Check Your Plan Before You Act
Check Your Plan Before You Act
Carpenters have a rule of thumb: Measure twice; cut once.
Careful carpenters take that one step further and measure three times before cutting.
However, either approach can be inadequate if the carpenter chooses to measure from the wrong plan. You can’t make an eight foot door from a plan for a seven foot door.
In this essay, you’ll find out ways to pick the right measurements, ones that will speed you toward accomplishing 20 times as much with the same time, effort and resources (a breakthrough solution).
All the necessary steps are listed here for accomplishing 20 times more:
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.
First, you have to create an environment where the value of measurements is appreciated. Your next step is to gain the most benefit from measurements.
Begin by focusing on a particularly important process within your organization where you expect to find a large improvement opportunity. Then you should determine what measurements about this process will help you make the fastest progress.
If you are a laggard in developing successful new products in an industry where that skill is critical, the new product development process would be a fine place to start.
Using the experience that you gain in looking at the first process, you can go on to extend this approach to other important processes and opportunities.
Pick Your Organization’s Low-Hanging Ripe Fruit
Organizations that make exponential improvements are much more focused than competitors on this kind of gain. The natural tendency is, by comparison, to measure processes where progress delivers emotional satisfaction to employees . . . whether or not improving those processes will be very beneficial to the organization’s success.
Fight that tendency where the potential benefits are modest.
Change Is a Moving Target
As circumstances change, what you need to measure changes too. For example, at one time U.S. auto quality was so poor that drivers primarily sought cars that wouldn’t break down. Many U.S. consumers bought Japanese vehicles.
But when American quality improved, customers started seeking brands that offered the best dealer service. That was a short-lived trend, however, as better new-car quality reduced the need for dealer service.
Styling again became important. Lexus lost ground because it did not look much different than much less expensive Japanese offerings.
Next, American drivers went for minivans and sport utility vehicles. At first, Japanese companies did not respond because such vehicles were not in demand in Japan.
As you can see from this example, you will fail if you keep measuring and focusing on the same thing. As each shortcoming is eliminated, customer cravings will shift to something else.
The able executive will continually switch what is measured, how much emphasis is placed on that measure, and what actions are taken to reflect the current and potential customer and stakeholder environments.
Find the Suggestion-Box Winners
A large consumer products company found that it lagged all of its competitors in measures of financial performance. Stung by this information into wanting to change, management encouraged employees to suggest improvements. Tens of thousands of suggestions were received.
Rather than treat all these ideas equally, management established a review team that included executives from every functional area. The reviewers looked for ideas that offered enormous immediate and long-term benefits that were easy to implement right away.
Another team of fifteen executives was assigned to see that these top options got enough implementation attention. One percent of the ideas provided 95 percent of the cumulative improvement.
As a result of this effort, three years later the organization was the number one performer in its industry by any financial measurement.
Choosing to pursue those highest potential ideas aggressively was a good idea. You should do the same.
Less Is Usually More
A lack of focus may mean that no gains occur. A major retailing company learned this lesson in the late 1970s. Panicked by sales