We continue to see individuals and companies that are working very hard to be successful and achieve their goals. When asked to grade their effort, over 90% of the individuals say they and their people would earn an A for how hard everyone is working. At the same time, only 10% of the same people would say they are earning an A for the results that are being achieved.
I am afraid that this formula is not a recipe for excellence in business, nor does it help create an environment where people have a great quality of life. Everyone needs to look in the mirror and ask the question: What can we do about the challenges we face? We have to make new choices in what we do and how we do it so that we can get to our desired future state.
Company owners and managers have to work with their employees to create a culture of winning in order to ensure that they get to the desired results in the most effective manner. To drive the right business outcomes, business owners have to work effective processes and engage the talent in their teams—field crews included.
Overcoming the time barrier
The barrier each leader faces comes back to the hours in the day and the number of fires they have to fight. It is clear that leaders need to have tools and resources that help them get out of the weeds and out in front.
By following a standard approach, as is taught in the Working Smarter Training Challenge, leaders are able to implement solutions directly into their organizations, develop skills and drive business results in key areas. It all comes down to creating a culture of energized employees who are able to take ownership of their performance—and the performance of the organization as a whole.
There are significant benefits companies have enjoyed from working the process over the last several years:
A clear and aligned vision your employees rally around.
Personal growth of key employees who are growing their contribution in your company.
A shared perspective on what a win is for the company and working as a team to make it happen.
Development of processes and systems so there is “standard work” employees follow, helping reduce waste and adding value to our customers.
Measurement systems put in place to evaluate performance in real time.
Bottom-up problem solving that transfers the ownership of an assignment to the right level of employee, many times to crew leaders and/or crews themselves.
Goal achievement in all disciplines and departments.
The bottom line is that owners, managers, supervisors and employees must work in a collaborative way to ensure that they achieve favorable, consistent business outcomes. It is important to move from just talking about the problems to actually working on the solutions. This can come when owners engage their employees in the right way, with a process-oriented approach that helps everyone be part of the solutions, sharing and improvement process.
