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EMPLOYEE DIAGNOSTICS

You Run the System,

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by Thom Tschetter

Runs the Business

efore I begin this months article, I want to take a moment to

thank those of you who have
sent me your thoughts, comments, and
questions. I really appreciate each of
you for taking the time to send them in.
Your contributions will provide great
topics for future articles.
Last month I introduced what I
called the secret to building an empowered team of top performers and told
you that it can be summed up with just
four Ps - Purpose, Process, People, and
Payoff. We introduced the first P
Purpose in last months issue. This
installment of our series on employee
performance will deal with the second
of the Ps, Process. Process answers the
question, How do we do what we do?
Those of you who have attended
my seminars over the past 12+ years
have heard me make this statement
many times, You run the system and
the system will run the business. I
keep saying it because its the foundation of any successful business. There
is simply no way a business can run
effectively without systems and procedures. The problem is that many shops
run on systems that have evolved over
time rather than systems that have been
designed and refined over time. The
difference is that the first comes about
by accident while the other springs
forth from a clear purpose and by
design.
Over the past 25 years Ive visited
hundreds of repair centers. One thing
Ive noted is that some shops seem to
be running at half speed and getting
tons of work sold and delivered while
others are running around in crisis
mode and getting poor results. Another
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thing I noticed is that nearly 80% of

what happens in a shop is routine and
only about 20% falls under what I
would classify as an exception or a crisis.
The shops that run smoothly have
processes (systems and procedures)
for handling most of what goes on during a typical day and contingency plans
for handling the occasional crisis.
There is a sense of calm and control in
these shops, and the shops appear to be
clean and organized.
The shops that are lacking clearly
defined processes are always in crisis
mode because in the absence of good
systems and procedures, everything is a
crisisit really is! Even something
like a ringing telephone or a customer
driving in creates a crisis. As you
might suspect, these shops are typically
cluttered and dirty, and their customers
feel like interruptions to the business
rather than feeling welcome and important.
My point here is that I believe with
effective, well-established processes
you can accomplish about 80% of the
work with about 20% of your energy.
This means your tank is at 80% to deal
with the 20% non-routine things and
emergencies that tend to consume so
much of your energy and capacity.
So what are the key components of
an effective process? A process driven
company focuses on managing and
measuring things and leading people.
By that I mean the focus is not so much
on managing the people as it is on managing the process, which frees them to
become more of a leader with respect to
how they deal with their employees.
The key things a process manager

focuses on include but are not limited

to: time, facilities, equipment, organizational structure, policies, procedures
and routines. When something goes
wrong in a process oriented shop, the
manager asks, What went wrong with
the process? rather than Who
screwed up? When managers focus on
the process, team members feel more
secure, more respected, and are more
interested in fixing the problem than in
fixing the blame.
Structure includes things like the
way work is organized and how it
moves through the system. It includes
standardizing every step in the sales
cycle from the way the telephone is
answered, to selling the job, and
through the customer follow-up system
and how comebacks and complaints are
dealt with. It also sets forth technical
routines for diagnostics, service and
repair, managing production and workflow, and how quality is controlled.
One test of the effectiveness of
your structure is whether the skill level
required of the job matches the skill
level of the employee who routinely
performs the job. If you have low
skilled technicians doing work that is
well beyond their capability or highly
skilled technicians doing trainee level
work, there is a problem with your
structure. These conditions also lead to
low morale within the team.
Employees should be regularly challenged to stretch, grow and learn new
skills, but they should not be put in
positions in which they will likely fail.
Unless you establish performance
standards, employees will have no idea
if they are succeeding or not. Standards
make it possible to measure results.
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Being able to measure results against

established standards is essential for
managing a process oriented shop.
Since a problem is nothing more than a
deviation from an agreed or expected
standard, without standards you cannot
have a problem.
Procedures, systems, policies, and
methods all combine to form the backbone of your process. In the best operations, the process is well established,
replicable, and usually written. The
process is broken down into incremental steps with clearly established measurable standards that will provide you
with predictable results. Its been said
that if you cant measure it, you cant
manage it.
Driving and restraining forces are
always at work in any process.
Restraining forces are like roadblocks
or obstacles that prevent or impede performance. Most managers are so intent
on pushing for more or better performance that they miss the things that are
getting in the way. It is always more
effective to remove the restraining
forces than to drive harder to overcome
them. If you focus on process, you will
automatically look first for the things

GEARS May/June 2005

that are getting in the way of the

process rather than pushing harder on
the employees to overcome the barriers.
Stephen Covey uses a great analogy to make this point. He relates it to
driving a car with the emergency brake
on. Does it make more sense to press
harder on the accelerator to overcome
the brake or to simply release the
brake? When you focus on pushing the
employees, its like pressing harder on
the gas instead of fixing the real problemthe brake was on.
This article should serve to provide
you with plenty of discussion topics for
your team meetings. I hope you have
started your team meetings. If not,
what are you waiting for? Refer back
to last months article for the details,
and get started.
Here is the key question to ask in
determining if your process needs to be
improved. Does your process make it
possible for ordinary people to achieve
extraordinary results?
Next month well take up the next
two of the 4 Ps, PEOPLE and PAYOFF.
Without people, nothing else matters.
In the meantime, keep in mind that
much of the success of this series of

articles will depend on you. I encourage you to help by sharing your own
challenges and personal stories about
employee nonperformance issues.
Share stories from your own perspective - whether youre an employee or an
owner or a manager. Dont worry
about form or format; just send in your
thoughts, ideas, concerns and challenges in your own words. You can
send them by mail, email or FAX.
Anonymous contributions are welcome,
and if you want to keep it confidential,
Ill honor that, too. Ill compile them
and turn them into articles that are sure
to be learning experiences for everybody.
Mail your contributions to Thom
Tschetter c/o ATRA, 2400 Latigo
Avenue, Oxnard, CA 93030. My email
is thom@profitboost.com or send a
FAX to 805-604-2006. If you use email
or send a FAX, please include the words
Employee Performance Article in the
subject line. Also, feel free to send any
questions or challenges you encounter
in implementing any of the ideas discussed in this series. I look forward to
hearing from you.

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