To Grow Try This…The Right Things, Self-Measured
OK, so you’ve delegated, introduced accountability, avoided chaos by focusing your team’s energy on achieving the task at hand that moves the needle whilst overcoming the Invisible Opposing Forces, now what? Well, you already know that you achieve what you measure. So, let’s measure whether your team is walking the walk, day to day.
No, we don’t want any overcomplicated measurement tool. We just need a single daily threshold that each person can hold themselves accountable to. What is the single thing that your employees can use to self-measure themselves? It should be:
• Binary (with simple yes/no)
• Intuitive—each employee can be self-aware
• Helps employees to decide their behaviors in accordance with the metric
Walmart is ranked #1 in Forbes Global 500 list with revenues of around half a trillion dollars. Their strategic ambitions were always great, and Walmart’s growth has become the stuff of legends. Working backwards from their desired strategic goal, the two things that stand out as being important to move the needle forward are:
• Scale: being large enough to command huge discounts from their suppliers, and being large enough to replicate their success in multiple geographies
• Focusing on everyday low prices
Scale creates a positive upward spiral that is enabled by the insistence on everyday low prices. Scale is not something the mass of employees can change. However a focus on everyday low prices is measurable by the employees themselves - we all know when we are being wasteful - and helps employees determine their own behaviors.
Walmart’s founder Sam Walton was clear in his intentions about the kind of company that Walmart was going to be on a day-to-day basis. From the day he opened his first five-and-dime store in 1950, the business has focused on behaving in line with keeping prices as low as possible. He walked the walk of low everyday prices. So much so that “everyday low prices” is also Walmart’s branding slogan clearly communicating their intentions to their customers even all these decades later.
Walmart is known for being the provider of everyday low prices. Every action that every employee undertakes is grounded in that desire. For example, we’re told Walmart office based employees empty their own trash bins at their desk at the end of each day. They don’t spend money entertaining their employees or business partners. The employees even share bedrooms when they stay at hotels, to save money.
You will notice from the above examples of Zappos, Southwest, and Walmart, each and every employee can know and understand their role in their organization. Each employee can behave on a daily basis in a way that is consistent with their organization’s desire. Each employee can walk the walk toward success. The employees don’t need to wait to the end of the quarter to evaluate whether they are contributing toward providing best customer experience, contributing toward the organization’s well-being, or providing everyday low prices. They can judge themselves, daily.
Try This…Feedback Loop
OK, if you find that the employees and you are striking yes—I did it daily—yet the businesses performance is not beginning to head toward the desired outcome…you may have to check which of these you need to go back to and tweak:
• Did we correctly understand the cause and effect relationship between our behaviors today and the future outcome we desire?
• Did we identify the behavior changes that move the needle (toward the desired outcome) and then make those changes?
• Did our behavioral change overcome/address the Invisible Opposing Force(s)?
• Did we delegate enough to the team to allow them to self-correct their own behaviors and address the Invisible Opposing Forces?
• Did we identify the right measurement, that is, usable on a day-to-day basis, and are we all using the scoring in the best way?
The above five questions are a good way to self-diagnose what might need further tweaking and revise your team’s day-to-day behaviors, to get to the desired outcomes.
Try This…Revisiting the Vacation
Last time we mentioned vacations, it was to point out you aren’t taking any…now we can think of vacations as a reward. Once your team is clear on the desired change and how they can walk the walk…consider letting your team (or the most senior subset of the team) manage their own vacation time. Set a new expectation such that they no longer need to ask you before planning their own vacation time, but they tell you as an FYI (For Your Information) once they have satisfied themselves that their absence won’t disrupt how they interact and operate within the organization. This shows them you trust them to make the right choices, in line with the desired change and the positive results of accountability.
And eventually, consider stopping, even counting, the vacation days, obviously suggesting the employees themselves can manage things without disrupting the way of being of the organization. Let us know what happens.
Pause: Did you make notes of things in the Action This Today section in the back of this book? If not, please take this opportunity to review the prior pages to identify again any thoughts and ideas you want to follow up on.