Goals are understood, expedited, and achieved, 96% of the time.

Let me restate that, for emphasis.

Goals are understood, expedited, and achieved, 96% of the time. 

How?

Once you are focused and are confident you know what it is your team will produce and how that will happen, be ruthless in its pursuit. When I ask people what they are doing, they point to the process. Their goal is to process. Cut that out. Your goal is to achieve. Use the process or lose the process but by all means stop focusing on it. Make sure you achieve your results. That and only that is your goal.

Who is responsible for failure? You are. I used to have a sign in my office before we valued positive reinforcement so much that said "What's your excuse for not doing your job today?" I wanted to post another, "Excuses are for losers." but knew, in my heart that that was really pretty harsh. It is true, of course. At the end of the game the winners celebrate and the losers outline a litany of excuses for why they lost. Do I have a point? I have two.

Let's eliminate the need for excuses:

Follow the cycle of your team's task from start the finish and understand each phase. Know the RESULT. Once you understand your phase of the operation and are a 96% achiever (good as humans get) ask questions and follow through the rest of your team's cycle to make sure your team has achieved its desire result.

Point two, flows from point one:

Be results oriented. Take responsibility, probably shared responsibility, but still be Individually Responsible for achieving the desire result. Understand the desired result. Make sure you are achieving it.

Got that. Understand what's supposed to be happening. Follow through to make sure it happens.

What's the cycle?

Before the cycle begins, all its segment's goals must be defined. A consensus of team members agree on a common goal. (I know, I know, it don't work that way where you work. Stay with me.)  Each segment of each cycle will have a start and a finish and will then logically lead to the next segment. The final result of the cycle will be the final result and the fruition of the cycle. Each team member must make an honest effort to understand other team member's cycle goals. Each phase of the cycle must support the other phases and recognize and follow up if the common goal of cycle completion isn't being achieved.

Example:

I worked at a non-profit bus company. All transit is now (since the 1960s) not only non-profit but financial loss leaders. You run transit, you lose money. The more transit you run, the more money you lose. I won't go into the how and why of subsidies but subsidies are necessary to prevent insolvency. I say this as a prelude because only heavily subsidized businesses can lead to what I'm about to describe. At least long term. Many failed businesses are just like what I'm about to describe.

Upon my active employment, I reviewed the department's prior work. One phase piqued my interest. The organization accepted special projects. A call would be received from another department to request a bus for a field trip. Because of federal regulation, private carriers must be polled for interest. None found, we accepted the work. A service order is executed. The work is added to a duty roster. An operator reports and inspects a bus and carries out the assignment. A trip sheet is filed. Reports are generated. The service order is marked complete. A request for invoice is executed. The invoice is sent to the department that requested the service. The requesting department pays the invoice. The funds are allocated to the proper account. The service order is retired. Other things can and do happen. Paying the operator, servicing the equipment and so on. Funny thing about one particular cycle, is it always has the full attention of all employees. That is the payroll cycle. I have never seen a payroll cycle that didn't have the apt attention of all employees, 24/7. There also should be some form of quality assurance monitoring and auditing but those are subsequent to the basic cycle I'm describing.

You can probably guess that all employees were satisfied that we were performing adequately. Some felt we were exemplary. About 10-15% of the time we were never paid for the service. Working in private industry I know accounts receivable are written off as losses eventually. And I know people who run businesses tell me they have to show up, in person, and demand a check, on the spot and be willing to compromise on the amount, for some clients. Collections is a nasty business. But these weren't recalcitrant customers. These were departments of the same university. The cycle was broken largely from lack of attention. Nobody followed up after a certain number of days, weeks or months.

So, you say, that's the fault of the organization. The accounting people weren't discussing receivables periodically and following up on payments. You had a process but it was flawed. It's "management's" problem and if they don't know about it, well what do you want me to do? It's not my job. I will admit it would be a pretty strange organization that would have bus operators asking after payment for services rendered, EXCEPT if their wages were withheld until the payment was received.

I asked the charter director if he knew who paid and who didn't when he executed a service order. He didn't. Because if he did, he wouldn't schedule another charter without dunning the requester. Likely the requester didn't know if the last charter they ordered had gotten paid either because of departmental segmentation.

I sat down with the director and we went over the cycle and I told him to be aware of all phases of the cycle and to not consider a particular job completed until payment was received. Don't mark a charter order complete until he is aware that it has been paid for. He didn't have a problem with it. It never occurred to him. I know that sounds strange but it's true. He didn't consider it his job until it had been spelled out for him. He trusted the process? I guess.

Am I asking too much? Should an employee, any employee make themselves aware of all phases of what an organization does and take responsibility for the total cycle and not be satisfied until it is complete? Sometimes it is difficult to impossible. BUT: Sometimes it is quite possible. My challenge to anybody is this: find out what's going on and try to facilitate the completion of a cycle that you provide any phase of.

This is particularly true of the result. What is the desired result of the cycle? A profit for your organization? The production of the best possible product? Ultimate customer satisfaction? A green environment? If you are firing a rocket into a crowd, are you killing everybody or just your enemies? Sometimes it takes a conversation with a group of co-workers and managers to list all the desired results. My point is all workers should work toward learning if the desired results are achieved if they participate in a work cycle. Don't wait for a "manager" to take the lead. You do it. Take responsibility. Fill your free time. Work toward a better understanding of what your organization does and how it does it.


I know managers who will say, "well we just need to have a meeting and adjust the process." Nothing wrong with that. It will/may fix what's happened. Won't fix what's about to happen though. Process always is behind the curve.

Here's the thing.

If you are process oriented, following the process is the logical result. If you achieve the process, then you've succeeded. I report, do my work and go home. On Friday, I get paid. I don't need to think about the how's and the why's and the after effects. That's not my job. My job is not to think, not to learn, not to worry. It's only to show up, do the required minimum and mark my calendar when my vacation is due. I totally respect the process because it gives me an excuse not to think.

As a manager, or conscientious employee, you must be careful not to fall into the cycle of process.

Define, specifically, what you and your organization tries to achieve. What are your (you and your organization's) short term, mid-term and long range goals. If you can't list them, you are in trouble. If your goals and your organization's goals are in conflict, you are in trouble. Once you have a firm grasp of consensual goals for yourself and your organization, learn what others are doing and what their goals are. You may be surprised to learn they have a different impression of what the organization or team is trying to achieve. Work toward a consensus.

I will admit that Herculean individuals have been known to develop processes so intricate and self learning that they actually achieve a consistent, desired result. The problem is that everything changes frequently and organically. Even good processes require individuals that listen and learn and adapt to changing environments. If you think the process you follow always does and always will work, you are deluded. Understand goals and results intrinsically. Respect the process if it is a good one but keep track of the results. Understand. Following the process isn't the goal. The goal is the desired result.

Knowledge is power. Understanding leads to wisdom. When you have a spare minute, talk to others in your organization about what they do and what they achieve. Learn as much as you can as time allows. You can't focus on the goal unless you can visualize it, fully realized.

Once you are focused and are confident you know what it is your team will produce and how that will happen, be ruthless in its pursuit. When I ask people what they are doing, they point to the process. Their goal is to process. Cut that out. Your goal is to achieve. Use the process or lose the process but by all means stop focusing only on it. Raise your vision to the horizon. See where you are going while your pull those oars. Call out if you are going the wrong way. Rowing the oars is necessary but getting where you are going is essential. Rowing in a circle achieves the process, not the goal. Make sure you fully understand what and where your intentions lie. Then and only then can you be guaranteed you are approaching results. That vision must be your guide.
 
"Goals are understood, expedited, and achieved, 96% of the time."

because I'm looking for them.