Right people make right equipment work

I often get the opportunity to speak with multiple operations with similar equipment/services. What amazes me is under the virtually identical situations, one company succeeds while the other fails. Upon deeper discussion, the root cause almost always goes back to one factor — people. [Before you jump to conclusions, I find that the people factor doesn't exclusively apply to people at the print company but also the people (aka vendor) who advises the print company how to run the machinery.]

The right people can make average equipment profitable, but the wrong people running the best equipment can drive you deep into the red.

The right people can make average equipment profitable, but the wrong people running the best equipment can drive you deep into the red. With 40-70% of all incoming digital jobs not ready for print, your people will need to possess a positive attitude, develop high-level troubleshooting skills, and be teachers to your sales staff and customer base. You must develop a detailed and strategic knowledge management plan.

Maybe the biggest mistake an organization can make is failing to take personnel decisions seriously. Make the interviewing process a high priority. The second biggest mistake is hiring the right person and then not investing in training them for success. Every employee should have a detailed job description as a path and an accountability system to insure they are fulfilling their company role.

Happy People = Happy Service

I love happy people! A few years ago the revelation hit me after I realigned my dispatch/billing/phone answering area. Our one-on-one service was excellent but for some reason I really struggled with our incoming phone service. It wasn't terrible but we we were struggling to keep up with the increasing business and mistakes where increasing.

Over the years, I taught my people the importance of the person answering the phone. No matter how great our quality, one-on-one service, and leadership, one person answering the phone could taint the customer experience for all of this. I beat this into their heads, but I still struggled to raise the standards of our phone service.

Then I realized it was more of a leadership problem on my part. I sat in the troubled area for a full day shutting my mouth, listening and watching to what was going on. First observation, I needed to realign the area. I had everything spread out and out of flow. Too many steps. Too disorganized.

Second, when I talked to the main person answering the phone, she told me she didn't like answering the phone and knew she wasn't that good at it. She was outstanding at administration but weak on the phone. Hello! Mr Manager. Why do you have someone on your phone who doesn't even want to be on the phone!

Third, because of one and two it sure wasn't a very happy place. Unhappy Employees = Unhappy Service to our Customers.

I converted my observations into action by tearing down cubicle walls, the dispatch table and billing stations and rebuilding a circular bar with phones lined up with three people able to interact and communication. Then to top it off, I reassigned the happiest person in the facility to sit in the middle of the bar. Since every employee passed "the bar" multiple times per day they were exposed to happiness all day long.

Even a year later, the phones are answered in one ring, people are happiner, billing/admin is done quicker and we give better customer service. All because we restructured our operations to allow happiness to be contagious.

Perspectives on Happiness

True happiness is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.
— Helen Keller

Realize that true happiness lies within you. Waste no time and effort searching for peace and contentment and joy in the world outside. Remember that there is no happiness in having or in getting, but only in giving. Reach out. Share. Smile. Hug. Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on yourself.
— Og Mandino

There is no cosmetic for beauty like happiness.
— Countess of Blessington

Whoever is happy will make others happy, too.
— Mark Twain

An Artful Story

A couple weeks ago, a fellow executive and I enjoyed a delicious steak over three hours of philosophical discussion on how to make our industry better. We traveled through leadership, p & l's, customer service theory, and best practices. We both believe strongly that the key to any successful organization is its people.

The culmination of our night concluded with the thought that the best employees are always those that intertwine their life purpose in their job. My friend commented how Disney trains their "cast members" (employees) to be "on stage" in order to create the illusion of the Disney fantasy world. In Disney's world, you'll notice a clean, liter-free park with friendly faces and plenty of smiles. We pondered how we could duplicate the imagery for our employees and we came up with the fact that our work is like the art of a storyteller. In previous posts, I've mentioned that every product we have is a story. Our goal is show how our story can help our clients story. If we learn to become better storytellers than we become better partners.

The Power of a Minute

A few years ago, we did research to determine the makeup of our redos. The results were very revealing. Statistically, approximately 60% of redos were due to production error. 20% were due to sales, 10% due to the customer and about 10% of errors were due to technology or uncontrollable circumstances.

99% of all redos could have been prevented in less than one minute.

The first observation is that production did not create all the redos. Often they are blamed for 100% of them, and this creates stress and tension between sales and production. Second, when sales makes a mistake it is usally 5-10 times more expensive. Third, and most important, 99% of all redos could have been prevented in less than one minute.

One powerful minute!

Pushing the Core

One of the struggles our industry is having is adapting to the onslaught of new products and services. I’ve come to believe that success is found in how we manage our core competencies. Fundamental business theory suggests that the further you move from your core competencies the more difficult it is to maintain efficiency, quality and profit.

I think document management has been a frustrating example of our pushing the core to its limits. The first conflict is obvious; our core is to sell printing— document management strives to reduce printing. (Reduce not eliminate : Read My Post "Is Printing Dead"). Second, for successful employees, what motivation do they have to alter their time and effort. Do we really expect someone to jeopardize success selling a product that puts money in their pocket to focus on an abstract product, with questionable compensation, and a chance to ruin customer relationships? (See the Motivational Matrix post.)

“There is a big difference between someone selling a product and someone being qualified to sell that product.”

Recently, I was a witness to an inner-store controversy over why no one responded to a document management related email. The suggestion made was that since many people received the email, surely someone should have responded. This is a classic example of core competency avoidance. It won't matter how many people you "involve" in the process, if you don't establish a "core" person with direct accountability— and ability— then you will live in eternal frustration.

In this story, every individual employee involved was very good at their core job. They focused on what they were assigned and good at. When the email crossed their inbox, human nature kicked in. I'm not telling this story to criticize the parties involved, I'm merely providing an example I have seen repeatedly in multiple organizations. All new products need us to establish a new core.

As we push our core, we have moved to a 1:5:30:+ sales methodology. This allows us to define roles, train effectively and provide our customers better customer service. There are too many distractions to our outstanding "core" employees to expect them to keep up with the another core. We must either find some to specifically fill that role, or recalibrate the job descriptions of our current employees to accommodate accountability and ability.