6 rocketing benefits from business recipes

Do you love to cook? Do you have a recipe book? It’s much easier and quicker to make delicious food when you have a recipe. Ingredients don’t get missed out, and if you get interrupted, you simply go back to the recipe to see where you are in the process. If you are in a real hurry, you can whizz through the steps knowing the final result will be just as good as if you spent hours on it.

Can you imagine the haphazard results you would get if you tried to cook from memory?

Businesses also need good processes, or recipes, for all the same reasons. A process is just that, a standard “recipe” that enables things to be done in the same way every time. Standardising as much as possible means:

1. The task can be reliably estimated for time and resource
2. The results will be the same (or very similar) each time
3. Work will get done faster once the process is established
4. Mistakes (big and small) are less likely
5. You can make changes, and measure the impact
6. Customer confidence will increase as they come to trust your consistent quality

A process may be as simple as a checklist, or as complex as a manual describing how to do something. I saw a wonderful example of a NASA checklist complete with their wicked sense of humour. Quite instructive!

Creating good processes and checklists isn’t rocket science, but it seems rocket scientists wouldn’t go moon-walking without one.

Florence Nightingale and evidence-based nursing

The lady and lamp is known for her deep compassion for the sick, and her revolutionary approach to hygiene. What is not so well known is that she was also a passionate statistician. Her work was informed by research, government statistics and the clear presentation of data. She worked with experts to ensure her own research was appropriate.

When it came to presenting the results of her work she was ahead of her time in the use of tables, pie charts and bar charts. She used colour to make her points clearly. She wanted to be sure that it was clear and understandable to those who had the power to change and administer the law. In our PowerPoint computerised world this doesn’t seem unusual, but in the days when cleanliness in hospitals was viewed as an unnecessary luxury, it was remarkable.

As much as Nightingale was a nurse, she went far beyond her work in caring for the sick. She was a champion of the importance of having a statistical department to track mortality and disease. During the Crimean war 7 times as many soldiers died from disease as died from their wounds on the battlefield. Nightingale understood the importance of understanding such statistics, so the necessary changes could be made.

She was vocal on the questions asked in the 1861 census, as she understood that health was influenced by the type of housing people lived in. She was also a key influencer in changing nursing into a well-trained profession, again using data.

Despite our romantic view of a full-skirted lady caring for the sick, she was a level-headed, evidence-based thinker who fully understood the power of statistics to save not just one life, but very, very many.

The Collected Works of Florence Nightingale by Wilfred Laurier University Press describes her enormous contribution to nursing as a profession and the establishment of a public healthcare system.

Two very different Parisian examples of customer service

And why customer service has to be built into the system

There are two big venues in Paris that attract millions of visitors every year. They are each very different, and from a customer service point of view make a fascinating contrast.

The first, of course, is Disneyland. Disney is famed the world over for its customer service ethos.

Randy Pausch tells a lovely story, long before he ever worked for Disney, of when he visited Disneyland as a child. During a very happy day at Disneyland he and his sister decided to buy a present for their parents. They paid, what was for them a lot of money, for a lovely Disney teapot. The Disney china teapot was barely out of the shop before it slipped and was in thousands of pieces on the floor. Two very upset children stared down at their precious but broken gift. A Disney attendant had seen what had happened and suggested they take it back to the shop. But, howled the children, it was our fault, why would they replace the teapot when we have broken it? Just try, he suggested kindly. To their surprise the teapot was replaced with a smile and two happy children were able to present a Disney teapot to their delighted parents.

It’s a great story, and worthy of being passed on.

Now the second Paris venue is spectacular in a very different way. Versailles is a world away from Disneyland in so many ways, and yet also attracts visitors from around the world in vast numbers. The splendours of 18th Century France, the ambitions of the Sun King, and the sheer dazzling opulence of this gorgeous palace make it a feast for the eyes. However, the notion of customer service is lacking in just so many ways.

At a recent visit when I had cause to complain, which I did in my most reasonable French. I was met by argument, bureaucratic forms and a complete lack of will or ability to put anything right. I was told that no one had ever complained like this before (how dare I?). It felt like I was taking on the might of the whole French state instead of pointing out that I had been mislead when buying two tickets. Once I had been worn down by his complete unwillingness to do anything to improve the situation, the young French man seemed satisfied that these unreasonable English were leaving. The amount of money was tiny, and it would have been so easy to have put it right. But he was happier to see us leave whilst knowing his organisation was in the wrong, than to fix the situation.

From a business point of view, of course, it was not his fault. He had been trained to be unhelpful. He could see no benefit to either himself or to his organisation in putting things right. The systems at Versailles do not support him in making a good decision when faced with a complaint. It is shocking in today's world.

It is a stark reminder that customer service must be built into the system. You cannot expect people to work against the system and help customers; the system has to be there to show them what great customer service looks like.

Expertise and expert performance

One of the most fascinating concepts I have come across in a long while is that of Expert Performance. This is a body of work on how expertise is gained, and what sets experts apart from the rest. Studies have been done across a range of disciplines. Malcolm Gladwell’s wonderful book Outliers referred to some of this work.

Two fascinating ideas come out of the expert performance research:

1. It takes an average of 10 years to become expert in something


2. Practice means deliberate practice, not doing by rote

The 10 years figure is interesting, and provides a guideline for how much time is required to master something. However, it is the “deliberate practice” concept which is most useful to us in our day to day activities. That is practice which has its prime objective of improving performance. It may sound tautological – surely all practice is designed to improve performance? Not so. It is perfectly possible to spend 1 hour practicing French verbs with half a mind on what is for dinner, or whether it will rain. Alternatively, I hour can be spent in a structured way with reviews every 15 minutes so that learning is maximised. Of course the latter is more difficult and more tiring, which is why many of us prefer to keep half a mind on dinner.

Deliberate practice means pushing the boundaries of our practice – expanding our capabilities and working on new areas within our field. It also means getting feedback on how well (or badly) we are doing, and practicing afresh in light of that feedback. To build expertise it is necessary to reflect on the processes and methods used to perform well.

This is important in performance management. Whatever we are striving to do well requires both practice and feedback, both external and internal. It means keeping a record of our performance and improvements. All of which takes effort, but the months and years pass whether or not we are gaining new skills and pushing our professional capabilities forward.

And of course deliberate practice and monitoring progress is as applicable to a business or department as to an individual. The larger the group, though, the more structured the systems need to be for providing feedback.

Fit for purpose

Performance management and business intelligence somehow imply providing something more than the basic product or service that your customer might expect. But this is not so. Performance management is mostly about providing the right environment for an organisation to consistently and efficiently meet the standards expected by its customers.

Performance management initiatives are put in pace so that the organisation can perform its necessary functions to a good standard. In other words, ensuring its product or service is fit for purpose. Not just occasionally, but consistently.

This occurred to me yesterday as I walked through my local train station. And no, my train wasn’t late. I was struck by something much more important than that: safety.

Like many major towns and cities, Reading attracts its share of anti-social behaviour. But there has been a change in recent years – and a welcome one in my view. The local police are a great deal more visible. The presence of the Transport Police, and their uniformed cousins the Policy Community Support Officers, has made Reading Station a calmer and safer place to be. In addition to the coffee shops and boutiques, it has actually made it a rather pleasant place to be.

The crew on duty yesterday as I walked through the station were approachable and friendly. I stopped and chatted to them, and their Sergeant, about their thoughts on keeping the peace. Despite their youthful appearance, they also remembered a time when the station was a tenser and less safe place to be: a few drinks, and a few mates, easily spills over into disruptions that ruin lives both for the perpetrator and the victim. How much better to fund more police officers to calmly restore order and ensure and good night out stays that way?

Behind the calm and confident exterior of those police officers lies an array of performance management building blocks. There is the programme to get more police and PCSOs on our streets, the selection process, training, promotion boards, and on the job mentoring. All monitored and rolled up into government statistics.

This type of policing might be seen as the tip of the iceberg in work that encompasses so much more. Inevitably there is much valuable police work that that is unseen, unreported, and unappreciated. I have no desire to detract from that. I do, however, think that visible policing is a welcome and necessary initiative.

From a performance management viewpoint, it also a lesson that sometimes we need to take an all-round view of a product or service. In this case it isn’t good enough that trains run on time, although that’s always helpful, I also want to travel in a safe and calm environment.

Thank you Transport Police and PCSOs. And what a nice lot you are too!

How do you measure innovation?

A frequent criticism of performance management and measurement is that it stifles creativity. Intuitively we believe this to be true – innovative endeavours cannot be time-boxed or benchmarked. That, we argue, is the nature of innovation.

On Saturday evening, however, I had the pleasure of witnessing a ballet performance that was both innovative and measurably excellent.

Northern Ballet Theatre’s production of Swan Lake was horrifyingly original and spectacularly successful. I say horrifyingly because this was Swan Lake – the perennial favourite of ballet lovers everywhere. The one classical ballet that pretty much guarantees the crowds. So it is a brave choreographer who messes with Swan Lake.

Northern Ballet, however, are unafraid of tackling large and contemporary topics with their dance.

They are gritty, humorous, and the very best of what you might expect from the North.

Their Swan Lake managed to pull off the seemingly impossible. They found heartbreak and depths of emotion in Tchaikovsky’s music through the storyline rather than pirouettes. Their athletic male dancers replaced the prettiness of the swans’ tutus but left no-one short changed. The final scene had us transported to a world only rarely glimpsed. And when the final curtain fell the audience was so caught up in the sheer drama of what they had just seen that no one could remember what the original Swan Lake was all about.

But how do you measure something as emotional and innovative as this? By the number of seats sold for the performance? By the rapturous applause? By the loud and unmistakably male northern voice behind me that pronounced “that were brilliant!” as the curtain fell. I guess all of this, and more.

Northern Ballet Theatre like any other business is accountable both commercially and artistically. In their 40th Anniversary year they are going from strength with glowing critical acclaim and performances in more theatres throughout the UK. But in this business, as in any other, the numbers matter. Whilst the numbers can only mirror the brilliance of their current artistic director, David Nixon, and not replace it, they are nonetheless important in securing funding and ensuring more people get to appreciate the power of dance.

The numbers also speak volumes about the standards that the artistic team set for their dancers and their company. Alongside Opera North this is another northern gem that is hitting well above its weight.

I’d wager seats in the stalls that both companies keep more than half an eye on their performance management statistics, silencing any critics who say that measurement stifles creativity.

Wriggling around targets

Interesting things can happen when targets are set.

The intentions behind the target seem clear, but once the target is out there things can sometimes not turn out the way you expect. Whether you call it wriggling, or plain cheating, I guess depends both on the target and the degree to which the intentions behind the target are being stretched.

Whilst we are still in Lent, I’ll use my own example of giving up alcohol as an example.

Although I was brought up a Catholic, religion does not play a big part in my life today. It was a meeting of Toastmasters that raised the idea, and so I set myself a goal of not drinking alcohol during Lent. My schooldays was the last time I had done anything remotely similar (although then it was more likely to have been chocolate!)

As the first weekend arrived the idea of a pint was proposed. “I can’t” I said “I’ve given it up for Lent.” Then I thought – did I just promise to give up wine or the whole alcohol thing? Maybe I’m allowed a beer? I had to go back to my posting to check. You can bet your gin and tonic that if I had written wine in my posting I would have been enjoying a half with a pub meal.

I will admit to being slightly surprised at myself. I knew what my intention was, but I was prepared to look at the wording to see how much leeway I would allow myself. Crumbs! And it seemed so simple.

Then came the 40 days and 40 nights PLUS Sundays. Does that mean I can enjoy a glass on Sundays then? Again, I was looking for some sort of needle for my camels.

The target was so simple, the intention so clear. Yet once the realities of making an effort set in, I looked for various ways out.

I’m pleased to say that I am still on course and not missing the booze at all. But it does raise some interesting ideas about how easily goals can be distorted once they see the light of day.

Needless to say I have been noticing other people’s efforts a little more than I would ordinarily do.

The Church of England has suggested doing good over Lent, rather than giving something up. This interesting, and must be applauded. Yet it strays somewhat from the original intention of remembering Jesus’ fast in the desert.

Targets must be thoughtful, appropriate and possible to achieve. But even when all those are in place, I am still slightly taken aback at my own readiness to look for loopholes.

Reach for the stars

“When you reach for the stars, you may not quite get one, but you won’t come up with a handful of mud either.” Leo Burnett

Leo Burnett was a copywriter who built a successful world-wide advertising agency that was still going strong during the time I worked in the business. Much has changed since the heady days of the ‘80’s but I’m sure one thing hasn’t – the reliance on data to drive decisions and create value for businesses.

I find the giant personalities of advertising an inspiration – David Ogilvy has a well earned place on my bookshelf and was a real advocate of data-driven marketing. But I digress already – because Leo Burnett’s quotation captures the essence of what is on my mind this morning – that of excellence.

I was at the ballet last night. I saw a production of Romeo and Juliet that I had not seen before. There were some magnificent dancers and dances, but there were also some little slip-ups. Of course, the joy of a live performance is just that – you live the highs and lows with the performers; it is not sanitised as it would be for television.

For me, ballet is a treasure trove of riches. It pushes the human body beyond what should be possible to produce a spectacle so lovely that it takes my breath away. And last night it was all set to Prokofiev’s magnificent and memorable music. It is still going round in my head now.

The creation of a ballet reaches for the stars. But not all ballet companies are created equal. Not all have the same standards. Some reach, and attain, higher standards than others. Which was what got me thinking about Performance Management in relation to the performing arts. Ballet companies rely on businesses and business people to bring their productions to paying audiences. And those businesses also have standards as to what they accept or do not. Last night there were many empty seats – a crying shame considering the expense of the production.

This is where data and analytics meet star-reaching. I am sure there were many more ballet fans who might have been tempted out in the snow with the right offer. And the ballet company and theatre would have benefited even if the tickets were sold at a reduced rate. The right business intelligence system could have done that – to the benefit of so many.

I regularly go to see the ballet at another venue where there is just about never an empty seat. Do they have different standards or a different data-centered culture? Maybe both. Business Intelligence is a way of thinking. Maybe it's where ambition meets analytics …