How do you compare?

Who is your 'target company' - the one you wean to emulate - and beat?

Having someone in your sights is a good motivator - it helps focus your mind on what they do better than  you - and therefore on what you need to improve.

So, if you haven't got a target, find one - and find out enough about them to do some useful comparisons and benchmarking.

If you think there is no-one to chase, you are either misguided - or in a particular niche market.

If there is no-one ...  then it is you... next year you must beat this year's performance - especially in those areas where you know you should improve.  Start chasing yourself!

More banana skins

I talked last week about the banana skins we drop - and the thing that makes our firms good being how we 'pick then up'.

I return to the point just to emphasise the fact that you will make mistakes - we all do (yes, even me :).

So, as I said last week - identify the mistakes - look at the data, feel the dissatisfaction, listen to the complaints - and use those mistakes to make you better and stronger.  Your customers - and your staff - will forgive you for making mistakes if you deal with the fallout promptly and effectively.

The biggest crime, by far, is not having the mechanisms - and the humility - to identify and admit your mistakes.

Pick up the banana skins

Most of the time you get things right, I'm sure. Occasionally, though, you will slip on a banana skin - and get something wrong.

It is almost impossible to avoid all mistakes - though, of course, we try very hard.

What matters is how we deal with our mistakes - how we learn from them.

So, when you spot a mistake - don't assign 'blame', assign 'responsibility'  - for learning the lessons and making improvements.

Always have ... Always will

As a consultant, the key 'technique' to improving someone's business is simply to keep asking them the questions ..."Why do you do that?", "Why do you do it like that?" and "What else could you do?"

Ask these questions enough times about enough parts of the business and he/she ( the business owner) will eventually start thinking - and come up with his/her own ideas for improvement.

However, you will not be surprised to find that the commonest answer to the middle question is a shifty look, a hesitation and something like "Well, that's how we do it round here."  Firms do something in a particular way because that's how they started doing it ... and there has never been a reason to challenge it.

Of course there might be better processes, better technology, faster machines or whatever that have emerged recently but the business owner is unlikely to haver done any research to find that out.

So, he/she may not have a real problem - but may be missing a real opportunity.

Don't be that 'Aways done it this way' person.  Review what you do and how you do it on a regular basis. Talk to others in the same industry.  Visit some trade exhibitions and keep up to date.  Search out opportunities to improve. otherwise if you keep missing them, they will turn into problems.

Do you lead from the top?

My time in the productivity business had led me (perhaps rather slowly) to a simple truth.

Effective organisations - with high productivity and good quality -  start at the top with a 'planning and execution system' that stems directly from the organisational mission.  This must define and support 'excellence' and must translate into systems, processes and procedures - and skilled roles and tasks which build in individual and team responsibility for that excellence, together with performance measures that ensure we remain 'on track' with our plans and targets.

For a small business, much of this is instinctive - but it happens in the best small companies and startups where the business owner builds a skilled, trained, engaged and motivated workforce who know and understand their own roles within the overall organisational system.  In fact, in a small business this is usually easier because employees can often see the whole of the 'production process' and it is clear as to what their contribution is.

We need to 'flip' the traditional representation of an organisation structure and see the role of managers and leaders as creating and sharing a vision of excellence and then identifying and removing the barriers that prevent 'front line workers' from creating that excellence.

So, your role is to lead from the bottom!

Don't be afraid to spend money on useless things

As a productivity professional, I am used to counting every penny/cent spent and justifying the expenditure by the benefits it brings - its (perhaps tiny) contribution to the aims of the organisation.

Sometimes, however, firms decide to spend money on things which have no direct utility - corporate art, charitable giving, etc.  Can such expenditure be justified?  ... in productivity terms.

Your job, as head of a company, is to coordinate all action - across all functions and sections - in pursuit of common goals - and the overall mission.  Your leadership can ensure success - but only if you can create shared ownership of the mission.

Spending money on non-utility expenditure can help you express the values you want associated with the company - it your employees (and other stakeholders) the things you regard as important. As such it helps create cohesion around the message and the mission.

As long as the amount of money spent on such things is not 'out of proportion' to utilitarian expenditure, and, as long as it is not expenditure for a privileged few - artwork in the executive penthouse, for example - it can make a positive contribution.

Can they deliver?

Consultants usually specialise in .... productivity, quality, organisational development, innovation, or some other 'improvement' topic.

This suggests that the business world is full of tools and techniques that must be selected carefully according to the kind of situation - and kind of problem - being considered.

Consultants pretend to be knowledgeable and 'clever' - and of course they are ... but often their major asset is having time and having an external, disinterested viewpoint. Use them - but don't be baffled or bamboozled by their tales of great expertise.  Question them about details - and about 'execution'.  Make sure you have confidence in their ability to deliver.