Saturday Edition

dispatches from the new world of work

100 Ways to Succeed #109:

The Clean Team!

"Everything in existence tends to deteriorate."—Norberto Odebrecht

Computer terminals at Commerce Bank have a red button on the keyboard. When you (teller) run into a self (bank)-created roadblock to serving the customer, you push the red button. The impediment you discover will be addressed—and if action is taken, and it usually is, you'll get a financial reward for discovering Grunge that had gotten between the customer and an excellent service experience. Commerce calls itself "Yes bank," because it will go to great lengths to be able to say "yes" to damn near any customer request. The bank and its profits have grown like Topsy in a decidedly non-blue ocean—and has so far kept saying "yes" and kept the Grunge to a minimum. As is the case 100% of the time ... the jury is still—and always—out.

My point-suggestion here is that you invent your flavor of Red Buttons for your 3-person department, your 9-person temporary project team, your 17-table restaurant, or your 235-person division. That is, formal tools for identifying Grunge and removing it and getting Everyone in on the GGG—Great Grunge [Removal] Game.

I, in fact, suggest going further. I suggest defining an entire, formal Grunge Removal Process or even "Culture"—that is, in effect, an anti-process process. One needs nothing less than a formal infrastructure to try and keep the "inevitable deterioration" in check—and maybe even reverse it. A host of possibilities are there for the taking (including some gems from the Lane-Welch book reluctantly cited above): an anti-grunge Pledge of Allegiance every morning—and an anti-grunge item on every meeting agenda. A C-level anti-grunge exec: CGRO, Chief Grunge Removal Officer. Rewards for Grunge Removers at all levels, punishments for Grunge Growers at all levels. Devices to continually purge systems and procedures and processes of complexity creep. And Red Buttons for one and all.

Get on with this today—begin by making Grunge Awareness and Grunge Removal a belated New Year's Resolution. (For us "older" folks it starts with bodily Grunge Removal—a Life or Death commitment to diet and exercise and learning to say "no" to stupid requests. I.e., this really is the ultimate Big Deal in both our personal and professional lives.)

(Attached you'll find a "beautiful systems" PPT extracted from our Master Presentation—sorry, but I didn't have time to annotate it, which I will do in a few days.)

Tom Peters posted this on 01/14/08.

Comments

Years ago we had a litter of Pug puppies. The agreement that we had with the people who bought the puppies (we kept two and sold two to very nice homes) was simple, if they ever wanted to return the puppies, we'd give them their money back for any reason at any time...no questions asked. You can't beat an absolute guarantee.

Posted by Joel Heffner at January 14, 2008 12:31 PM

The crazy thing I have never understood is that most questions/problems/issues that crop up we all know the answers to â€¦ and front line staff sure as hell do know those answers â€“ so why donâ€™t we get rid of the grunge? I remember a surgeon being interviewed on a TV programme over here. He said (I Paraphrase)

â€˜Look â€¦. I passed all the right exams â€¦ I tick all the right boxes .. For God sake Iâ€™m a doctor.... so why am I obese by the official definition? Why do I like a glass of wine when I know I have exceeded my weekly limit? Why do I not exercise? Why do I do these things when I know I am shortening my life expectancy? â€¦ And so on â€¦

Oh the joys of life.

â€˜Role modelâ€™ behaviour still works for me :-)

Posted by Trevor Gay at January 14, 2008 5:57 PM

I'm thinking the biggest clog in the arteries of this process is that those with the biggest brooms don't know grunge from shinola....but what a terrific way to show them. As always, thanks for the great tip!

Posted by Dave W at January 15, 2008 10:01 PM

I'm a consultant for lawyers and law firms, specializing in marketing and business development, and this speaks directly to their issues. I blogged about it. Law firms are in the business of client service, and a lot of that is performed by front-line people and ruled by systems. But if there's a different or better way to do things, there's no system for fixing the system, so to speak. However, Tom's approach provides one. You can read the post here: http://peterdarling.typepad.com/business_development/2008/01/bad-client-serv.html Thanks, Tom!

Posted by Peter Darling at January 17, 2008 10:00 AM

Love Tom's point that the Grunge Removal Process is "in essence, an anti-process process." This is a simple idea not understood often by the very ones so engaged in the process which avoids individual professional responsibility. Being brought in as a consultant in a large city government, I was amazed at the inactivity on a day to day basis. But it was more amazing to discover that their inactivity was an ingrained "anti-process process." unknown to the employees. The employees seemed to think that no process was in place. I was much younger at the time and instead of pointing out the obvious, it would have been better to accomplish small victories in small groups. Governments in general probably need a "Chief Grunge Removal Officer for Grunge Growers at all levels." I also love the point that we all have grunge to remove in our professional and personal lives. It's a daily process to a lesser or greater extent.

Posted by Judith Ellis at January 19, 2008 6:31 PM

Posted by Judith Ellis at January 19, 2008 6:32 PM

It's early Sunday morning at 4:07 am. I've eaten, seen a movie, had a good dinner, read a book, and slept a few hours and this grunge issue is still on my mind. It is said by some that mis-readinqs can produce further understanding. I don't know if that is the case in my mis-reading above. But I would like to ask this: if a process is so ingrained in inactivity, would the suggestion here then be to implement an "an anti-process process," to break the monotony in a current system that hinders progress? So, in effect, the "anti-process process" destroys the inactivity of the system? Hence, the need for the CGRO that removes GG at all levels? What are the tools for the "anti-process process?" Does this process begin with self-evaluation? Is there anyone up out there? Maybe in England? Bangladore?

Posted by Judith Ellis at January 20, 2008 4:17 AM