Continuous Improvement as Competitive Advantage

Let's talk about what's keeping you up at night.

If you could change anything about your business, would you, and what would it be?

Oh, wait. You can change anything about your business. It's your business. Political rhetoric notwithstanding, you don't need to wait for the government to do something for you. Or to you.


Think about all the things you could do differently in your business that would increase your profits.


Think about all the changes you could make to your customers' experience, resulting in more and better referrals. Would that increase your profits? Think about all the changes you could make to your teams' effectiveness, resulting in more and happier customers. Would that increase your profits?

But change is hard. Oh, it's not hard to talk about change. Think about how hard it is - how long it takes - to break a bad habit. (Forever?) Or to replace a bad habit with a good habit? (21 days, so say the behaviorist experts.) It's not hard to tell someone else to change. But think about how long you've been trying to get ____ (someone)___ to do __(something)__ differently.

The kind of change that's going to make a difference to your bottom line has to be a special kind of change. It has to be positive change that makes it easier for your customers to do business with you and easier for your team to do the right thing for the customer. When you and your team are always looking for that kind of change, that's continuous improvement, and it gives you a competitive edge.

If you can see an opportunity and be able to line up your resources or change your strategies to be on the leading edge. If you can understand a threat for what it is and take action to avoid the common pitfalls. If you can make adjustments in your operations or your organization to maximize strengths and minimize weaknesses.  Doesn't this give you a tremendous advantage in the marketplace?

Being eager and willing to make changes does come with a caveat. Change for its own sake is not a productive strategy. Making too many changes that don't work or don't "stick" will chew up resources and demoralize your staff. So to ensure the right balance of continuous improvement and consistency, do some strategic thinking before you make any major change. Make sure that any change can pass this test:

• Is this change Strategic? Will it help you achieve one or more of your strategic goals - or at least move in the right direction?
• Can you and your team Implement this change? You want to be able to understand clearly what it will take - who is going to do what by when - and then what will need to happen next. If you can't see your way through the implementation, you should reconsider whether you want to start. (Really can't say this strongly enough. If your team feels they are always starting never to finish, they will give up trying.)
• Does the change Matter? Will making this change make a difference for the customer? For your team? If the outcome will be invisible, you will get no return on your investment.
• Will the outcome be Positive? Think through the costs, the consequences and the expected outcomes. If there's no real benefit then don't do it.
• Will the change Last? Will it "stick." Is this one of those things that people will look back on and say, "Hmmm, whatever happened with that?" If the outcome is going to become invisible, you should have saved the trouble.
• Does everyone involved have clear Expectations for the change process and the changed outcome? Of course there will be follow up required - did everyone do their job to get the change made and maintained. If you're thinking strategically about this change, you should be able to create a vision for all those involved. What will their experience be during and after the change? How will they benefit? What will be expected of them? What should they expect?

Continuous improvement is continuous change. In this context, change is good. It's not easy. but it should be simple.


So what will you change?


If a threat or weakness is forcing you to change. If a strength or opportunity is calling you to change. If you are constantly making changes that don’t help or don’t last. If your staff has trouble adapting to change. Or if you want help in putting positive changes into strategic perspective, we can help. Call me, or send an email. No Strings. No Charge.

Change is Good - Up to a Point

One of the most often, and often most challenging issues faced by managers is getting change to "stick." A change in process or procedure is agreed to and implemented. Now everyone will do it that way. Right? Well, often, not. Pretty soon, one or more have reverted to the old way of doing it. No apparent reason. No "I don't like the new way so I'm going back to the old way." Folks just slip back to the prior way of doing things. The change doesn't "stick."

Here's a (kind of) scientific explanation for why this is true and why it's so hard to change. Self-Control is Exhaustible

That's why we always encourage follow up as part of implementation. Once the training is done and the change is made, there needs to be provision to regularly - and consistently - check to see if the change is still in place. If there is no expectation of follow-up and follow through, then there is no requirement for self-control - no requirement to stick with the change until it is the new habit.

If you want your changes to stick, you'll have to stick to your changes.

Momentum Matters

Saturday we watched the Marshall University Thundering Herd get beat in overtime by West Virginia. I'm not the football aficionado in the family but even I got caught up in the emotion of this game where the underdog (Marshall) led by 15 points until the last seven minutes of the fourth quarter. The announcers made much of the history of the Marshall team and the "100-year rivalry" with West Virginia. You may remember the 2006 movie "We Are Marshall" about the tragic loss of the entire Marshall team in a 1970 plane crash. But the reality is that no one really expected anything but a win for West Virginia.


What struck me as I watched the game turn around was how dramatically the momentum changed. The Mountaineers quarterback did a great job rallying his team in the fourth quarter but what seemed even more important to the outcome was the fact that the Herd got defensively timid. By the time the regulation clock ran out, Marshall had allowed the West Virginia to score twice and then couldn't score in overtime.


But this isn't just about football. What happened to Marshall happens in business, too. It's very easy to lose momentum - and it's not so easy to get it back. Getting your team on a winning streak takes work. Keeping your team pumped up and scoring takes constant attention. And if there's a shift in the marketplace and the competition appears to gain the momentum, what are you doing to get it back? Well, for certain, that's not the time to get defensive. It's just the time to get back on offense. Those businesses that are struggling to maintain momentum in this economy are the ones who are not playing offense. Now is definitely the time to keep your eye on the ball.


With the uncertainty about future revenue, I've seen a number of businesses pull back on their marketing efforts in an attempt to save money. This may be just the wrong thing to do if you want to maintain the momentum. And successful businesses are taking advantage of the defensiveness of their competition to gain momentum.


Are you playing offense or defense? And how's it working for you?

Change Management and Sales

An insurance agency is a sales business. Sure there is definitely a service component but nothing happens until somebody sells something. If you're feeling the economic pinch, and we all are, then sales - to new customers and to existing customers - is more important than ever. If you're not doing something to improve sales effectiveness then you are going to struggle to make it to the other side of this market.

One of the keys to the effectiveness of any sales organization is total commitment. Every one of your employees needs to be on the sales team. Are they? Is "sales" a department or a state of mind in your agency. If not the latter, then cultural change may be in order. And what does that require? Well, more sales of course.

"The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority." As much as I would have hated it as a line manager in corporate America, this quote by Kenneth Blanchard says it all. Of course, if you're the business owner you have the authority. But that's not how you get the best from your organization. You have to sell it. My friend Marsh Egan said it very well in this article on "The Convincing Side of Change."

Employees are customers, too. If you don't think so, remember back to the recruiting and hiring process. You (or someone in your organization) spent a good deal of effort selling that prospective employee on the benefits of working for your business. Just as you don't stop selling to customers, if you want buy-in and commitment to new ideas, you can't stop selling to employees.

It never ceases to amaze me that some of the very best sales people in the world, don't use those skills where they would do the most good. Right in their own businesses.