Who is Accountable? While there will be multiple people accountable, one each for each department involved, we need to assign one person as the lead and the single point of accountability for the objective. Tat eliminates the need to go from person to person for every part of a project.


How Will We Know? Do not just assume those pallets have been delivered or that customer list has been generated. Te person assigned to spearhead the objective needs to be responsible for compiling and delivering the report at a precise time, such as 1:00 pm on Friday. If we’re going to run a tight ship, we need that kind of specificity built into our plans. Once the task is completed, that person will send the team an email with the reports, specs, flow sheets, etc. and a text noting that the email has been sent for those in the field whose only immediate access is their cell phone. If only one person knows how to access key information and they’re removed from the chain—the information doesn’t exist anymore. If it’s on the shared drive, or email, it’s accessible whether its creator is at work that day or not. If we don’t get the email that’s due, it’s a signal that something is wrong, and we need to follow up on it. All those flow charts and data that accompany the email report when a task is completed take the assumptions out of the picture.


After-Action We’ve already gone further than 90 percent of organizations do at this point, but let’s take it one step further. When the delivery date of an objective has passed, take the time with the team to go over what worked, what didn’t, and what should be done differently next time. List out those items as actionable objectives and build them into the next plan.


Creating Pivot Point Solutions Sidestepping problems actually prevents solutions. If we don’t fix problems one growing season, they will come back to haunt us. What if we permanently solve those problems? How much more efficient and profitable would our company be?


Our people are solving hundreds of problems every day. Are we capturing any of those problems; are we permanently solving them, or just going day-by-day? How can we reach into our employees’ heads and get those solutions out?


Start with the simple process of each staff member bringing a set number of problems to the table each week. In my company, it’s five problems. We may want to start off with one or two problems as we ramp up. Te goal is to gather input from all perspectives to solve each problem in the most efficient way and put a process in


42


“The goal is to gather input from all


perspectives to solve each problem in the most efficient way and put a process in


place to permanently solve every problem our folks bring to us. The goal is never to deal with the same problem twice.”


place to permanently solve every problem our folks bring to us. Te goal is never to deal with the same problem twice. Collect those solutions and share them with employees. Tat’s a Pivot Point.


We don’t just want to put out fires as leaders; we want to take the matches away from the kids. Te goal is to remove this problem’s ability to impact our business. If we eliminate one problem a week or even one problem a month on a strategic issue; we empower our people to solve many problems on their own. We have to apply this strategy on whatever scale works for us and our business.


When our employees see the ideas they bring to the table are implemented (or at least considered), we’ll have every employee thinking about how they can make the business better. As we look at our objectives, review your own performance and start the weekly meeting by pointing out what you could have done better and how you will do it better the next week. Tat’s accountability to the team. Have each team member do the same thing, starting with the next senior staff member and working to the most junior person.


If, as a company, we can improve performance by five percent every week, we’ll see that improvement compounded to reach a performance increase of more than 1,200 percent by the end of the year. It’s also possible to track revenue over the same time period. I believe there will be a correlation between performance and profitability.


It takes an incredible amount of stress and pressure to run a business. Having these processes in place for our people allows us to be present for our family and our staff to be present for their families. Whenever we do turn over the company, we’ll have hundreds or thousands of problems and solutions in a database ready to pass on to the next generation.


TPI Turf News May/June 2019


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