The Anatomy of a Winning Project

Ella, my 5-year-old daughter learned to ride her bike this past week. A big thanks to her Opa who gave her many lessons last week. See Ella in action here!

It was a great father’s day for us all to enjoy a long, family bike ride. I think it’s also worthwhile to share this classic Tuesday Tidbit wit old and new tidbit readers from two years ago when my other daughter learned to ride.

https://noahfleming.com/the-best-business-coach-ive-ever-seen-my-5-year-old-daughter/

I also had some much-needed downtime to reflect and think on current and past client projects.

My colleague, Shawn Veltman, and I were discussing a couple of joint projects we had just wrapped up. We were talking about what made them so successful and one key thing stood out to us that most of the clients did really well, and I wanted to share that with you today.

First and foremost, one of the things you’ve heard me discuss again and again is the importance of not letting initiatives fall to the wayside. In too many of the organizations I’ve been exposed to, I often hear a variant of the following when I ask the staff for their honest feedback…

“Look, we’ve tried this a dozen times before, and I can tell you what’ll happen … There’ll be a meeting, there’ll be a speech, then in a month, almost everybody will have forgotten about it. My life will be harder for a couple of months, and then I can forget about it too, and nobody will notice the difference.”

“Another consultant? We’ve had lots of people like you over the years.”

“We’ve tried so many initiatives like this and nothing ever changes.”

“More of the same old, same old!”

Usually, when I dig deeper, I find those comments and sentiments to be mostly true. They have had a lot of new initiatives fall by the wayside after a couple of weeks. They’ve done things that everyone seems to forget about only days after launch. And they’ve had numerous consultants come and go with very little change or results.

There a few things that separate companies who create change from those who go through the endless cycle of “Fad of the month, fizzle out, next fad.” Here are some of the most important ones.

1. You must have a well thought out answer to the question "What will I be able to do after this change effort that I can't do now?"
2. You must have a way to measure the adherence by your team to the new reality - Are you using exception reports to alert you when some team players aren’t adhering? Are you using standard reports to see who’s enthusiastically embracing the change?
3. You need to have a plan in place to deal with dissent (What happens when your star player says "This is stupid?") Commit to a plan to handle that before you begin, and if your answer is "I'll roll over because I really need that person", then don't go forward with the change effort, because it's obviously not important to enforce.
4. You must commit to leading the change effort from the front - take part, be seen taking part, follow up, follow through, and ensure that you're giving the message that this is IMPORTANT.

If you can't be bothered to do that, why should your people be bothered to care?

Your Challenge For This Week: Look at any recently launched change initiatives or any project you’re currently discussing. Before you go looking for budget or signing a contract, or asking yourself if this is really the best decision, answer the first question from this list.

Then, and only then, move through the rest of the list.

Best,

Noah

P.S. We're just about 50% of the way through this year. Don't wait until January 1st to set goals and start making positive changes. If you think your sales team could be doing better, or your customer support efforts need a boost, get in touch with me right away. I'm finalizing my dates and commitments to do work with clients in 2018, and would love to find a way to work with you as well. Get in touch now and let's set up a call or a time to meet.

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Noah is the author of the landmark books, Evergreen, The Customer Loyalty Loop, and the recently released Dealing with Difficult Customers. The books break new ground on customer loyalty, customer service, customer experience, and customer retention. Since 2005, Noah’s firm, Fleming Consulting & Co., has worked with clients around the globe to help them dramatically grow their businesses. Learn more about Noah here. Noah is also a LinkedIn Learning Instructor–view his courses here.