On the Importance of building solid systems that allow business execution
In the Critical Chain Project Managment Yahoo group that I am subscribed too I just read a great post by Michael Carroll that I thought everyone here might benefit from reading. The topic line his post was in response to was How common is it to have “No plans”? The emphases placed are mine.
I have been helping my son train for his swim team. Most local high school teams follow a tradition of generating what you might call brute force to achieve their results by what would seem to be a wise strategy to work harder, faster, and longer than the other teams. Yet this approach is a tad bit frustrating for both the coaches and swimmers as academics standards must also be met. In each of these swim programs you will always have a few swimmers who are naturals and rise to the top and yet the rest of the team struggles. You can observe all of the other swimmers putting their might into swimming with poor technique struggling against the water going home each day discouraged because the long hours, hard work and efforts are not paying off. To make it worse the coach is sure to let all know that to be more like the top tier swimmers you must have a better work effort, more drive, and more dedication.
Why do I bring this up when talking about project plans? I do so for three reasons: Time, perspective, and tradition.
Time – The more pressure and organization has to perform a given task the more apt they are to roll up their sleeves and re double their efforts by working harder, faster, and longer. Why? Mainly because the technique has worked in the past. Yet on the other hand I think it would be fair to say business managers are wise and know that they need to think things out and generally will agree that planning is as equally important as taking immediate action. So attempts are made to plan. Often these show up as the daily stand up meetings like swimmers meeting with the coach each practice to get pumped up about how hard they are going to work, how they are going to change, and to discuss the upcoming meet. Fortunately swimming has an off season and the coaches will have a few months to create next years winning strategy. Unlike swimming teams most businesses don’t get an off season. More often then not, serious deep strategic planning is done in a shoot from the hip manner, for time pressures do not allow much of any thing else.
Perspective – Coaches study the tapes of Olympic swimmers over and over again looking to help their swimmers mimic the gold medal winning strokes. However there is a serious flaw in this. Swimmers swimming at max speed do not display perfect technique because they are swimming close to being completely out of control. Yet watch the great Alexander Popov and his practices sessions look nothing like his racing because he swims only fast enough to make his technique perfect. Yet watch most high school swimmers and they practice poor technique and swim at max effort. So when they get to race day and they push the engines hard they cross the line and the extra effort at race day only buys a minimal improvement in performance. Yet the great Popov’s muscles remember the perfect technique and allow him to stay in enough control to devastate the competition. Similarly in business, our perspective on the most successful companies is distorted because we watch the great organizations without seeing the disciplined approach to planning, training, and methodical execution. Additionally add in time pressure and inadequate training and the only thing left is the strategy of harder, faster, longer.
Tradition – Swimming has a long history of tradition and so do businesses. In fact most business leaders gained their first lessons in leadership in the sports arena. Most swimmers who make it to college level swimming are almost impossible to retrain. If they have defects in their stroke it can take years to erase because of muscle and nerve memory. The problem is even greater for men than women because of the tradition of using sheer strength to solve stroke problems. Do we not see the same thing in business?
As I apply these lessons to my own companies I am cognizant of how important disciplined project planning and execution is. It takes a conscious effort to set aside the appropriate amount of time to not only plan, but to build solid systems that allow business execution to occur not only during the slow cycles but to do so at race time when customers are knocking at the door in the up cycle and to do it without going over the edge of control.
Regards,
Michael Carroll
Replies
Jerrald,
Point well taken.
It takes a conscious effort to set aside the appropriate amount of time to not only plan, but to build solid systems that allow business execution to occur...
One of the things I've been focusing on lately is setting an hour aside everyday to work on developing a few key systems for the company I work for. It doesn't always happen, but I am able to at least make an effort for it if it's written in my calendar.
I had been keeping a "log" of areas I thought we needed to improve upon and implement systems to manage better.
With out forcing myself and putting in my schedule it wouldn't happen. I expect that after a good deal of initial effort that the hour a day I'm setting aside now will decline.
Before, with out actually putting it in my daily calendar I was not forcing myself to do it. I'm hoping that the time I spend now and over this winter, when we traditionally slow down, will pay off in multiples when we are slammed again this spring/summer.
One of the things I thought was so apropos was Michael Carroll's observation that:
How many contractors do well all know of that achieve results precisely that way rather than through designing better business systems?
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I'd say right now the company I work for is working more with Brute force then with systems or plans, Hopefully that will change in the near future.
There is no reason we can not operate more effiecently or better said, we can not afford to not do so.
I'm sure there will be some falls and stumbles along the way.
Have you read the book "From Good to Great"?
CAGIV - "Have you read the book "From Good to Great"?"
I actually read Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don'tView Image when it first came out and this past winter/spring I picked up the audio CD so I could "read" through it again. It's a real good book. What in particular about it are you thinking about?
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I haven't made it through the book entirely but I've been keeping notes to go back to once I finish reading it.
The main concept that's been going back and forth in my head is what can we "Be best in the world at" That's was a hard question in my mind for a full service remodeling company. The breath of projects we complete are vast and I doubt we could specialize enough in any one in our market and be viable.
So that got me to thinking, the fact that we have a number of different types of jobs doesn't mean we can be the best at full service remodeling, but that doesn't seem to really "work" for me.
So I've been keeping track of different thoughts and the one that keeps popping into my mind is that we could be "best" at managing the customers experience of the remodeling experience.... Which all in all doesn't seem like a bad idea to me... and I do believe that is something we could do better then anyone else, given the right systems in place.... After all, there's a lot of guys out there that can build quality work, but can they manage the process as well? Maybe... but most are not trying, and are more concerned with the project quality.
The first section of the book with "getting the right people on the bus" hit home, and we finally have a real good crew of guys and I've "removed" a few bad apples be them employees or subs in the recent past.
I know we're ready to make a leap forward, We just need to develop the plan to get there. Actually right now I'm more or less working on the plan of the plan, if that makes sense. There are so many areas that we can improve on I've been trying to sort though which to go at first, and decided to start at the beginning IMO, the sales process. When I e-mailed you a while back about job scheduling I was going to start there however I didn't really have a full plan of what I wanted to try to do at that point. Once all this is actually in some sort of order and on paper, me and the boss are going out and he's buying dinner while we talk about all this....
That was really long-winded, the only point I really had when I brought up the book is that I thought it would be something you would be interested in.
CAGIV - "The first section of the book with "getting the right people on the bus" hit home, and we finally have a real good crew of guys and I've "removed" a few bad apples be them employees or subs in the recent past."
That is certainly more than half the battle if not the whole battle right there. You get the right people on the bus and it isn't a battle anymore. You are then working as a team on a common goal.
In reading your post I think you've climbed over an obstacle (at least in your understanding) that a lot of contractors just can't seem to understand. They often wonder how can a "full service remodeling company" logically be "the best in the world" at something? It's not necessarily about being the best at a particular trade or product but instead being the best at a particular element of the customer experience. And you'll notice I said a "particular element of the customer experience" and not the customer experience as a whole. I think that's too broad and too vague a target. I know in our company we work to be the best at "on-time delivery of the project". And I know if we archive just being the best at that the whole of the "customer experience" will be perceived as excellent even though other elements may not be as finally honed as our scheduling and project management.
But from what you write I does seem to sound like you are working on finding exactly what it is you and your company should be focusing on so I'm thinking you are certainly working in the right direction.
"That was really long-winded, the only point I really had when I brought up the book is that I thought it would be something you would be interested in. "
There's nothing wrong with being long winded when it's real good valuable information and I also think it's pretty interesting that you figured I would like the book which I really do.
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Side bar,
Have you read Jim Collins "Built to Last" or Patrick Lencioni "The Five Dysfunctions of A Team"
Those were next on my list. Really 5 Dysfunctions was next up, but I'm really liking "Good to Great" also ordered the Defensive estimating book you mentioned
CAGIV - "Have you read Jim Collins "Built to Last" or Patrick Lencioni "The Five Dysfunctions of A Team""
Having previously read Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary CompaniesView Image was the reason I read Collins' Good to Great when it first came out. I've been wanting to read The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership FableView Image for a while now but just haven't fit it in. I have a couple of unused audio book credits with an Audible.com subscription I was given so maybe I'll pick it up and listen to it this week since I'm going back out into the field again starting tomorrow. Thanks for bringing it up, I needed that reminder. Ya see how these conversations work?
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Glad I could be of help.
Let's talk about Managing the Customer Experience, as being to broad.
In my opionion it really breaks down to a few key points
Educating them about the remodeling process
Keeping them well informed through out the job
Treating there house as there house and not "our job-site" ie keeping it clean etc.
Keeping the job on track/on schedule (and we currently do not schedule)
Keeping the job on budget (so much as their changes allow)
Though I do not think change orders should be drastic if enough time was spent in the planning stages.
I do not believe with the proper systems and planning the first four would be difficult to manage, the last one is really dependant on the customer. We will not change our price, other then a few exceptions such as hidden conditions, rock clause etc, so long as they do not change the scope.
What are your thoughts? What other areas would find important to managing the customer experience.
CAG,
Since you are bringing up books and experiences, an excellent book would be "The Experience Economy". It took a few readings for the concepts to sink in, but here is one example I adopted:
Costuming: clothing that is appropriate to the activity. earlier this year I was somewhat slow and took on a project that I normally would have avoided. removing wallpaper from one wall in a bathroom, repairing the surface, and repainting the bath.
to enhance the impression that I knew what I was doing I bought a pair of white painter pants and had a clean rag hanging out of the back pocket the whole time I was doing the project.
One of the concepts in the book was that every time the customer has any contact with your company, an act of theater takes place. And in reality that is what my white painter pants were; a costume. But I believe it enhanced the customer experiece of having some stranger come into their home, to do the work.
Bowz
Jerrald, Cag and Bowz, I really don't have anything to add to this thread because I'm so bad at systems, but I think this thread it great and important.
blue
Blue,
Pick one part of your business you wish you could improve or do the same way everytime and start there. That's more or less what I did. Could be anything from the way you invoice people to the way you set appointments etc. If it's written down then someone else can read the "road map" and take over or stand in.
PS.... I saw you ordred your laptop.... do yourself a favor and if the keyboard doesnt have a number pad, order a seperate one. I couldn't live with out the number key pad
I haven't quite ordered it yet. I've selected it but I'm refusing to order it until I get a few situations straightened out....like moving!
blue
Blue,
Moving? Are you going to live in that school, while you work on it? or just move closer to it?
Brudoggie
I'll put it on my list, thanks
THe message above your head was supposed to be directed to you...I really don't like talking with myself all that much