Breaking Through

Dale Carnegie once recounted a story on Charles Schwab.  In the story, Schwab had a mill that was not producing to his level of expectation. 
 
He asked the Mill Manager what the problem was.  The answer he got was, "I've yelled, penalized, promoted, incentivized, and cussed yet nothing has worked!"
 
"I've yelled, penalized, promoted, incentivized, and cussed yet nothing has worked!"
 
Schwab asked the Mill Manager; how many runs were done today?  The answer was 'six'.  So, Schwab got out a piece of chalk and on the blackboard, he wrote the number '6' big and bold for anyone to see and left without another word.
 
When the Night Shift came in they asked about the number '6' and what it meant.  The Day Shift that was exiting said, "The Big Boss came in and wrote what we accomplished today."  The Night Shift crew decided that they could do better than that and output seven that night!  Afterwards they replaced the '6' with a big and bold '7'. 
 
Together, we can do better than we imagine.
 
The next day, the Day Shift arrived and saw their number had been trumped and so they organized to output a '10' that day!
 
A key to healthy culture is an immediate mission to rally around and a definitive way to measure it.  Often the big vision of success that's meant for the long term or ad infinitum can lead to lethargy.  The goal can appear to far off, not urgent, or difficult to put into “bite size” chunks.
 
A key to healthy culture is an immediate mission to rally around and a definitive way to measure it. 
 
Layout a challenge, mission, or goal to your leaders and managers.  Keep it less than six months and create some daily measurements that can create clarity for everyone.  You'll be amazed at how well it will bind them together, inspire them together, and give them a clear sense of daily achievement.  The results…a growing achievement centered on going to the next level.