In business we see many terms used to describe methods for change. “Best Practices”, “Process Improvement”, “Benchmarking” and others. To many people, these are nothing more than buzzwords that can make a business or meeting seem dynamic. Talking about process improvement is easy, but real-world solutions can often be elusive. So how can these ideas become more than just corporate sound bites?
Tradition
Tradition can be important, even motivating, but it’s important to recognize the difference between tradition and stagnation. “This is how we’ve always done it” is the biggest obstacle to optimization. Improvements will never happen if you just maintain the status quo.
job titles
Are you managing your employees for a job description or managing job descriptions for your employees? Manage your employees’ strengths instead of trying to fix them. Talent is the most important characteristic of an exemplary employee. For example, at a wholesale mortgage lender I was responsible for managing a group of Account Managers (AMs). One of the functions of the AM was to block tariffs. People who excelled as account managers tended to be more people-oriented and less analytical, and we had a problem with rate setting errors. To combat this problem, I created the role of a lockdown desk and filled it with my most analytical person, who had been struggling as an AM. Not only did this allow AMs to focus more on other functions and better serve their customers, it reduced our errors by over 65%.
procedures
Statements like “This is the way to do…” or “This is how we do it…” can pave the way for even the most talented person to fail. Look at Kevin Youkilis’s batting stance, knees together, hands spread over his head, holding the bat like a samurai warrior or Jeff Bagwell (c.297) with a stance so wide he can almost drive a truck through or Pete Rose ( c. .303), crouched so low that he looks like an alpine skier heading for the finish line. However, all three are within 8 points (+-) of a career batting average of .300, .292, .297 and .303 respectively. Could Rose have beaten .303 if his trainer had told him he had to stand like Youk or would Youk succeed with a Baggy stance? Probably not. Each person has or derives their “way” of doing the task at hand. In most cases there is your way and my way, their way and their way, when you try to define the “right way” you can kill productivity.