Just because a process isn’t broken, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be replaced. Work processes, like machinery and technology, become obsolete and it is management’s responsibility to recognize when a process is underperforming and do something about it. Even when that means you have to open your wallet to do so.
I once owned a beautiful Lincoln Mark IV. Baby blue. Gorgeous leather seats. Lots of room for me and anyone that wanted to join me. It ran perfectly. Purred like a kitten. And it was paid for. The rub was that it got nine miles per gallon. When my commute changed from five miles a day to something approaching a hundred, the case for change became painfully obvious. There was no way to alter the fundamentals. I couldn’t tweak it or adjust it. I had to replace it when the cost of the status quo exceeded the cost of change.
Tweak, repair or replace? Such is often the question when it comes to core business systems. Sometimes, as with my beautiful gas guzzler, the best answer involves walking away from a prior investment and starting over.
As most of you know, I spend a great deal of time speaking to CEOs and other top executives about performance evaluations as an outmoded business practice. I tried for years to patch or repair the world’s poorest performing personnel practice before finally concluding that the process is broken and can’t be fixed. It’s rotten at the core of the paradigm. I recommend that they toss out the antiquated program and begin again from a new and more stable platform.
Despite agreeing with my logic, I often encounter resistance that reminds me of a recent holiday experience that may strike a chord.
My parents have a home theater. A decade ago it was the cat’s meow. For the last ten years it has featured a 60” projection TV, an integrated five-channel Bose amplifier and speaker system, a DVD player and a Hi-Fi VCR. They use it primarily to watch television and play movies they receive in the mail from Netflix.
My brother, Ken, and I have been after my parents to upgrade their system for several years. We both have state of the art audio/video equipment and have a difficult time watching images through a TV screen that looks like it is caked in Vasoline. Neither can we imagine living life without digital video recorders that let us watch the shows we want when we want to see them. To us who know better, it is simply uncivilized to think of our parents living in such antiquity.
On a recent holiday we saw our opening and ganged up to make something happen. Dad wanted a new system, but didn’t know what to get. He was also without full support from his bride of more than 50 years. Mom was satisfied with what they had and couldn’t see sufficient reason to change. “We spent a lot of money on that big screen TV. It still works fine and I’m not sure that we’ll be able to tell any real difference,” she said clarifying her stance. “But if you boys think we’ve really got to do it, I guess…”
Before she could finish her sentence, we were out the door, father in tow, heading to the nearest electronics mega-store. Soon we returned with a truck full of new gear.
Bottom line, we ended up with a 73” widescreen HDTV to replace their still new looking standard definition box. We added a Blu-Ray player that connects to the internet and allows them to stream movies directly from their existing Netflix account. We opted to keep the Bose sound system and worked around its old connectivity, because we felt the cost of replacement exceeded the marginal improvement in ease of use or sound quality. Later, the technician arrived with the new dual tuner DVR and we finished setting everything up.
Before the night was out we had our unveiling. Dad was instantly blown away. The new system produced literally the best picture that he, or any of us for that matter, had ever seen. Within two minutes of watching a Blu-Ray scene from "Planet Earth" Mom reversed course and issued a unilateral apology along with the statement, "We are going to really enjoy this TV!"
There are at least two key points to this story. First, it is often impossible to get old technology to do new tricks. That television simply could not reproduce the high end signals now available via either broadcast TV or recorded disc. Despite its high original cost and the fact that the device still did exactly what it was designed to do, it had to be replaced to experience the full potential of today’s modern medium.
Second, users of old technology don’t always even know what they’re missing. Those of us involved in an original purchase, or who must finance a new one, are particularly reluctant to change. It sometimes takes someone outside our normal system to teach us what we’re missing by sticking with the horse that got us here.
Here’s a final case directly from the business world. About eighteen months ago, Patti Greathouse, joined Energage as our new Client Relations Manager. Part of her job involves following up with people that have asked for more information about our products and services. She is tasked with keeping track of prospects and helps them evolve into clients. When I was teaching her how to do this aspect of her job, she wrinkled her nose as she asked some pointed questions. “You really want me to record all of this in Microsoft Outlook and track it on Excel spreadsheets? Don’t you think we should be using ACT! or Goldmine or another more sophisticated sales tracking software?”
My first response was defensive. “We’re doing okay with what we have.” Followed by, “That software costs money. We’ve already paid for the other stuff.” Perhaps a bigger issue was that, while I had heard of customer management software, I didn’t have any experience in using it and wasn’t sure how to move forward. Also, I spent a lot of time developing these complicated spreadsheets. This method worked for me when I operated solo with a database measured in hundreds. Surely it can be adjusted for five of us to use with a client/prospect list now measured in thousands. Our complicated system of copying Outlook files back and forth was adequate if we all followed some very exacting discipline. Etc.
Over time, Patti and Amy (our Office Manager) worked on me and convinced me that it was costing us more in time and lost opportunity to stick with the status quo. Amy volunteered to head up the effort to research alternatives and manage the system conversion. Patti took the lead to teach us how to use the system once it was selected. All I had to do was pay for it.
I’m pleased to say that we’ve been using the new software for several months now and, like my mother, I am humbled by my relative ignorance. I had no real idea how much we were missing with my antique system or how quickly you could justify the business expense to make the change. My instincts to patch and repair the existing system were as understandable as they were ill-founded. You simply can’t get here from there. And here is much better than there.
Let’s make 2010 a year of process replacement. Incremental process improvement is important to long term growth and success. Keep doing it. But, if you want to make a big leap forward, look for outmoded ways that you’re doing business and take a shot at a replacement upgrade.
To identify and act on process replacement opportunities, here are some questions that I’d suggest you address and some logical actions that follow:
- What business systems are you imposing on your people that are better off replaced than repaired? Ask the people who do the work. They know. Involve them in the process of finding an improved alternative.
- What is the true cost of the status quo? Guesstimate the opportunity cost of sticking with a poor performing process. Compare it to the cost of system conversion and make a business decision to patch, repair or replace.
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If you elect to make a change, what is the best way to manage system conversion? Do you have staff that is capable of finding the best replacement system? Are they skilled at training others how to use a new tool or process, once it has been installed? Do they have the time? Make a sober assessment of the cost to do things yourself. Remember that running a new system is a different skill set than making the switch itself. Consider renting system conversion talent rather than growing your own. You only need it once.
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If you elect to use outside expertise to make a change, will your staff be trained properly to run the new system once it has been installed? Make sure that your system conversion specialist dedicates time to train an internal contact and has a formal method for responding to inevitable questions and challenges once your new system is up and running.
Garold Markle is author of Catalytic Coaching: The End of the Performance Review and No More Performance Evaluations! Gary is also founder and CEO of Energage, Inc. For more of his teachings go to energage.com.
