I have been enjoying the Olympics – especially the downhill skiing like Super-G. The amazing transitions that racers make as they fly down the course clearly take tremendous energy and consume critical fractions of time. The skiers who minimize unnecessary transitions and execute the necessary ones most effectively are the ones that win. On the other hand, it doesn’t take much of an error to cost the race.
All transitions require time and energy; from getting up in the morning to being interrupted or distracted while doing a project. Think of how many transitions occur in the course of your daily business operations. What might you gain if unnecessary ones were eliminated or reduced and necessary ones were significantly improved? For instance…
Are you or your experienced employees having to unexpectedly ‘transition’ because you get interrupted with questions that have been asked before and will be asked again? Save some of that time and energy by:

• Documenting your accumulated knowledge and making it widely available
• Developing simple process outlines and flow charts
• Creating checklists for common activities – traditional ‘task completion checklists’ as well as ‘thinking checklists’ that help people consider important aspects of what they are doing
• Maintaining a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) that provide guidance and direction for common issues

Do you or your staff ‘transition’ information manually from your main system to some other software tool like Excel so you can analyze it better? Consider these options:

• Talk with your software vendor. Chances are good that there is more capability in your existing system than you are currently using
• Use connectivity tools already built in to Excel, Word (and many other applications) to ‘link’ directly to the information in your main system (technical term: ODBC – Open Data Base Connectivity)
• If your existing system doesn’t have any custom report writing capability, there are third-party tools that will help you get what you want directly from your database (Crystal Reports is a common one)

There are many other examples where reducing or improving transitions will pay off in terms of more time and money (not to mention peace of mind). Things like…

• The flow of any information, in any form, as it transitions from one group or department to another
• The transitioning of customers from the sales process to production, support, accounting, etc.
• Getting an employee transitioned from being brand new to being knowledgeable and capable

This isn’t rocket science (or Super-G). It is a matter of identifying the opportunities, prioritizing initiatives and then just getting it done.
Related Posts:

The Benefits of Operational Alignment
The Problem with Friction… (Operationally Speaking)

Earlier this week I attended a meeting with a number of colleagues and I was struck by how we consultants say pretty much the same thing when we talk about how we help our clients. The 30 second introductions are full of sound bites like “successful growth,” “profitability,” “cash flow,” “increased value.” We all strive to be clear about our “value proposition” and how it relates to dollars.
As I was pondering this, I thought about my clients and what triggers their decision to invest the dollars and effort in my services and the change it represents. With all the talk of growth, value and profit, it’s interesting that the motivation often comes down to “I want more time” or “I want a life.”
I can relate to this personally. After years of slogging through longer and longer hours at my software company, we started down the path of change. A big part of our motivation was the desire for more time with our families. We invested significant energy and dollars making changes similar to those that I now help my clients through. These changes aren’t rocket science, they are often simple; just not easy. As a result, we did get more time with our families. Along the way we also became more profitable and we ended up selling the business for significantly more than an offer we had received just a few years before.
The balance between quality of life and the hard work of running a business is a difficult one to create and maintain. The beauty is that the same things that help owners get a life, also positively impact the financial measures mentioned above. It’s the transition between the status-quo and new behavior that is the challenge for us all….

Continuing the analogy of the Personal Trainer, let’s talk core strength. For me, the most difficult, time consuming and often unpleasant aspect of getting into shape has been developing and maintaining core strength. The core muscles are the ones we can’t readily see – yet they are critical to everything we do. They keep us properly balanced, protect the back from being injured and actually make other exercises more efficient.
My natural inclination would be to focus on working the visible muscles. Fortunately, my trainer knows better and makes sure that I do what’s necessary to develop and maintain my core muscles. She knows that this is the key to true strength. It works. The chronic back pain that I endured for over 15 years is gone, I have better balance and coordination and I feel great. Of course it is an ongoing challenge to keep my core strong and not slack off.
So, how’s the core strength of your business? Are you developing and maintaining the fundamental aspects of your operation that support success and increase value? Things like…

• A clear vision, strategy, principles and values that are understood throughout the company
• Clear, concise and consistent communication through all channels – from meetings to email
• Intentional and structured approach to customer service and relationship management
• Effective hiring, training, mentoring and accountability practices
• Defined and documented best practices, policies and procedures and accumulated knowledge
• Technology that is well implemented and effectively supports your business purpose
• Accounting and administration that understands their part in customer service and business development

Here is one thing that I know for sure. With a strong core, there is less pain, everything is more efficient and it really feels good.

It’s always interesting at this time of year to see how crowded the gym gets with people acting on their New Year’s resolution to lose weight and get into shape. Then in about a month or so it will calm down to around the level it was before the holidays. Some people stay with it, but many struggle for consistency and eventually drop off. I have been one of those people many times over the years… until I hired a personal trainer.
As a result, I have been going to the gym consistently for the past 4+ years. I am sure it is the best investment I have ever made in my health and well-being. While I certainly am not ‘chisled’ by any stretch of the imagination, I am definitely in the best physical shape of my life (at least since boot camp). I have an outstanding trainer, Karen Lauth at 24 hour fitness in Ballinger. She not only gets me to come to the gym (at ridiculously early morning hours), she gets me to do things I would never choose to do on my own; and for those things that I would do on my own, she gets me to do a lot more of them than I would ever do without her standing there pushing me. The results are real – and are paying off in a variety of ways. Now…

Do I know how important exercise is on the quality of my life? Yes…
Do I know how to lift weights, use a treadmill, do crunches and push-ups? Yes …
Do I know how much better I will feel every day if I exercise regularly? Yes …
Do I know that if I don’t exercise regularly I would probably have a shorter life? Yes…

So why don’t I (and millions of others like me) do this on our own? That’s a question for the psychologists. I just know that with external accountability I get results. We see very visible evidence of this weekly on the popular show “Biggest Loser.”

The personal trainer effect certainly doesn’t just apply to exercise. When I use this example in talks I give to business owners and CEO’s, I always get a lot of knowing smiles and nods. Most business people I know are very smart. They often know what they should be doing to grow their business and prepare for an exit or succession. It’s just extremely difficult to make this happen without some external accountability.

Want Results? Get Accountability…

Happy New Year – maybe I’ll see you at the gym?

1. You rely on an external technology vendor who has never come to you with suggestions on how to improve quality, increase production or enhance customer service
2. Your internal technology team has never come to you with suggestions on how to improve quality, increase production or enhance customer service
3. You ask your tech people for something new and they respond quickly “the system doesn’t provide that”
4. The last time you had any training on the programs that you use was when they were installed
5. You only use the standard reports that came with the system
6. You are entering data from reports or screens into spreadsheets
7. There is only one (or two) people in your company who really know how the program works
8. You installed the programs yourself and then figured out how to use them on your own
9. When something doesn’t work your people say “there is something wrong with their (the software company’s) program”
10. You haven’t installed any available upgrades in years

We live and work in a world of ever-increasing distraction… Email, text messaging, instant messaging, Twitter, Facebook – they all call out for our attention. Unmanaged, they represent constant interruptions with obvious impacts on productivity.
Consider that it takes anywhere from a few minutes to over 10 minutes to recover from an interruption (depending on who you ask). And multi-tasking isn’t the answer either. John Medina points out in his book Brain Rules that “Multitasking, when it comes to paying attention, is a myth.” Articles in the WSJ and on NPR agree.

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Early in my career I tried to start an independent consulting practice… Emphasis on the word ‘tried.’ One of the primary reasons this didn’t work out so well, is that I did not have a Business Confidant. I needed someone I could trust who was objective and could understand what I was going through; someone with experience who could provide perspective, guidance, encouragement and accountability. I learned from my mistake. When I started Janssen Consulting a few years back, I made sure to have such a Business Confidant and it has made a significantly positive difference. I have learned that while I can act in this role for others, I cannot do it for myself.

[Read more…]

The next time one of your employees comes to you with a question or a problem, resist the easiest (and most automatic) reaction: To give the answer or jump in and take care of the problem. You (and they) know that you can do it faster and better, however that’s short-term thinking which can be costly in the long run…
Granted, the quick answer or immediate action is needed at times. Often, however it is not. Providing that quick answer or jumping in to help can delay the accumulation of the very experience that your employees need in order to grow and take on more responsibility.
Here are a couple of methods that I use and recommend to my clients:

1. The “Just put it off” method. When someone comes to you with a problem that is not critical, tell them that you don’t have time to get into it now and that you will need to discuss it later in the day/tomorrow. When you do follow up, you will be amazed at how often they end up having figured it out on their own.
2. The “Make ’em think first” method: Anyone coming to you with a problem must also bring potential solutions (or suggested approaches to get to a solution). For this to work, they need to be confident that they won’t be ridiculed for naive or unworkable ideas. This can create a very teachable moment where you find out how your employees think and where there are gaps in training or resources. You may also be surprised by some some great ideas that you hadn’t thought of before.

In spite of the short term ‘pain’ of dealing with another person’s learning curve it is definitely worth the effort. You end up with more capable and confident employees as well as more time for you to focus on strategic initiatives, new opportunities – or maybe getting home in time for dinner with your family…

1. You are ‘doing’ what you have been doing – the same way you have done it – for years
2. You think (or hear the words) “we can’t charge that much – especially in this economy”
3. What your customers expect before they buy is not what they experience after they buy
4. What employees are taught about the company mission, values and culture is not what they experience when they come to work
5. People come to you when they have a problem … and you solve it for them
6. When a new employee does something for the first time, they have to ask around for help until they find someone who has done it before
7. Meetings take place and people wonder why
8. At those meetings people have to help each other remember the results from the last meeting
9. You are using your computer system the same way that you did when it was first installed
10. The reports that you have to run your business come from your accounting system