“There are four elements to every goal,” I explained. “You correctly identified two of those elements, the quantity required and the quality standard. But there are two more elements.”

Denise looked up, eyes open.

“You may have to add or modify steps in your system based on the resources that you have available.”

Denise looked down at the picture of her system. Her pencil went to circle number seven. “Yep,” she said. “Here we have to move some of the finished pieces to a temporary storage bin because, sometimes, we don’t have enough people to do the next step.”

“So, because of the limit in your resources, you have added a temporary storage step in your system?”

“Yes, and you know, it’s only because the machine that produces step number six can produce about ten times the parts that we actually need running through our system.”

“How do you know it’s ten times the part you need?” I asked.

“All I have to do is look at the goal,” Denise smiled.
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Her pencil turned over and she erased some of the marks in the picture of her system.

“It’s funny, as I look at some of the steps in this system,” Denise explained, “I remember we put them in because it just seemed like a good idea. But when I look at the goal, especially the quality standard, I can see two steps that are not necessary.”

“How long ago did you create those steps?” I asked.

“Three years ago. One is a part that we buff up, makes it shiny. It gives you the impression that it is a higher quality part. It’s not, it’s just shiny. Then we put it inside the unit, so no one ever sees it again.”

“Why did you make a decision like that in the first place?”

“Four years ago, we had some failures in the field. The service techs would take the unit apart and then badmouth the “low quality” of the part. The failure had nothing to do with the part, but with a seal that was leaking.”

“And when you buffed up the part, what happened?”

Denise smiled. “Well, we fixed the leaky seal about the same time, but we actually got feedback from the field telling us they were happy that we started using higher quality parts. They were the same parts, just shiny.”

“So, someone does see the parts?”

“Not anymore. We have only had three failures in the past two years over 300,000 units. We don’t fix them anymore. With only three failures, it’s cheaper to replace the whole unit. We don’t have to train a field technician to take it apart.”

“So, we can simplify the system by looking at the goal?” -TF
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“I don’t know,” Denise delayed, mulling things over in her mind. “How do you just make something simpler?”

“It calls for a bit of analysis,” I replied. “Tell me about a simple process that your team does on a repetitive basis, something with several steps that they do over and over.”

Denise nodded and began to describe a system, with thirteen steps. On step number three, I stopped her.

“I want you to draw a simple picture, a series of circle, each circle representing a step in your system. And draw a line between each of the circles.”

I watched as she turned the paper to get all the circles on one page, carefully labeling each of the thirteen steps.

“Now what?” she asked.

“Now, ask which of these steps is necessary to achieve the goal.”

“The goal?”

“Yes, I want you to add one more circle and describe the goal, the quantity we want to produce at the quality standard necessary.”

Denise drew an empty circle and I could see the churn in her mind. As soon as she wrote something in the goal circle, I could see her make mental connections to the other circles.
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“You have worked very hard to eliminate things that are no longer (or never were) necessary,” I added.

Denise nodded. She was listening and thinking.

“You cannot cut your way out of this. Your next step is to simplify. Look around you. What methods and processes should be simplified? What happens to methods that become simpler?”

Denise was slow to respond. Her focus had been on eliminating things. “When we simplify something, it takes fewer steps, it can be done quicker,” she replied.

“Business is not too complicated. Find a customer need (that they are willing to pay for). Make sure there is a market large enough to sustain a business. Then find ways to fill that need faster, better and at a lower cost than your competitor. Simplifying a method or process makes it faster and often lowers its cost.” -TF
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Working Leadership Online Schedule
January 26 – Orientation
February 2 – Goal Setting and Time
February 16 – Decision Making
March 2 – Planning
March 16 – Delegation

To find out more about this program and to pre-register, visit www.workingleadership.com.