1. Get a sense of urgency
Many of us can't focus unless it is urgent
2. Get support from others
Others can add their perspectives
3. Create a vision
Its clarity determines the energy that pulls you and others forward
4. Communicate the vision
Change gets anchored in the feedback
5. Empower others to act on the vision
Important in relationships, including customers and suppliers
6. Plan and create short term wins
They create confidence in own capabilities
7. Consolidate improvements and create still more change
It may be hard to start, later it can become habitual
8. Investigate new approaches
Look beyond the obvious, it will pay off
Based on John Paul Kotter, quoted by Todd Phillips in www.green-business.ca
One essential source of effectiveness is the usage of resources beyond our own capabilities. This is even more important for individuals than for organizations that, by their nature, have interactions built into their structure.
I hope to write later on specific targeted sources of resources and some of the tools available to find and access them. It is important to mention that many resources are of an interdependent nature. That means that your contribution to others may be more important than the direct benefits you get. Sometimes the benefits are more of a secondary nature: the satisfaction of having contributed, the improvements that you have contributed to your environment.
I plan to add to the resources listed here links to sites that enable such interaction, where you can contribute and request contributions for the benefit of the larger community. David Bohm's "Dialog" is a seminal contribution to the development of effective interaction. A site that practically experiments in social interaction is http://univcafe.concordia.ca/html/involve.html. It just happens to be centered in my Montreal neighborhood.
My teacher Mike Jay has generated another path opening resource. You can visit one of his recent relevant contributions at http://www.cprforthesoul.net/cmd.php?af=382387. His book the "CPR for the Soul" deals with the ways that people can learn about their own limitations, focus on their strengths. They can get the support they need from others who have the desires to act and the capabilities that an individual or a small organization may lack.
Services are a special type of "product". One thing that makes them special is the fact that once delivered, they cannot be tagged, repaired, reworked, or taken back.
Some of the planning that goes into preventing problems in products and designs can be applied to services too. There are systematic ways of reducing or eliminating problems in products, such as Failure Mode and Effects Analysis. This typically means that the person or group that generates the product or the service consider as many modes of failure as possible and use their experience, creativity and knowledge to reduce or eliminate the potential failures. In the case of services, similar processes can be applied. One major difference is that improvement from delivery to delivery may have current customers suffer until the problem is identified and solved.
For that reason consultants, trainers, artists, sports figures prepare for delivering their services usually by thoroughly training, practicing with experienced coaches and professors. They may take special courses, emulate the best in their fields, practice, practice, practice alone or with reviewers who accept imperfections as part of the learning process.
For complex service processes Prof. Jean Harvey wrote "Managing Service Delivery Processes: Linking Strategy to Operations" http://qualitypress.asq.org/chapters/H1265.pdf. It is especially valuable for organizations that offer services, covering the need for internal communication and coordination within the organization.
Some other aspects discussed by him are applicable specially to professionals who provide knowledge based services. Their service benefits from continuous training and codes of ethics as enforced in professional associations. At lower levels of complexity qualified workers typically go through apprenticeship programs after an introductory training. In all cases references based on earlier jobs provide the stamp of approval of happy customers and can be used to get new jobs or assignments.
When we repeat activities or groups of activities in our jobs or our lives we can look at them as processes. We can analyze these processes for effectiveness and efficiency. Service related processes often improve by the careful review of the results obtained in the delivery process and modification of the process in the next delivery cycle. Learning from mistakes is a skill that can be learned.
One basic requirement for success is related to the ability to distinguish facts from assumptions. Often what people describe as problems are only symptoms of more profound problems. Specially individuals who deliver services can benefit from the opinion of others in getting to the "root cause" of the problem. It is human nature to stop at the first apparent solution and consider it valid. Through training and checking with others one can learn to continue searching beyond the first apparent solution and verifying whether there is a more profound cause for the undesirable effect observed.
Many individuals have a tendency to blame others for the problems that occur in their lives or their business. A more careful analysis can usually find their own contribution to the problem. When that happens they can solve the problem in a more efficient way than if they sought the cause only outside of themselves.
Once the cause of the problem is found it is better to generate a number of potential solutions and then choosing the most appropriate one. The first solution that comes to mind is not necessarily the best.
Another special aspect of services is related to the fact that often quality measurement is subjective. When the service is delivered often enough there is the possibility of verifying quality by statistical analysis after the fact. In the case when each delivery stands on its own only the satisfaction of the customer may be a measure of quality. What individuals and small entrepreneurs may find is that it may be easier to change customers, partners or suppliers than trying to satisfy everyone. Adjustment to what the market needs may be a better solution.
Another means for ensuring service quality is the implementation of measures, standards and controls. Feedback to the service provider is one tool that can contribute to improvements at least in the following cycles of service delivery. It goes against human nature to intentionally expose oneself to criticism. However, requesting feedback from customers has proved to be a tool that not only contributes to learning but often also strengthens the relationship with the customer, raising it to a higher level. Many customers appreciate the extra care demonstrated by the service provider and take the time to provide feedback that often is constructive. Even negative feedback can be used as a tool for improvement and often as a source for new improved services.
Two other aspects of service quality are specially important. One is the degree to which customers are delighted, since there are few other means available for objectively compare similar services. The other one is the severity of the quality standards and the extent to which they are respected in the production and delivery of the service.
Especially the latter aspect is important for individuals who can be either too stringent in their desire for perfection about themselves and their services. Or they could be too lax and not observe to what extent this prevents them from achieving the success they desire. Direct customer feedback is the best tool available for improvement in these domains. Alternatives can be constructed by getting feedback from many prospects, e.g. using Internet techniques for exploring potential markets. Consultants who have knowledge in specific markets, coaches who can give independent feedback about the service or help interpret the feedback obtained from others (360 degree reviews) can help steer the standards toward optimal results. Many groups and individuals just keep testing alternatives until they reach an optimum. Some get discouraged as a result of failures and give up, or are forced out of markets (or relationships) as a result of inadequate services. Sometimes competition is just too strong or the perceived market is just not there, or not in the form envisaged. It helps to recognize early these situations and either find creative solutions or stop providing the specific service.
I haven't published much to the blog lately, of course for very good reasons. Today my profesor Mike Jay publishes his book "CPR for the soul". It has multiple and profound implications in many aspects of business and life. Its basic tenet is that most people have much trouble changing in their core. They can make more progress towards their goals by designing an environment and reaching out to the people who have those characteristics they lack. I have not discussed this with him, but I suppose he may agree that such designs and the quality systems that I propose in this blog can be the same or at least have very similar structures.
Starting from the knowledge of the individual the design, or the system is likely to be more effective than other systems that do not take in account such a knowledge. And makes then sense that a system based on personal knowledge supported design is going to be very efficient.
Mike is a champion of efficiency, achieved in great part by his association with people who can more than complement his skills, but symbiotically produce superior results.
Here is my affiliate link to his book: http://www.cprforthesoul.net/cmd.php?af=382387.
As an individual or self-employed professional or entrepreneur you can benefit from this. I invite you to the teleclass I will give
October 6 from 10 to 11 a.m. ET.
We will have an interactive discussion of specific tips that anyone can use to reduce waste, improve efficiency, increase the satisfaction of customers and relationships. These are tips that I have learned from the quality systems of larger organizations, those that get recognition through evaluation by an objective third party. These organizations invest large amounts of money to set up the systems because the payback is very fast. Your investment can be a lot smaller because you do not need to worry about the interactions within an organization. Take away at least one tip and you will get more than your money's worth ($9.95) .
http://www.ecomincs.com/app/javanof.asp?MerchantID=50408&ProductID=2531018
Following up on an article by Robert Bottome and Richard Chua on "Genentech Error Proofs Its Batch Records" in the July 2005 Quality Progress I have spent today over 2 hours writing comments and questions. I tried to extract more details from the authors in order to make the information more useful to readers.
By using teams and Six Sigma methodology of statistical analysis they identified many sources of document and record errors and by taking simple steps significantly reduced the number of errors.
I wish that they would have estimated the financial and human side benefits of these actions, in addition to being more detailed about what they have actually done.
From "our" point of view of personal effectiveness, documents and records are important when we interact with others. Since we all do, even if we do not work in organizations, we can still generate many errors with important consequences.
What can we learn from what I have just read? Here is a short list of tips that you and I can use in our daily activities whenever appropriate.
Before I stray too far away from the outline I want to remind myself and the readers that this project will only produce fruits if the benefits will be clearly visible. I personally am a believer. In the chemical industry statistics indicated a few years ago that the return on the investment of installing an ISO 9001 quality system is payd back on the average in one year and a half by reductions in waste and increased market share.
True, a large portion of that may come from the fact that many of the inefficiencies of the communications within the larger organization can be removed by streamlining work processes. For a single person or the owner of a small business working alone, some of these benefits may not be there. However the systematic recording of information in documents and records, with adequate backups will certainly help them too. Just last week my desktop computer stopped working. Luckily I could save all my documents on the hard disks; I only have to worry about reinstalling programs and the loss of current e-mails whose back-up was also wiped out.