In my travels around the country I come across businesses who are implementing new ideas and programs into their game plan. Quite often these new implementations are either very general or so detailed that no one knows where to start. In response to these observations I have put together the following five key words to guide the implementation activity.
Clarity, Capability, Specificity, Simplicity and Discipline
Clarity – Do you know exactly what your implementation is supposed achieve for your organisation, people, customers and shareholders. Can you look forward and see how it is beneficial to everyone, cost effective and productive.
Capability – do you have the capability on board to establish this new product, service or process? Before you go seeking expertise from outside have a look at your current staff and assess whether you are maximizing your resources fully. Keep in mind those horrible stats that show NZ is 2nd in the OECD for number of hours worked but only 24th for productivity. Capability will make or break your implementation. I have had discussions with several businesses who have implemented new software programmes and many of them have gone over time and over budget. Capability was either missing, underestimated or the original quote was not properly thought out. You may need to implement training to bring capability to the level that will ensure success. Always be diligent in assessing capability.
Specificity – exactly what is it that you and your team need to do? Setting a goal is not good enough. My experience with Target 8.5™ Ratings over the years has shown me that 95% of people are very good at setting a goal but are absolutely shocking at creating a strategy or plan for that goal. Specifics are very important in helping to make decisions and implementing appropriate processes. Take care of the detail as it will impact your business and your people.
Simplicity – nothing needs to be complicated or sophisticated. A key question associated with any new implementation should be “how simple is this to do”? Simplicity is relative, for example flying the space shuttle is a simple process for a space shuttle pilot. The dangers and maneuvers of exiting and entering the earth’s atmosphere have all been calculated and the training has been specific with highly capable people. By practicing over and over and over again, the process of flying the space shuttle becomes simple. Simplicity does not mean looking for the easy way out. It means looking at how effectively something can be done with low stress and high rates of success.
Discipline – this is important in making sure that ideas and implementations stay on track. Discipline is essential to maintaining standards and quality. It is important to meeting deadlines and budgets and avoiding distraction. The processes employed must be followed and when necessary challenged and changed to suit the dynamics of the project. Individual and team discipline require well structured lines of communication and quality leadership.
A great example of this can be seen in the television show Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares. Ignore all the cussing and swearing and TV drama and observe what Ramsey sets out to achieve. He delivers through the drama a result that leaves the Restaurant operating better than it ever did with CLARITY about its place in the market and what it is to be doing for its customers. CAPABILITY is assessed with some people leaving and others changing jobs, Chefs are reigned in and managers exposed for their incompetence and other staff are maximised. Gordon Ramsey cuts to the SPECIFICS of the situation very quickly and identifies exactly what needs to change. Menus are cut back, meals are easy to prepare and quality is paramount. The menus become SIMPLE to understand and the kitchen and waiting staff procedures become SIMPLE to implement without confusion and frustration. Following all of this he encourages everyone to be DISCIPLINED in maintaining the new look, feel and quality of the food and customer service. This is relatively easy to achieve because of the processes he has implemented.
If would like an outside perspective on these key things in your business please call me or email me and I can help.
