Imagine you have a business that operates sloppily.
Your business has lots of sales, lots of employees, lots of activity ? but small mistakes are repeatedly made ? over and over. Your profitability suffers.
How do you change a corporate culture?
Do you make grand proclamations and send out memos with new rules?
Or do you start with the little things?
This weekend I cleaned my chimney.
I knew it needed cleaning for the past few weeks.
Starting a fire was becoming more and more difficult.
The air vent had to be opened to the maximum just to keep a fire burning.
When the fire-box door was opened, smoke would billow into the room.
It was plenty clear that the chimney needed to be cleaned.
So, why the dread and the postponement for a few weeks?
When you work in a highly active, slightly chaotic environment, it’s critical that you make a plan every day.
Why?
Work has to get done.
Otherwise …
Two opposite methods can be used to get work done.
You can respond 100% to circumstances and then react accordingly. Answering a ringing phone is an example of responding and reacting.
Or …
You can plan everything 100% and only take action after the plan has been thoroughly designed, tested, and approved. Constructing a building or new piece of machinery are two examples of planned activities.
In the real world, and especially in a world where customers are constantly buying, a balanced approach is necessary. Here’s why.
Last week I spoke at a K–12 school in Northwestern Montana. I was asked to address the issue of bullying.
Is bullying worse today than it was forty to fifty years ago when I attended K–12 school? I don’t know.
But I do know that society and schooling have changed.
Today, we are much more aware of issues such as bullying.
In the workplace, problems and challenges occur all the time. It’s always something … it’s either this or that.
Where will we put this?
Why can’t we find the inventory that the computer says exists?
Why are we out of stock for this standard item?
Why do we too often end up reacting instead of following a plan?
These challenges and problems are the reason that you were hired. Your job is to solve problems.
Unfortunately, some people come to work and only create more problems.
Are you part of the problem? Or are you part of the solution?
