Single points of failure (SPOFs) lurk in unexpected places throughout your organization.  It may be related to people, technology systems, physical hardware, or outside service providers.  Today’s complex, automated, and highly connected systems create greater degrees of SPOFs than in past times.  Seemingly minor issues can trigger SPOFs which can quickly cripple an organization’s ability to provide desired levels of customer care.

How well does your team understand and anticipate SPOFs?  How well do you prioritize resiliency vs efficiency thinking?  It’s a different perspective.  A worthwhile exercise – list as many critical SPOFs as possible then generate ideas for continency plans.

“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present.”  Abraham Lincoln

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Some things, like lines in a queue, are better shorter than longer.  This includes business communication.  Emails, presentations, memos, and books are often longer than necessary.  It’s easier and faster to over-express in drafting or ad-libbing.  However, lengthier doesn’t correlate to greater impact.  It can also be inconsiderate of others.

Expressing something in an economy of words requires extra time and effort.  It’s work!  Utilizing a good editing process will deliver benefits, though.  The communicator is forced to slow down, tackle one thing, and dig for deeper understanding.  This effort should produce greater clarity, conciseness, and a more impactful message.

“The present letter is a very long one, simply because I had no leisure to make it shorter.”  Blaise Pascal

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We should treat the old adage “great minds think alike…” with some skepticism.  Leaders should cultivate alternatives for significant decisions they consider.  Healthy dissension typically yields better decisions. 

Alfred Sloan, the person responsible for leading General Motors to the top of the global automotive industry in the 1930’s and 1940’s, is said to have set aside decisions for which the executive team too easily agreed.  Peter Drucker says Sloan would postpone some decisions to give his leaders “time to develop disagreement and perhaps gain some understanding of what this decision is about.” 

“Great minds” might periodically offer a different perspective.

“And those who were seen dancing, were thought to be crazy, by those who could not hear the music.”  Friedrich Nietzsche

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Taking care of good talent is imperative for leaders – especially in tight labor markets.

Here are two sure ways to aggravate your top performers:

• Overburden them without consideration of their personal lives.  Sure, sales demand is strong, but know when and how to say no to more revenue.

• Tolerate poor performers so you have a “body in the seat.”  Pruning people out of the organization may seem contradictory, but few things drain top performer’s engagement more quickly than picking up the slack for other employees.

After addressing these two put your energy and resources into strategies for attracting new employees.

“To add value to others, one must first value others.”  John C. Maxwell

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Serving the customer is the first objective of the business organization.  This is why it is puzzling to see organizations implement systems, processes or policies which make life more convenient for “managing the business” yet make life worse for customers or the frontline employees serving the customers.

Here are three important condition questions to ask when considering a new system, process, or policy. 

Will this:

• Add more value to our customers?
• Make it easier for customers to do business with us?
• Make it easier for our customer-facing employees to serve our customers?

A business organization doesn’t exist without the customer.

“The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer.”  Peter F. Drucker

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