Easier INC

Improving 'The Work'

 

We don't 'create the conditions' then improve the work. We create the conditions by improving the work.

Yesterday, I was asked to articulate what this looks like.

That seemed a very fair question so here goes:

• IN PATHOLOGY it looked like... discovering that 40% of the demand into our lab should never have been placed, that the reasons for this were multiple but not infinite, that all were actionable but some more so than others... and that starting somewhere then following through was wildly better than starting nowhere (or everywhere all at once).

• IN OUTBOUND SALES it looked like... discovering that the primary driver of converted sales was who was on our call list and not what we did when we called... then optimising our lists.

• IN HOUSING REPAIRS it looked like... discovering that the job required almost never reflected the ticket created over the phone, that van stock poorly reflected what was routinely needed, that skills were organised around trade and not the predictable types of repair required, that the priority system meant we worried more about starting jobs than finishing them... then acting on these issues so that each tradesperson was able to turn up to a job with the skills, tools, kit and time they needed to complete the right repair in 1 visit.

• IN GROUP PENSIONS it looked like... discovering that each month 50 FTE were manually processing excel files of pension data provided by employers because we never replaced the guy responsible for the maintaining our middleware tech solution when he was promoted... then recruiting their replacement.

• IN INBOUND TELESALES it looked like... discovering that half of callers were not eligible for our products but that we often sold to them anyway, paid the sales bonus then cancelled their order in aftersales... then creating a new product for the demand we'd discovered, a campaign to drive the enquires we wanted and an incentive system that helped people to do the right thing for customers.

• AND SO ON...

These are all real life examples. Each had a transformational impact. None required anything more than 3 questions:

1. What's really happening here?
2. Why?
3. What are we going to do about it?

Don't get lost in the pseudo-problem of trying to 'create the conditions'. Spend your limited bandwidth sorting the real problems and the conditions will create themselves.

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Format: Blog

Tags: Theory , Client Story , How To , Results

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