At Astonish we have a yearly company meeting. Our meeting is today and I thought I would write about one of the major points I’m going to share with our company. It’s called the “right things” model. I first heard about this concept for Vern Harnish’s book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits.
The model goes like this, in order for a company to accomplish its mission it needs to have the following components.
The Right People
This is a no-brainer and obvious point. You must have the right people in your company if you want to succeed. Unfortunately, I see that all too often, this is NOT the case. Company leadership cannot make the tough call to let the wrong people go for various reasons. What they are really doing is hurting the employee.
Some companies are challenged with getting the right people in the first place. At Astonish Results, we’re looking for good people all the time and it is difficult. We have a motto, “slow to hire, quick to fire”. It seems that in this economic environment of high unemployment it’s even more difficult to find the right people. It can be done. Just stay focused and don’t hire out of desperation.
The Right People Doing the Right Things
This point speaks to training and processes. You may have the right people, but do you have the right processes? Are your people properly trained? Are all your processes clearly defined? Do your employees know exactly what is expected of them?
This is difficult as well and requires a great deal of thought. You can’t just throw them to the wolves (which I’ve done, believe me). If these things are not clear in your mind, get clear or you’re setting your team up for failure. Maybe you need a person on your team that is gifted to map out processes and train.
The Right People Doing the Right Things Right
This is all about execution. You can have the greatest players in the world and the greatest plays, but if the team cannot execute on game day, you’ll still lose.
How do you make this happen?
I love this quote by Robert Kaplan – “Consistent alignment of capabilities and internal processes with the customer value proposition is the core of any strategy execution.”
What he’s saying here is that execution is not a one-time event, but a process of being in alignment on a consistent basis.
The Right People Doing the Right Things Right Together
This final point was not in Harnish’s book but is especially true at Astonish where several teams have to work together to accomplish the mission. It’s all about collaboration. There cannot be a slioed approach. We must collaborate and cooperate. What can we learn from each other? How can we make each others’ life easier and exceed our clients expectations at the same time? How can we carry the load together?
My goal for Astonish Results in 2011 is for just that, greater collaboration.