DON'T BE A HERBIE: A LESSON ON UNDERPERFORMING
Wendy Lieber
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When I was in grad school getting my MBA, one of the required readings was The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt .?
I remember loving the book. It’s written as a parable and puts a lot of concepts I had learned in grad school into more relatable stories.?
But the book was still conceptual to me as I had yet to experience many of the challenges that Alex, the main character, had experienced.
Fast forward a few decades while I was on my way to an annual strategic planning session with my team. I finally had some time to listen to a podcast that my good friend and former forum mate, Tim , had shared with me.?
In the podcast , they reference The Goal and one of the examples in the book the Alex character encounters as he's on a hike with his son.?
I'll call it the Herbie example.
It was perfect timing as it gave me another tool to use with my team to discuss areas in our business that were underperforming.
Since then,? I've shared this story several times with my entrepreneurial friends and it's always met with appreciation and curiosity so I am sharing it so each of you can have another tool to be excellent.?
The Herbie Story
Herbie is a boy scout on a hike with his troupe.
He isn't in the best shape and brought some extra stuff in his backpack.?
The troupe wants to get to their campsite by nightfall, but they keep getting held up and dispersed, hindering their ability to meet the goal.?
They identify Herbie as the slowest scout, yet he's in the middle of the line, causing a bottleneck.?
At first, they try to solve the "issue" by encouraging Herbie, trying to motivate him, and also taking shorter breaks.?
It does not have the impact they need, so they decide to put Herbie at the front of the line to set the pace and then determine three courses of action as a result:
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The team decides on option one, takes Herbie’s heavy backpack from him, and disperses it to other faster hikers.?
This solves the issue, and they get back on track and meet the goal, i.e., arriving at the campsite before nightfall.
Alex takes this experience back to his manufacturing plant and identifies where the constraints are (i.e. Herbies) so he can come up with solutions to meet the goals.
I shared this with my team at ContentBacon during our annual retreat.
They immediately got it and excitedly started identifying what they thought our "Herbies" was.?
Once identified, we discussed and determined if those were the real Herbies or if there was something deeper we needed to look at.?
And then the fun began.?
We started brainstorming ways to solve them.
Since then, I've used this concept to look at all areas of my life.?
Where are my Herbies or any constraint that gets in the way of me meeting my goals and having optimal performance?
We continue to use this concept in our company, and the team has a lot of fun with it.?
Not sure why using a slow boy scout gets people inspired and motivated, but it does. :-)
Have some fun this week and bring this concept to your company (along with your personal life) and identify where your Herbies are. Once identified, the solutions tend to flow.
And by all means, never be a Herbie!
Storyteller | Marketer | Pushing a Signal Through the Noise
1 年Thanks for sharing your perspective, Wendy. The analogy of the Boy Scout works because of their ethos. They learn the benefit of helping each other to become a better troop.? There's a little bit of Herbie in all of us. Ego prevents us from seeing our own opportunities for self-improvement. Fear of being a Herbie holds us back until we realize this.? Asking for help is not an admission of failure, but it doesn't make it any easier to do. And that's when your team and its leader must step up. "Let's lighten your load" is the first step. But if you want success, "Let's develop your abilities while others share the load" is your goal.?
Growth Marketer & Community Infiltrator with 20 Years of Experience Sitting at the Intersection of BD & CS
1 年The Herbie story has become a daily mindset at ContentBacon and served as one of the best exercises we did as a team. Thanks for sharing Wendy Lieber!