will beat you on price, quality, and delivery time. Can you afford to lose your million dollar accounts?

Be Here in Fifteen Minutes, Or Else

A large phone company had a waiting list for the new iPhone 4. Customers on the waiting list had paid a $100 deposit and wanted the new phones as soon as they were available. In the interest of fairness, the company decided that they would call the people on the list, and give them fifteen minutes to get to the store to pick it up, or it would go to the next person on the list.

Angela and Doug, long-time customers of this company, both happened to be on that list. Angela, a surgeon, was interrupted in the operating room by her receptionist who had received the call at the office. Doug, a pilot, received the call while he was enroute from Calgary to Denver. In both cases, the company rep insisted that "If you want the phone, you need to be here within fifteen minutes." In both cases, their first responses were not fit to print. In both cases, their subsequent suggestion that a spouse or colleague pick up the phone was rejected. Both eventually got their phone, but not without several more phone calls and escalating complaints.

A very good lesson in how not to listen to the voice of the customer.

Building Relationships, One Coffee Percolator at a Time

I just got a hand-written Thank You card in the mail from the Handy Group of Companies in Saskatoon. We had rented a 36-cup coffee percolator from their Special Events department for a family birthday party a few weekends ago.

This was a very nice gesture, and indicative of how they've built their business. Consider that our entire rental cost about ten bucks and the hand-written card probably cost about two, including time and postage. Now this company does rentals for large-scale parties and all sorts of tools and construction equipment and would routinely have rental contracts worth thousands of dollars. Yet for my ten dollar coffee pot, they still invested the time and energy to send a Thank You note. Hand-written no less.

This is a great example of how to value your customers. Rather than looking at the tiny size of my purchase, this company saw an opportunity to build a relationship. They looked beyond the value of the individual transaction to the lifetime value of a customer. That's what makes it worth sending a Thank You note for even a ten dollar purchase.

Have You Established Constancy of Purpose?

A software services company had a new product offering that was intended to replace a previous product suite. This large, customizable product was a major decision for their customers, who often required several months or years to evaluate the new product and decide whether to adopt it. The migration process was not automatic, so the company offered a conversion service, and this is where our story begins.

The department selling the conversion service, together with management, decided strategically how to price the service; since customers could not migrate without this service, it was decided to provide it at cost or even at a loss, in order to secure the much larger and more-lucrative ongoing revenue from the product. This pricing was communicated to clients around the world, and they started budgeting for a changeover one or two years down the road, so they'd be prepared for the migration and have a clear path forward.

Then, management shuffled personnel and assigned this area to a new manager, who happened to be from a business development and sales background, rather than product development. This manager believed that every transaction required a certain minimum profit margin or it wasn't justified. So, in a new pricing strategy, the cost to the customers was immediately increased by about five hundred percent!

Sales people were forced into the uncomfortable position of having to tell customers that the price for their already-budgeted conversion service had now increased by a factor of five. Customers who had already decided on adopting the new product felt understandably betrayed and cheated by this last minute price change. Customers who had not yet made a commitment were also upset, and many chose not to migrate, adopting competitive products instead.

The sales people felt "dirty", "dishonest" and resentful at being forced into betraying their customers' trust, at doing serious damage to their professional relationships. Sales slumped. Several people quit in frustration, both in the service organization and the sales organization.

As Deming asked in Quality, Productivity, and Competitive Position, "Has your company established constancy of purpose? If yes, what is the purpose? If no, what are the obstacles? Will this stated purpose stay fixed, or will presidents come and go? Whom does your president answer to? Whom do your board of directors answer to?"

The same questions can be asked in every department - Have you established constancy of purpose? Will this stated purpose stay fixed, or will managers come and go? In several Dilbert cartoons, Scott Adam's jokes about bungee bosses, who swoop in, make some changes, and then get yanked away. The churn, the waste, and the frustration that results from such frothy changes in purpose drive everyone crazy, and drive losses down to the bottom line.

Strive to create constancy of purpose that will endure beyond the next change in personnel.

Look Ma, No Order Form

A mid-size national company prided itself on customer service. The company was willing to do things for its customers that larger competitors wouldn't do. They believed that their willingness to bend over backwards was the key to their success, and this was probably true. But it was also clear, based on employee suggestions, and very clear when looking in from the outside, that their almost religious commitment to being flexible was actually making their service worse in ways that management wasn't able to see.

As part of being flexible and offering good customer service, management refused to provide an order form for use by their customers. In this company, orders were received at a centralized sales center from customers all across the country. This company, with one hundred million dollars annual sales, prided itself on accepting orders in whatever format the customers wanted to send them. So, their customers would place orders by phone, fax, email or online, in free-form text, with whatever information they wanted to include, differing from order to order and from customer to customer. There were no guidelines, no attempts at standardization. When asked about the possibility of providing an order form to help streamline the order process, management's response was "There's no way we'd do that to our customers. We believe in good customer service!"

So, some orders would list specific product codes, others would describe a product in words, others would say "same as last order", despite the fact that six different people from that customer site might order product and it was rarely clear which "last order" they were referring to. Some orders might include desired shipping dates and delivery methods, others would not. Some orders might include a purchase order or payment method, others would not. Many would have incomplete addresses or contact information, or would miss some other key pieces of information that were necessary to process the order.

So, on many, many orders, the Service Agents would have to call back, clarify, guess, interpret, assume, look up information, and fill in the gaps that customers left when submitting their orders. Fully one quarter of each Service Agent's day was taken up with trying to complete and clarify missing and required information on incoming orders. They would inevitably have to involve the customer in this process, often repeatedly, in order to resolve all the issues.

How much easier would it have been for the customers, and for the Service Agents, if the customers knew up front what information was necessary when placing an order; if they had a simple, straightforward order form to guide them? Customer service would have been much smoother, with less telephone tag and back-and-forth communication.

This company was certainly successful, but they could have been so much more successful, with a lot less stress and busywork. In their mind, good customer service meant "doing whatever it took to rework the customers' orders and fill in all the required information." This approach just ended up creating more work for both customers and Service Agents.

How much wasted effort could have been avoided with even a little bit of standardization?

When Things Get Busy

A disorganized but successful salesman wanted to restore order to his cluttered office and get control of his business. On Tuesday, he made a checklist of specific cleanup tasks he'd do every day to address the problems. He planned to enter three business cards from the overflowing pile into his mailing list program, clean out and review one paper customer file, file five old invoices, and contact one past customer for followup. On the first two days, he got through all the items on the list, and was very excited about the potential improvements - maybe this time he'd be able to truly clean up his chaotic messes!

On Thursday, he got a call that made him suddenly very busy and also made it very, very tempting to give up on the new standard work. The call was for some new business that would start the next day, business that he hadn't done before and that would need some significant preparation time. So he faced a decision.

Should he prepare for the new business, and skip the new improvement tasks? Or, should he stick to his checklist, do the improvement tasks, and risk being unprepared for the new business? Or, should he work furiously and try to do it all?

So often, we start a new initiative with high hopes, with dreams for a better world, with dreams for a cleaner office! Then, when we've barely gotten started, we get busy with some new crisis or opportunity and we're faced with this kind of a decision.

What happens to your "I'm-going-to-do-these-every-day" tasks when things get busy? Take a look at the Lean methods of Leader Standard Work if this kind of thing routinely happens in your business.

Bonus Program Kills Cooperation

Jan worked in a large food sales organization. All the sales people had independent territories but were grouped within regions, and often shared ideas and suggestions with each other about what was working well. New management implemented a significant new bonus program, with a reward trip for the top performer and cash prizes for the most improved sales people in each region. Jan reported that she completely stopped sharing ideas with colleagues, since she wanted to win the bonus rewards. For two years, all cooperation amongst sales people in the region essentially stopped. A quick analysis showed that overall sales had not shown any real improvement.

Credit Card Policy Loses a Customer

A man buys some expensive jewelry for his wife at a downtown Saskatoon boutique. The store policy was to accept certain credit cards but not others due to the different back-end fees charged to the store by different credit card companies. The man was on his lunch break, and was informed that the card he was using could not be accepted - did he have another? He put the diamond necklace on hold, walked back to his office, got another credit card and returned to the store to complete the purchase. Management was presumably happy with this, since the cashier had followed policy, the store had saved a few dollars in fees, and they had still made the sale.

Unfortunately, two years later, this man still freely shares the story of how mad he was at being treated that way, and how he will never shop in that store again. He is freely sharing the name of the store too (though I won't) and buys his jewelry elsewhere now.

Look at your policies from your customer's point of view, not yours. Striving for success through cost cutting can be very expensive.