We all have them. By “we” I mean we process optimization consultants, and by “them” I mean our pithy and entertaining stories of how, with little more than a nudge, wink, or perceptive squint, we were able to double a client’s throughput while cutting their process cycle time and marginal costs in half, all the while reducing defects along the way.
My personal favorite entailed getting a client team to stop gumming up the works. It turned out they were getting their work done by misusing one of their company’s ERP modules, thereby polluting the ERP database. We had IT train them in the use of a different module instead — one that was designed to support the exact process they wanted. Problem solved, for not enough effort to even bother billing the client for our time.
The purpose of triumphant process stories like these is to instill a perception that we can find examples just like them in a client’s operations, slaying that client’s inefficiency dragons without even breathing hard — especially but not limited to the legendary “Anything not worth doing isn’t worth improving” opportunities.
Plot spoiler: We rarely find these opportunities. If we’re very lucky we just might bump into a single “low-hanging fruit,” and if our client is even luckier, this low-hanging fruit won’t turn out to have hidden complexities that prevent our brilliant swim-lane diagrams from ever becoming actual operational reality.
Penny for thought
But enough storytelling. Instead, take time to read Caity Weaver’s “America Must Free Itself from the Tyranny of the Penny.” I’m not going to try to summarize Weaver’s excellent article. It’s worth your time and attention if for no other reason than its entertainment value, not to mention the simple metric that should be a deal closer right off the bat: It costs the US mint 3 cents to manufacture each penny it puts into circulation. And that’s far from the most compelling reason to get rid of the penny.
After you read the article, take care to avoid drawing the second of two tempting conclusions. The first: that getting rid of the penny would be simple, painless, and beneficial to all concerned, a conclusion that’s probably accurate enough that we should get started no later than tomorrow. The second — the one you shouldn’t fall for: if you look at your own organization with an open mind you’d be certain to discover lots of hidden inefficiencies that are just as flagrant — opportunities you should also start in on without delay.
They’re known as low-hanging fruit; better-known as quick wins, or maybe “pennies from heaven.”
Hidden in plain sight
Speaking of “heavenly penny” consulting tales of woe, here’s another story:
Once, when I worked in a large consultancy, one of our sales consultants sold a client on our ability to discover fruit that hung low, “our ability” meaning “my ability,” although our sales rep sold the deal before involving me in the pitch.
Given the nature of the engagement, my team developed an algorithm for sorting out the pennies from the rest of the coin-minting universe. The algorithm worked like a charm, spitting out a list of opportunities worth pursuing.
My team’s algorithmically generated list lined up perfectly with a list of quick wins the client’s staff had put together before my team got there. The good news: My work changed a list of possibilities that had stuck to the proverbial wall to a validated list that could be converted to actional projects.
The bad news: My client wasn’t happy. While we had delivered a list of plausible, actionable quick wins, he concluded that we hadn’t fulfilled the sales promise.
We hadn’t, that is, delivered a list of previously unknown pennies, and could not accept that there might not be any more pennies to be found — that his staff were actually competent.
Especially as he had already evaluated the list and decided against moving forward on any item on it.
Moral of the story
Any management consultant less green than your average avocado knows how to assess and address a client’s situation: Listen to as many employees as you can, at as many organizational levels as you can. Employees know everything the consultant needs to know — what’s wrong, what to do about it, and what the hidden difficulties are that can get in the way. Many of them have already tried to persuade management to do something about what they know and have been rebuffed as chronic complainers for raising their issues.
They’ll be happy to share their insights with anyone willing to listen to them. If there are pennies from heaven to be had, they’ll be happy to share the wealth.
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Read More from This Article: The dirty little secret of ‘quick win’ IT
Source: News