Your People Drive Your Success ... and Ours!
Every successful enterprise requires highly motivated people! Having all the best systems and procedures won't make you successful if the people you rely on don't believe in the values, the goals, the products, and the methods that define your organization. Your clients, your suppliers, and, most of all, your employees – these are the assets that matter.
Morgan Jones, here, founder of One Part Harmony. Before we write a single line of code, I personally spend time with your people who will use the systems we plan to create. I will learn from them, I will teach them, and I will engage them fully in the process of defining and designing the very best and most efficient solutions to your firm's everyday information management challenges.
I use the simple strategies of teamwork and step-by-step design so your team and I can:
- Identify the most important ways we can improve workflow and staff efficiency.
- Breakdown complex problems into manageable tasks so we can start making progress in days and weeks – ensuring everyone can see positive results quickly.
- Use rapid prototyping to validate each part of the larger application as soon as possible, so mistaken assumptions can be identified and revised as early as possible and improvements can be introduced while the cost is still minimal.
- Create a more cohesive team that extends across job-description and department boundaries to view the organization's needs in light of the bigger picture – specifically delivering success in terms of our shared mission.
- Demonstrate success by our mutual efforts and respect for each individual's contribution – keeping everyone motivated and moving forward ... together.
It just makes sense. If you thought highly enough of someone to hire him or her and thus give that person part of the responsibility for your firm's success, then it makes sense that we can both benefit from the lessons he or she has learned about (a) what is valuable and must be preserved, (b) what is inefficient in the team's current work environment, and (c) what changes we can make that will produce better quality – and greater customer satisfaction going forward.
▲ top of page ▲
Building Consensus to Deliver Results ...
Years before founding my first business, when I was 15 years old, keeping the coffee pot full and sweeping up the back of a print shop after school and on weekends, my first boss taught me the most important thing I know about business:
"There are no bad employees. There are just people who aren't successful in their jobs."
After running several businesses of my own, I've discovered the best way to ensure the success of any enterprise is to ensure the success of every employee ... and to make absolutely certain each person feels successful.
Consensus building is a win-win approach to almost every kind of business challenge ... and it leads directly to successful employees and a successful organization. By bringing staff members from different functions together to discuss, debate, and define the path ahead, I can create an environment in which each person gets to be heard, to have his or her ideas injected into the mix, and to provide honest observations about the ideas others contribute. The stated goal is to blend the very best ideas for maximum results.
As moderator, it's my job to keep the process moving ahead while promoting the best aspects of even the least popular ideas – to help others in the group see the grain of truth that defines the very real problem that may lie buried under an overly complicated or incomplete proposed solution. In other words, "Even if you don't think Joe's solution makes sense, can we at least agree that Joe has identified a problem that needs to be fixed?"
When done right – with drive, tenacity, and respect for all involved – the process of building consensus achieves these unstated goals ... all of which are critically important for the enterprise:
- Finds the best real-world solutions, because the process considers how each part of the new system affects every other job function ... before the development begins.
- Teaches each team member to evaluate the impact of his or her efforts on the larger objectives of the enterprise as a whole (including customers and suppliers).
- Allows each employee to see the value provided by each of the other team members, especially those in other jobs and departments with whom they may not interact directly on a regular basis.
- Achieves buy-in up-front from all participants to ensure their continued support throughout the development effort, even when the inevitable changes and setbacks occur.
- Increases job satisfaction by (a) empowering team members, making each an essential part of the problem-solving process; (b) promoting positive, respectful interactions with other team members; and (c) driving the development of enhanced information-management systems that actually increase the efficiency and profitability of the enterprise.
In the end, no one will be sure who exactly proposed each aspect of the plan that emerges ... because, in reality, we've blended everyone's original ideas, criticisms, and inspirations to craft something better than any one of us could have created alone. And because each person was necessary to produce the unique outcome, I encourage each individual to take full credit for the team's victories.
An employee who feels he or she plays an important role in the firm's success is a highly-motivated force for outstanding customer service and a very valuable asset.
▲ top of page ▲
