This week in our pursuit of excellence through leadership growth, we talked about Acting as One in our organization. "If you harness the power of every member of your organization, your competition doesn't stand a chance." (Randy Gravitt).
As an example of an organization who does this well, Mr. Gravitt shared a picture of the Corporate Purpose carved on a stone outside of the Chick-fil-a headquarters.
Every person who enters that building is greeted with the corporate purpose. Do you notice that it doesn't actually say anything about chicken? Chick-fil-a has made a name for itself that reflects the purpose above. Certainly, stewardship and positivity are hallmarks of the Chick-fil-a experience and corporate structure.
What is your corporate purpose? Is your team aligned with it? "Anytime an organization lacks alignment, the opportunity for reaching its full potential is squandered." (Randy Gravitt).
At ADMO, we are striving to produce quality parts and maintain strong relationships with our customers, our suppliers, and our teams.
One of the things we noticed this week is the correlation between strong relationships and teamwork. These two values shake hands with one another. If your relationships are strong, teamwork will come much more easily. However, if relationships are strained, the team will suffer.
As part of our clarity of vision, our president, Mr. Krieps, has given us a litmus test to use in our decision making.
When faced with a decision, we are to be using the phrase, "Best Interest of ADMO". For instance, is it in the "Best Interest of ADMO" to choose the lowest cost carrier if they don't get parts to our customer on time or intact? No. In this case, it might be better to pay a little more for a shipment to ensure our parts arrive on-time and in good shape. This is a type of Yes/No decision-making tool we can use to help process through daily decisions.
What types of things are in the "Best Interest of ADMO"?
- Happy Customers!
- Good relationships with suppliers
- Efficient Process
- Teamwork
- Quality Parts
Having these shared goals will help keep us in alignment with each other. It certainly helps when we are all going the same direction!
One of the key areas of improvement is our communication with each other. We shared some ideas in each meeting about how we can improve.
Part of the recommendation in "Chess Not Checkers" is to develop a common language. My husband I have done this in a number of ways in our marriage, and I share those with the team. We came across this clip by Jeff Foxworthy and it has given us some "short hand" for our marriage.
So now, instead of getting frustrated when I'm asking him questions for which he has no more information, he just says, "I got a text". It makes me laugh and at the same time tells me that I should stop asking questions because he has no more information. But, it's a much kinder way of handling it than being frustrated or snapping at me.
Similarly, Mary Wibben shared some communication tips she and her husband learned in their marriage. They use the phrase "Observation vs. Value Statement" to identify when something is meant to just be an observation, not a judgment on a person.
For instance, if a wife says, "I noticed that a red shirt got mixed into the white laundry. Could you make sure to keep the whites seperate from other colors in the future?". This would be an observation. However, the husband might hear, "Since you are too dumb to know this, I'm going to tell you how to do the laundry and see if you can follow my instructions!".
Of course, the wife is merely asking for something to be done a certain way, but the husband, because of the filters through which communication comes, might take it as a judgment or an unkind critique. It is in those moments that the phrase "Observation vs. Value Statement" would come in handy.
This kind of short hand communication can develop in a company, too. When we all begin speaking the same language, we get to what's important sooner.
Finally, as part of our discussion of clarity and alignment, we talked about Relay Races. For those who have ever run a relay race, they shared that much more time is spent practicing the handoff than simply running.
When a relay race runs smoothly, and each runner is doing his or her part, it looks something like this (3:30 - 4:15 in the video):
The World Record for an individual woman running the 400m dash is 47.60 seconds and was set in 1957. These 4 women, working as a team, bested that record by nearly 7 seconds!
It takes a lot of practice and communication to complete a handoff well. This video will show you just what goes into that transition:
- There's alignment as the 1st runner enters the relay zone and the 2nd runner starts running to get into the same rhythm.
- There's communication to signal when the baton should be passed
- There's good technique in the passing of the baton
- There is follow-through to the end of the relay zone (the 1st runner continues running instead of putting on the brakes)
For us, there are many mini-relays throughout the day. But, nearly every person is involved in the relay race of shift change. Our shifts are like this:
1st shift 7am - 3:30pm
2nd shift 3pm - 11:30pm
3rd shift 11pm - 7:30am
There is a 30 minute crossover time for each shift. This is our "Relay Zone". As the relief comes into the relay zone, they should get up to the pace of the 1st worker. Then, communication should take place (training, updates, etc.). If that doesn't take the whole cross-over period, the 1st "runner" should continue working (cleaning, organizing, helping other operators) until the end of the shift.
If we are unable to communicate clearly and pass the baton well, it might look a little like this:
Let's start thinking towards our values and align ourselves in that direction. How can you help with the transitions throughout the day? In what ways can you find to communicate better with your team?
We are working to become a High Performance Organization that is known for Quality, Efficiency, Unity, Strong Relationships, and Profitability. It takes practice, communication, and each of us doing our part.
The challenge this week is to find 10 ways that acting as one benefits an organization. Share your answers in the comments!
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