One person can only accomplish so much. No single voice,
no matter how well amplified or reproduced, will sound as
good as a chorus of singers backed up by appropriate
musicians. The same lesson is true for organizations that
want to create ideal results for all involved. They need
to act as one, but gain the benefit of combining the
efforts of many in nearly flawless ways.
Clearly, few will think that perfect performances are
possible, but near perfection occurs all the time. In this
article, let's look at the lessons of how to conduct
yourself to gain near perfection for organizations. This
is a critical element of creating 2,000 percent solutions.
The steps for creating a 2,000 percent solution
(accomplishing 20 times more with the same time, effort,
and resources) are listed here:
1. Understand the importance of measuring performance.
2. Decide what to measure.
3. Identify the future best practice and measure it.
4. Implement beyond the future best practice.
5. Identify the ideal best practice.
6. Pursue the ideal best practice.
7. Select the right people and provide the right motivation.
8. Repeat the first seven steps.
This article looks at practicing to become more effective
in step five.
Combine Perspectives from Similar Organizational Ideal Best
Practices in New Ways of Operating
If one ideal practice is powerful, imagine the impact of
combining insights from more than one such ideal practice.
Here's an example: Orchestras perform complex pieces with
amazing coordination and few errors. Military units march
with impressive precision in keeping the same time and foot
forward. The principle behind both kinds of successful
coordination is that these groups have practiced a
particular sequence until they can do it very easily and
receive a signal (from a conductor or a drill instructor)
that provides time and motion coordination. During
practices, the signal giver tells people when they make
mistakes and repeats those sequences until they are done
correctly.
Now let's apply that principle. Let's say that you want to
launch a new product with a complex series of marketing and
sales efforts. How might you create such a result? You need
to start by playing the role that the musical composer does
in writing down everything that needs to be done in the
right order. That overall plan is like the score a
conductor will use to coordinate everyone. The plan should
include the speed, timing, and location of what needs to be
done. Then the parts need to be copied out so that people
know their roles and have instructions to follow. Finally,
you need to practice the execution of that plan until it
comes easily and perfectly.
By comparison, most organizations don't prepare such plans,
have no practices, provide no feedback to those who make
mistakes so they can improve, and don't have anyone playing
the role of sending a central signal. Is it any wonder
these organizations don't coordinate their new product
launches very well?
Combine Perspectives from Dissimilar Organizational Ideal
Best Practice Principles in New Ways
The potential for combining ideal practices is improved if
you consider places where two or more ideal group practices
are based on different principles that could be combined to
create a breakthrough for your organization.
Here's an example to help you understand this process: Jazz
combos improvise playing music. No one knows exactly who
will play next or what they will play within a piece. The
process works because the combo practices a lot and learns
to closely observe what one another is doing so they
smoothly adjust to each other. Postal services rarely fail
to deliver mail that is entrusted to them. That's true both
because postal workers understand the importance of the
mail (they are customers, too) and roles are clearly
defined in ways that reduce the risk of mail being lost.
Let's combine and apply these two principles. Assume that
you want your organization to develop more flexibility by
ensuring that each person learns how to do at least one
other person's job who works in the same unit. In that way,
if someone is out for a day, work proceeds smoothly. Using
the jazz combo example, you might give workers the
opportunity to choose what other job they learn. Only if
some jobs were not going to be learned would you need to
make assignments. To ensure that the learning takes place,
you could set practice times when each person spends half
the session helping someone else learn and the other half
learning. To ensure that coordination did not break down,
you could ask those who have the jobs to write out steps
for the tasks so that the substitute would not forget an
important step. To make that forgetfulness even less
likely, you should schedule some time where each substitute
spends a day on the receiving end of the work in order to
appreciate (as postal employees do) what it's like to rely
on what's done.
Such cross-training usually goes very slowly in most
organizations. What's missing? Usually, the cross-training
doesn't even begin until after a supervisor reviews an
employee and decides to recommend cross-training. As a
result, few have completed cross-training at any given
time. Regular opportunities to learn aren't scheduled in
many organizations, so the training proceeds slowly.
Because the employee may have no interest in learning the
other job, the employee may avoid the learning opportunity
altogether. It's even rarer to see the results of such a
job as a customer either internally or externally.
Naturally, if you can combine three principles, that's even
better. And combining four principles is better still.
How might you do that?
Start by developing a list of at least 50 examples of where
groups routinely perform near perfection. Then, look for
the principles behind each of those examples. Finally,
begin combining the principles in new ways.
Maestro, your breakthrough awaits!
Copyright 2007 Donald W. Mitchell, All Rights Reserved
----------------------------------------------------
Donald Mitchell is chairman of Mitchell and Company, a
strategy and financial consulting firm in Weston, MA. He is
coauthor of six books including The 2,000 Percent Squared
Solution, The 2,000 Percent Solution, and The 2,000 Percent
Solution Workbook. You can find free tips for accomplishing
20 times more by registering at:
=========> http://www.2000percentsolution.com .
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