STRATEGY CENTRAL

Do not seek to follow the footsteps of the wise.  Seek what they sought.  Matsuo Basho

We’ve talked at length and on many occasions about the importance of focusing on thinking steps, not programs.  If you’ve been with me for much of the journey here at StrategyCentral, you know that clarifying the win (or declaring what you’re going to call success, to use Peter Drucker’s line) has also been a constant theme.  I imagine you’ll get right away my interest in the Human Sigma concept of focusing on the goal, not just the steps! 

I can hear you now.  "But wait, doesn’t that conflict with "thinking steps?"  Nope!  Check it out…it reinforces the principle that first you clarify the win.  Clarity on what success looks like is the essential first step in the process.  Focusing on that goal and then creating steps that get you there (in ways that are easy, obvious, and strategic) is what that’s about.

But where does the Human Sigma idea fit in?  Remember the basic concept in Human Sigma has to do with the fact that you can fine-tune a procedure so well that you’re able to manufacture zero defects…but to do it you’ve got to eliminate more and more of the people factor.   Works in a factory, what do you do in a service business?  Try it there.  Insert a few people into the process and you’ve got the picture.

So what do you do?  Highlight the uniqueness of people.  Help them focus on the goal and reach it in the way that emphasizes their unique abilities.

This should be a good read.  Stay tuned!

Picked up the next book out of the stack today: Human Sigma: Managing the Employee-Customer Encounter.  Looks very good.  Basic concept?  "Six Sigma integrated a universal and consistent method for counting quality defects with a disciplined process to eliminate them (p. 15)."  What it didn’t do was work the employee to customer side of the equation; what the book calls "the employee-customer encounter."

Think this has relevance in your organization?  You know it does!  You can cherry pick the best-practices from the most dynamic organizations, but if you don’t work out the people thing…well, that’s at the root of lot’s of our issues.

Love the five new rules to bring excellence to the way employees "engage and interact with customers (from the jacket)":

• Rule #1: E Pluribus Unum: Employee and customer experience must be managed together – not as separate entities.
• Rule #2: Feelings Are Facts: Emotions drive and shape the employee-customer encounter.
• Rule #3: Think Globally, Measure and Act Locally: The employee-customer encounter must be measure and managed at the local level.
• Rule #4: There is One Number You Need to Know: Employee and customer engagement interact to drive enhanced financial performance.  And this interaction can be quantified and summarized with a single performance metric.
• Rule #5: If You Pray for Potatoes, You Better Grab a Hoe: Good intentions alone do not constitute a plan of action.

This is one book you may want to pick up and read along with me.  Don’t have a bookstore near?  You can order your copy Right Here.

When you do as many conference calls as I do…sometimes you just have to laugh!