Main Idea:
Is “That’s the way we do it here.” popular in your business? Do you have a lot of debate on how to handle issues? Do you know what your constraints are? Are any of them impossible to fix? How creative are you and your team? When was the last time you took 8 hours off to just think?
Expansion of the Idea:
Two weeks ago, I reread 2 books by Eliyahu Goldratt. They are “The Goal” and “It’s Not Luck”. My copy of It’s Not Luck is literally falling apart because I have reread it so many times. I generally reread these books every 2-3 years. You might look at them and question my intelligence. They are simply two business parables with a few key insights. Yet I find it is important to me to reread these books. The reason is that some of the answers to business problems are so profound that I need to reread them to keep me focused on the answers. Like everyone else I can fall into ruts in how I think. The real genius in the books is the alternative way that Eliyahu Goldratt approaches bottlenecks in business and various conflicts in problem solving. The key to everything is identifying what your true goals are, looking critically at your situation from the other person’s point of view or sometimes from just another point of view. As Mark Twain said:
It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you in trouble.
It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.
The last two years have created a lot of issues that we have to deal with. Almost everyone has employee problems. Anyone that sells products also has supply chain problems. If you don’t sell products then you go back to employee issues. Customers have changed buying patterns, maybe a couple of times. Taxes have changed as often as a parent changes a newborn’s diaper. And no one knows really what to expect going forward.
What should we do?
We really need to think about three things:
What are our goals?
Where do we stand right now?
What is holding us back from achieving our goals?
Most of us have a bottleneck or constraint in our organizations. This bottleneck is neither bad nor good. It is just a constraint. All of our competitors have constraints also. The issue for us as managers and leaders is to figure out how to exploit the constraint. However, to do this, we need to get rid of our old way of thinking that includes:
We definitely can’t afford to do that.
We never want to offer that service.
I am the only one who can do this task.
My team is holding me back.
There are a number of other phrases that I could write. But I think you get the point. We have a no in our mind and that “No” cannot be sandblasted out of there. However, instead we need to think about doing something that we think is impossible and figuring out how to make it happen. Too often, the only thing holding us back is our thinking. And the next thing holding us back is our team’s thinking. To move forward, we need to establish a culture of trust where the team can share their opinions and ideas in a safe environment. And we need to share with them. I like Benjamin Franklin’s quote:
We must all hang together or we will all hang separately.
Wherever your business or organization is right now, we need to improve. And like most things in life, the improvement needs to start with us. And it doesn’t cost us anything to change our thinking.
Questions or Ideas to Consider:
Read the book “The Goal”
Do you have clear goals?
Do you know where your constraints are?
Do you have a solid plan to address those constraints?
Do you have a safe culture?
Does your team think you have a safe culture?
I plan on having a zoom conference call on Constraints and Conflict Resolution on October 27 at 1pm CDT. This will explain how to identify your constraints and use the constraint to grow your business. I know that this sounds like an oxymoron but it works. I will also introduce a special conflict resolution process to help in your thinking. This zoom call will be beneficial for all managers, whether in a business or nonprofit. If you are interested in reserving your spot, please email me at your earliest convenience.