Setting Expectations

Once we’ve identified the root causes that truly are our profitability killers, our next step is to initiate change. In so many scenarios though, those changes seem to be expected through throwing some training at an issue and hoping it sticks… If it were some sort of new tool we purchased and trained our team to use, would we even consider that same approach? Of course not! Any training we did provide would be very specific on how that tool should be used AND we’d certainly make sure that tool was actually taken out of the packaging and put to use. To achieve quantifiable results in the areas that are killing so much of our profit, the things that tend to get written off as soft or intangible, we have to maintain the same approach!

As Cindy and I wrap up any lesson we share, with any group, I tell the story of working for a manager that ALWAYS expected me to put something into action from whatever training I attended that would have a measurable impact on our facility’s overall productivity. As an engineer, that would make perfect sense. Even for a production supervisor, that’s really practical. For someone in safety or human resources, that was a steeper hill to climb since the general focus of those roles is nearly always cost avoidance (at best). Through all my work in behavior-based safety, I had learned that no great idea amounted to much unless translated into a physical action (a behavior) that someone could see. I was held accountable to taking action on whatever course or workshop I attended in a way that could be seen, and more importantly, had a positive impact on our operations. I won’t pretend it was always easy but it was absolutely the right approach.

If we’re serious about addressing our profitability killers, we need to be willing to set and maintain expectations for the leaders on our teams that are just as clear as the ones that manager set for me so many years ago! Once we’ve invested the time into knowing exactly what our efforts should be focused on and establishing solid baselines to work from, identifying the necessary tools won’t be hard at all. Being clear about the results we expect when providing those tools will require intentionality, specifically in how we expect those tools to be used. But unlike getting a new saw out the box, plugging it in, and cutting boards right away to measure increased performance, the types of tools we’ll need to use to deal with some of our biggest profitability killers will require more support to sustain ongoing application and some different measurement than just parts per hour…