Well, this morning I ran into a couple of different stupid systems. The first one was/is a simple, but silly one. Yesterday, we had a major rain and lighting storm here in the DC area and the only thing affected in our home was the router we use with Verizon FiOS. I used the router before the storm and all was fine. But after the lightning strike near our home, it didn’t work. After waiting a half hour and then doing everything I knew I’d be asked to do, the customer support person (after another half hour) agreed and said he’d send out a replacement router that should be to me today. Fine.

So, what do you think happened this morning? Exactly! I got an automated voice message telling me that I can track my package by going to www.ups.com. HELLO! If I could go to www.ups.com I wouldn’t need a new router!!!  Stupid system (Note: I do have an iPhone so I could track it that way but the system–on their end–doesn’t know that. So the PROGRAMMED message on their end should have first of all told me when the package was sent and when it should be arriving and then should have said, “And if you have an alternative way of tracking packages online, you may do so by going to www.ups.com and entering the following tracking code).

In addition, the auto attendant quickly gave me a long string of 18 numbers and letters to use to track the package–with no option of repeating the numbers. HELLO! Do they really expect that everyone who answers their phone does so next to a pad of paper with a pen that actually works? Or do they really believe that everyone who writes down 18 numbers and letters, gets them correct the first time they hear them? Buzz! Stupid system.

But the funnier one to me was from Citigroup. Citi called because they thought we had a fraudulent charge made on our card with them last evening (good system). When I confirmed the charge, the fraud specialist asked if I had any other questions, which I did. So I said, “Yes, it’s not a big deal, but I’ve wondered for awhile why Citi raised my interest rate last year. If you look at my account you’ll see I pay off my bill every month so it’s not a big deal, but as a good customer, I thought it was pretty ridiculous to raise my interest rate to 23.9% when I always pay my bills on time.” He said, “Great question. Let me transfer you to customer service.”

When I got on with phone with customer service, it all went downhill. When I asked him my interest rate question he said, “Let me look into that.” When I said, “Well, since I get 7-10 credit card offers a week and everyone–including you at Citi–offers me between 9.99% and 13.24%, it seems that you ought to be able to reduce my rate.” “Yes, Mr. Johnson.” “Okay, so what does that mean?” “We’ll take care of you.” “What does that mean?” “Just trust that we’ll take care of you.” “Okay, but what does that mean….” He said, “Just call us back and we’ll make an adjustment in your rate.”  So, why do I have to call back? Can’t we do that now?” Yada yada yada. Stupid system.

I then went on and said, “Okay, I’m looking at an offer from Citi, your company, right now. You just sent me an offer that if I open up a Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards Card (the same one I currently have) you will give me a $50 gift card, 2 Thank You Points for every $1 I spend for the next twelve months, 0% interest on transfers in, 0% APR on new purchases until 2/11 and a 9.9% APR today. In other words, if I stay faithful I get nothing. But if I open up a new card with Citi (the exact same card that I already have with you) I get all this.” Yes.” “So, why should I remain loyal?” Stupid system.

Now, my point is not to beat up on Verizon and Citi, because, as I said at the beginning, we all have stupid systems. Instead, my point is to remind you (and me) that we all have them. And while neither of these is enough to cause me to leave either company (hey, they just happened in the last hour or so), there are plenty of stupid systems that do cause customers to leave–and that’s both a tragedy and a fiscal nightmare.

In light of that, as you look at your own company, where are your stupid systems? What systems do you have in place that customers don’t like? Or what systems do they complain about that you haven’t fixed? Remember, what you think is irrelevant. It’s all about what customers think.

So, what stupid systems do you need to change?

To your accelerated success!

P.S. This is a great exercise to do with your staff–and with your customers.

In other words, before someone starts adding something to the mix to improve execution/implementation, they should first eliminate some of the things that are currently hindering successful implementation. As a typical INTJ, I had a list of 15 hindrances in my notes, but to encourage some more group interaction I decided to ask the leader/managers present to break into groups of three to four people and come up with their own lists of items or issues that hinder execution in their company.

Without betraying confidences, I’m going to combine some of their ideas with some of mine to help get your brain kick started. For example,

• Too many “priorities“ (or conflicting priorities)
• Lack of specificity on the details of who’s responsible for what
• Not enough communication (or unclear communication)
• Lack of trust
• Interruptions
• Poor prioritization of what matters
• Departmental conflicts
• Lack of accountability
• Fear of accountability
• Limited people/resources
• Lack of personal responsibility/commitment
• The complexity of a project (or its size)
• Lack of executive attention
• A tendency to over-analyze (analysis paralysis)
• Lack of ownership
• Lack of excitement about the project, etc.

Now, think about this. If some of these issues are present in your organization, what do you think the probability is that your people are going to execute well? Probably somewhere between zero and nil. It just isn’t going to happen.

Therefore, one of the first places to make changes, if you want to make sure that your team executes better, is to eliminate some of those hindrances. And what I’d recommend is to take this question to your team,

”What hinders us, as a team and company, from executing better and faster?“

Have them brainstorm, while someone writes their ideas on an easel pad (my guess is that ideas will come rather fast and furious–after all, they’ve been thinking about these for years :-). Then, once you have a list, discuss what are the top three hindrances that, if eliminated, would have the greatest impact on increasing our ability to execute.

Then I’d take that list and work, as a team, on creating a plan to eliminate your top three hindrances from your company/organization (i.e. don’t try to fix everything at once. Start with a few items and then expand as you eliminate the current “three”).

Remember, execution doesn’t have to be rocket science. But it does have to be done. So make the list, reduce the list, and then start eliminating the items on the list. Because it’s going to be difficult to create an environment/culture of execution when there are a number of hindrances competing to ensure that execution doesn’t happen.

To your accelerated success!

P.S. You did make that list, didn’t you?

In its most basic form the theory contends that any manageable system (like your business) is hindered from achieving its potential by a very few number of constraints–of which, one, is the major one. While the book focuses on the throughput of a manufacturing concern, the theory has been expanded into a general management philosophy–which can provide major dividends for you and your business.

Without going through the whole process, you can clearly benefit, at the start of this year, by focusing on its basic idea–which is, instead of looking for 50 or 100 constraints that are holding your business back, you want to look for a handful of major constraints–and then narrow those down to your major one.

The easiest visual picture I can off you is that of a pipe. If you have one section that is clogged so that only a dime’s worth of water can flow through it, it doesn’t matter what you do to improve the other area of the pipe. You can expand the diameter of the pipe in those other sections. You could even upgrade those sections from PVC to aluminum to steel to platinum to gold. And it won’t make a difference—until you fix that one point in the pipe that only let’s a dime’s worth of water through.

Likewise, in your business, you have some built in constraints. And until you fix them, you’ll always be hindered from achieving your goals. All other activities will be less effective, until you solve that major constraint.

Now, while I think it’s true that you win games by playing to your strengths (not your weaknesses), the best teams focus some of their attention on alleviating their weaknesses. For example, a football team that has a great passing game and a terrible running game would be foolish to focus their attention on running the ball. They’ll simply lose–and lose a lot. However, if they don’t pick up their running game, they’ll hinder their passing game’s potential.

In other words, too many people make success an either/or proposition. Either you focus on strengths or you focus on building your weaknesses. When, in fact, it should be a both/and. Run with your strengths and shore up your weaknesses.

However, that said, shoring up and focusing on weaknesses can be both demotivating and difficult for an organization and its people–which is why I like the Theory of Constraints. Because the theory doesn’t say focus on all of them, it says, “Focus on the major one.”

So, how do you do that? Well that’s for our next discussion. But for now, I’d recommend that you take out a piece of paper (or open a new document on your computer) and simply ask the question, “What are the major constraints that are hindering me (and my business/organization) from achieving my (our) potential?”

To your accelerated success!

Note: Your constraints could be external or internal, mental or physical, systemic or situational. For example, your constraint could be an individual. It could be a facility challenge. It could be a mental limitation. It could be a technology issue. It could be a reach issue. It could be a conversion issue. It could be a training issue. It could be a financial issue. Etc. Don’t worry about narrowing down yet. Just start thinking about your constraints.

If so, you’ll want to immediately get your hands on the new free report I just released today entitled, “The Seven Secrets of Fast Growth Companies.”

Inside it you’ll discover,

• The number one differentiator between slow and fast growth companies
• The two key elements you need to use to create a fast growth culture
• A simple practice that can radically reduce the time it takes to implement anything
• A lesson from a Harvard professor that can change the way you think forever about your products and services
• A top team practice that can change any meeting you run—and make it more effective.
• The one metric you need to use before choosing any growth idea if you want to be an accelerated growth company
• How you can create a business that’ll scale fast
• How to avoid letting your market think you’re just like “everyone else.”
• How you can create a business that works 24/7, especially when you’re not around.

• And the number one mistake that most CEOs of small and medium-sized make

To get your copy immediately, just fill in the form in the right hand column entitled, “Interested in the 7 Secrets of Fast Growth Companies?” and then click the submit button, “Send it to me now!”

Then after you read it, post your comments below!

I received an email a few days ago from one of my clients asking about whether or not I had a staff evaluation form for the year end that I could pass along. After answering his question I thought, “I’m sure he’s not the only one asking that question.” So if you’re wondering or have ever wondered about the answer to that question, here are a few quick recommendations.

Number One: No evaluation should ever be a surprise. One of the reasons I’m not a big fan of standardized evaluations is because the best evaluations are based on what you and your employee have agreed to. In other words, evaluations are bad when an employee doesn’t clearly know what they’re being evaluated on—from the beginning of the evaluation period. And even worse, when they’re sandbagged (i.e. blasted over things they didn’t even know they were being held accountable for).

Number Two: The shorter the evaluation form the better. Too many evaluation forms and processes are way too complicated and way too long. Plus, the longer something is, the less operational it is (i.e. if you don’t want to waste your time filling out a long form that your employees won’t use, shorten the form).

Number Three: At the end of the day, you should always design tools (like evaluation forms) that actually accomplish their intended purposes—not just use up time (or fill a slot). And when it comes to evaluations, the intended purposes of an evaluation are to reward positive behaviors and results and redirect incorrect or less effective behaviors. Everything else is extraneous.

Number Four: There are four key questions that every evaluation should attempt to ask and answer (you’ve been waiting for this, haven’t you?). Note: You can add to these four, but you don’t need to.

1. Did they get done what they were supposed to get done (and how well did they get it done)?
2. Did they play well with the others in the sandbox?
3. Did they live out the mission, vision and values of your organization?
4. Did they grow (in their skills, abilities, behaviors, knowledge, etc.)

That’s it. Don’t over-complicate this process. If you want to add additional questions you can, just keep it short.

Number Five: One last thought. The best evaluations I’ve conducted over the years have been ones where I’ve had my employees fill out their forms first and then submit them to me BEFORE we talked. This worked extremely well because I learned things I didn’t know, I got a better understanding of their mindset before we met, and frequently, I found that they were hard enough on themselves–which meant I could then play more “good cop” to their “bad cop” (since they already knew where they had fallen short–and why).

So, there you have it. The four key questions (and really, the only four questions) you need to ask every year whenever you’re evaluating an employee—plus four other ideas to ensure that when you’re engaged in doing your annual evaluations, you’re doing them well!

To your accelerated success,

Note: If you have any other ideas about annual staff evaluations, post your comments below! I’d love to hear your thoughts!

So, what can you do to quickly improve their performance while decreasing their mistakes?

One answer is to raise their standards by clearly defining what an “A” performance looks like. My guess is that if you were to do that right now with your team, you’d probably end up with a fairly divergent set of answers to the question, “What do you think an ”A“ (or ”A+“ or ”10“) looks like?”

If you think “everyone” on your team already knows the “right” answer, I challenge you to have them write their answers out WITHOUT any discussion. Then have them share and compare their written answers and, unless you’re an unusually gifted leader, you’ll probably find that everyone isn’t on the same page. Don’t be surprised by this. It’s normal. Everyone has expectations all the time about everything–and rarely are they ever the same–unless someone has repeatedly defined what those expectations should be (which, by the way, is your job :-).

It’s not a bad idea to have a team discussion about what an “A” should look like–but never ever surrender your responsibility as the leader to set the standards. Hopefully, as the primary leader, you can persuade your people to concur with what you think an “A” should look like. But if you get to an impasse, feel free to use your “leader card.”

Now, when you’re developing your standards, make sure you’re thinking about both negative and positive standards. For example, in a previous career, I used to pastor a large church. Now, if you’ve ever attended a religious service of any persuasion, you’ve undoubtedly encountered a few mistakes during their service (a Power Point slide has a typo or the person on the Power Point isn’t in the same place as the speaker or worship leader. The lighting person has lights off when they should be on. A microphone crackles or dies during the message, etc.).

Obviously most religious leaders don’t want that to happen during their services–but they do–and almost every week, at least in any religious service I’ve ever attended. So, to combat that, one of my standards for our services was, “No Dropped Balls!” Now, I could have chosen a positive standard, “Every cue right!” but the power of the phrase, “No Dropped Balls!” was so much better and clearer that I chose that one.

On the other hand, here’s a positive one. Have you ever been in a religious service and the music just didn’t “move” you? Why isn’t that? Forget the words and the quality of the musicians, there are songs (secular and religious), that either cause you to want to tap your foot or not. The ones that cause you to want to tap your foot (they can be slow or fast, the tempo is irrelevant) are songs that have an intrinsic beat. The words are a distant second to the rhythm when it comes to people feeling moved. Therefore, one of my standards was, “Every song chosen needs to cause someone to want to move physiologically.” So some of your standards might be worded positively, while others might be more powerful if worded negatively.

Now, I know most of you aren’t leading a religious organization, you’re leading a business. But the principle I’m sharing with you is just as valid. Unless your people have a clear vision of what you want them to produce, chances are they won’t hit it. You’ll be frustrated with them continually and they’ll feel they can’t make you happy. So, eliminate that.

Clearly define what an “A” looks like in terms that everyone can understand. Hopefully, you noticed as you read this post that I came up with simple phrases like, “No Dropped Balls!” to describe what the standard was. Then, once you set the standards, you’ve got to cast vision for them every week (not once in awhile–every week). Then ensure that the systems, accountabilities, and resources are in place to ensure that week in and week out, your team is performing at an “A” level.

If you make this simple change, I’m confident you’ll see a massive difference in your people!

To your accelerated success!

P.S. Just as an aside. I left my church four and a half years ago and one of the common refrains I hear from people is, “It’s just not the same. Every week something happens where I think, ‘If Bruce was here, he wouldn’t have let that happen.’“ In other words, unless a leader casts vision for excellence (an ”A“) and holds people accountable to those standards, every organization and group of people will slowly move toward accepting something less. It is your job to ensure that doesn’t happen.

When the downturn occurred, what did most chip makers do? Exactly, they cut production, closed down plants, and went into survival mode. The problem, of course, is that it takes months to bring dormant factories back to life. So, what’s happening now?

If you remember that today’s solutions ALWAYS create tomorrow’s problems, you’ll know exactly what’s happening. Now, companies like Nokia are reporting losses for their handsets saying,“We could have sold more phones in the third quarter [if it wasn’t for] the capacity constraints (i.e. if we could have purchased more component parts, we could have sold more).” And chip makers and others are losing out on revenue they could have been making had they not done everything they did over the last two years to reduce capacity.

Interestingly, the article highlights one company, Linear Technology, that made a different choice. Instead of closing down a plant or two, they decided to keep all four of their plants open and all of their employees on payroll–unlike their competitors, Instead, what they did was to stage a rolling factory shut down, which has allowed them to get back online and fill NEW orders within two to four weeks.

• Remember, today’s solutions always create tomorrow’s problems.

It doesn’t matter what choice is made. In a closed system, every choice has both positive and negative implications (some of which we can anticipate and others which we can’t). The trick is to make sure you’re actually evaluating the possible future implications (both positive and negative) when you’re making a decision.

For example, if you decide to take on a big client (let’s say a Walmart or GE kind of client), that could be good. But the first rule of entrepreneurial finance is that growth sucks cash. Even worse, a lot of elephant clients like to manage their cash conversion cycles on the backs of smaller companies (often paying from 100-200 days late–which, of course, your banker discounts because anything past 90 days doesn’t count).

In other words, while pursuing and landing that big account might have driven you and your company for the past twelve months, if you haven’t stockpiled cash or secured access to cash beforehand, the next six months may be devastating. On the other hand, not landing that big client, may have significant consequences of its own.

So, every time you’re faced with an important decision, especially a strategic decision, as the CEO, you need to make sure you’re looking at the potential negative outcomes from that decision–and not just the positive ones (because they are there).

As the Business Week article points out, it’s currently taking 18 weeks (four and a half months) to fill orders for megahertz crystals (a key component of cell phones). And why is that? Because too many players decided to cut production by closing down plants over the past two years. Now, if we went back in time I’m sure the CEOs of those company’s thought that was the wisest course of action–but was it?

To your accelerated success!

Would you pick, “Great leadership?” Or, “A new or better technology?” Maybe, “Massive cash flow?” Or, “Viral marketing?” Or would you pick, “Great systems?” Or maybe even, “Great people?”

Well, while all of those are worthy choices, I would pick something else. Because, while all of the those choices above are essential to building a great company, especially an accelerated growth company, they aren’t what really drives the behavior of fast growth companies.

No, if I had to pick one driver above every other driver of accelerated growth companies, that one driver would be . . . Speed of Implementation.

Show me a fast growth company and I can almost guarantee that they operate by, “Ready, fire, aim. In other words, the time lag between the generation of an idea and the implementation of an idea is almost always very short.

Bottom line, accelerated growth companies aren’t hung up with perfection.

In fact, Google could easily be the poster child for this. They regularly come up with ideas and put them out in ”imperfect“ forms to test their ideas quickly–in the real world. That stands in stark
contrast to most companies which come up with an idea or two and then tweak those ideas endlessly in their quest for perfection, which of course means they end up missing the timing of the market–and massive cash flow.

Over the past few months as I’ve been speaking on accelerated growth issues, I found myself frequently saying, ”There are some of you who will go home tonight and execute on several ideas you’ve come up with as a result of what you’ve heard here today. Some of you will go home and over the next few days, implement an idea or two. A few of you will take a week or two and then implement an idea. And then there are the rest of you who will leave here and probably implement nothing. I can almost guarantee you that those who leave this room and implement the ideas they received this morning, tonight, are leading the fastest growth companies in this room.“

Why? Because speed of implementation matters. As Dr. Edward Kramer says so well,

“Eliminate the time between the idea and the act, and your dreams will become realities.”

If you have the right strategy, but don’t implement quickly, you’re toast. What good is an idea, even a great idea, if it’s not implemented quickly?

So, take a look at your business (or organization). How fast are you at executing? How short is the time span between the moment an idea is hatched and the moment its implemented? Are you burdened by perfection? Or fear of failure? Or fear of rejection? Or ego? Or are you burdened by systems of ”checks and balances“ (which rarely are)? Or committees? Or controlling people? Or procedures and policies?

If you or your company rate anything lower than a 10 on the speed of implementation scale, my encouragement would be to deal with it–and fast!

Finally, if you’d like a quick practical application of this principle, here’s an idea for you. Pick a project or idea that’s been sitting on the shelf waiting for its turn. Estimate how long you think it’ll take to implement it. Cut that time in half. Then get started. Ready! Fire! Aim! What are you waiting for?

Toward your accelerated success!

I had one of those experiences the other week. I was speaking at a convention in Orlando that was held at the beautiful Omni Hotel Resort at Champions Gate. It was around 9:00 a.m., on the morning of my presentation on “The Four Keys of Accelerated Growth,” when it dawned on me that my talk went from 10:15 a.m. until noon, which was also check out time.

So, I thought, “Why don’t I just call and request a late check out time so I don’t have to pack up right now.” At that moment I went over to the phone next to the bed and saw the following button entitled, “Prompt Response.” Note: It’s the first button on the second row from the bottom (you can click on the image for a larger image)

When I saw that, I thought, “What a great name for a button to  call down to the front desk or operator,” and promptly pushed the button. Unfortunately, what happened next was anything but prompt.

It took 15, yes 15 rings before the operator picked up the call. She asked, “How may I help you?” I said, “I’d like to get a late check out for my room.” She said, “Let me transfer you to the front desk.” After which I then waited, catch this, for 60 rings BEFORE I hung up (i.e. no one at the front desk ever picked up the call).

Forget how terrible that was (systems mistakes at every level) and instead think back to the expectation that was set by the button, “Prompt response.” When you hear the phrase, “Prompt response”, how many rings do you expect before someone picks up the line? I’m guessing that while your normal assumption is probably three or four rings, when you hear the word, “Prompt,” it probably means, “On the first or second ring.”

In other words, when the Omni Hotel made a decision to change the normal first button on a hotel phone from “Front Desk” to “Prompt Response,” they created a whole new set of expectations. This wasn’t just a cute marketing phrase, it was a whole new level of expectations they created that needed a whole new level of systems to ensure that it would always be executed perfectly–24 hours a day.

It’s irrelevant if they pick up on the first or second ring 80 percent of the time. For the 20 percent of us who don’t get the standard level of service, it’s even worse than if they hadn’t used the phrase, “Prompt response.” And I’m pretty sure than in anyone’s book, 75 rings doesn’t meet the standard expectation that Omni management set with their cool new first button.

So, as you look at your business, what are the standard expectations that your customers and potential customers have of you? What expectations have you set with your marketing and materials? How often do you meet those expectations? If the answer is anything less than 100%, I’d encourage you to start there.

Why? Because the first step to creating WOW, is to eliminate all unWOW. And the place to start eliminating unWOW is wherever you’re not meeting the standard expectations your customers have of you (like getting a prompt response).

Toward accelerating your success!

Note: This is a great exercise to do with your staff or with a customer advisory board.

Well, one way is to use, “Needle Movers,” (a phrase I love) from Christine Comaford. Christine defines a needle mover as a tangible result that if accomplished would change everything for your business. In other words, a needle mover is a game changer. It’s not a simple task. And it’s not necessarily a strategic initiative.

I think of strategic initiatives as key initiatives that the majority of executives (or business units) in a business can be involved in. For example, “To raise the level of excellence,” or “To develop the next generation of leaders.” The idea of a strategic initiative is to get as many people as possible involved in helping move a company or organization forward. If an initiative is something that only one small part of a company might be involved in, the ownership and excitement over that initiative will be minimal.

However, a needle mover could be something that is very specific to a specific area. For example, a needle mover could be, “To land two major accounts with Fortune 500 companies in the next 90 days.” HR and Finance (et. al.) probably won’t be involved in landing those accounts, but landing those two accounts could be a game changer.

Other examples of needle movers might be

•    To generate 1,000 new leads this month
•    To hire three new pay-for-performance sales reps
•    To ink five new joint venture projects over the next quarter
•    To create one new product over the next 30 days.
•    To outsource all of xyz (so you can focus more time on profitable activities)
•    To generate an additional $________ of revenue in the next 30 days
•    To add two new sales channels

You get the idea. Based on your size and your market, what would be a game changer for you? What needle movers will radically change everything for you and your business?

Narrow those ideas down to the top three (no more than five) needle moving results you want for the next month (or quarter, or year). Then create a plan for how you plan to accomplish those needle movers. And then finally focus your attention, every day, for the next 30 (or 60 or 90) days on those three (to five) needle movers.

Every morning you need to ask, “What progress will I (or we) make on our needle movers today?” And then, at the end of every day, you need to ask, ”What progress did I (or we) make on our needle movers today?“

If you want to make progress fast, make sure you focus on your needle movers . . . every day!

To your accelerated success!