Self Diagnosing Operational Pain Points: A Significant Risk

Self Diagnosing Operational Pain Points: A Significant Risk

Working with a large number of companies in different industries has provided an interesting perspective on business. We see the obvious differences between companies in such areas as corporate culture, but we also see the common challenges that exist regardless of industry. We have lost track of the number of times we have heard managers say, “This process works, but employees are not executing properly,” or employees tell us, “Management just does not get it; this process is broken.”

We find that companies often know when they are not “firing on all cylinders,” much in the same way we as individuals know when “we don’t feel right.” We also see that companies (like individuals) are quite good at pointing out the symptoms of whatever ails them.

The symptoms of operational pain points show up in perception surveys when employees score communication or a disconnection to leadership as a problem. The symptoms are also revealed when managers see that employees have failed to do something they were supposed to do, work is not completed as planned, quality problems are not caught, etc.

So what do people do when they don’t feel well? Some people take to the internet, trying to self-diagnose their ailments (with varying degrees of success). Most people visit the doctor, describe their symptoms, and let the doctor look for the underlying cause of their ailments.

Self-diagnosing a company’s operational pain points brings with it the same risks as self-diag-nosing medical conditions. You could be correct or you could completely miss the mark. Over the years, we have seen a number of common ways in which companies try and solve misdiagnosed problems, including:

Doubling Down. Under this strategy, the company decides that their approach is the right one, and doubling the effort will guarantee improvements. Expectations get more demanding, communications are more threatening, and the consequences for failure become direr.

Re-training. When people are not doing what they are supposed to do, it seems obvious that the training the company invested so much time and effort into did not work. The general thought is that it’s time to repeat.

Blame and Fire the Underperformers. While underperformers do exist, we see too many companies blaming the employees who work in an area for the problems in that area. They assume that underperformance is taking place at the front-line.

Blame Your Tools. If the new IT system is not delivering the results anticipated, it’s obviously a problem with the tools. Or is it?

Not only do these “solutions” to misdiagnosed problems not work, they often make the problems worse with significant fiscal consequences.

Management may feel good for a period of time because they are “doing something” to solve the problem and the executive appreciates that “we are getting tough.” Unfortunately, the results are often not much better than the person who tries to “tough out” chest pains or a concussion received on the football field.

The Alternative

The approach we have found to be most beneficial is a third party operational diagnostic that tackles the root causes of corporate ailments. This type of diagnostic is different from other forms of analysis companies undertake, including perception surveys and benchmarking. Perception surveys are useful for taking the temperature of an organization, but the results of the survey highlight symptoms and not the root causes. Benchmarking is a very valuable tool to determine how one organization stacks up against the competition, but benchmarking does not explain why one company underperforms relative to another.

An effective third party operational diagnostic does more than pick out the symptoms from an internal perception survey to see the areas of underperformance relative to best practice. It will, more importantly, go a critical step further to look for the root cause of the condition.

We believe doing this successfully requires a holistic perspective of the organization. This is based on the view that superior performance in any organization occurs when the combination of strategy, leadership, process, technology, communication, and execution all converge – with no single element being more important than the other. Companies that rely on a narrow focus (such as simply acquiring the latest technology, and then failing to lead, communicate, and execute it effectively) will always underperform. An effective third party operational diagnostic looking for the root causes to a condition will consider how the six elements above interact and perform as part of the overall organization.

Logically, any good executive would quite rightly ask, “Why should I pay a third party to do an operational diagnostic, when we know our business best?” It’s a valid question, but the often overlooked rationale is compelling.

Expertise

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