Ideal Results Require Ideal Behavior

I recently had the opportunity to facilitate a Shingo DISCOVER EXCELLENCE workshop for a telecommunications company. Participants often struggle most regarding the Shingo Model, and how results are inexorably tied to behaviors. It’s a difficult paradigm shift since we are typically trained in KPI’s and problem solving. Few business school classes focus on behaviors as leading indicators for results.

To be completely honest, you can get good results with less than desirable behaviors. Tom Hartman, former Senior Director of Lean Consulting and Director of Operations at Autoliv Americas, referred to these types of results as a “sugar high.” They give a quick buzz, but never really last. I once worked for an organization that referred to how results like this were achieved through “muscle,” as in, “we muscled it.”

I’ve been thinking a great deal about this since the workshop I mentioned. For organizations to really achieve excellence through sustainable results, everyone in the organization – from the C-Suite to the shop floor – must have some understanding of this fundamental concept. Here a few examples to consider in everyday life where ideal behaviors produce desirable and sustainable results.

• Regular daily practice to become a performing artist
• Maintenance activities for your home or car
• Continuing education activities to sustain professional designations
• Exercise and proper diet for a healthy body
• Consistent recycling activities to help improve the environment

The final example is one I’ve observed over the years in my own neighborhood.

After a consider amount of neglect every few years, including mowing when only absolutely necessary, my neighbor brings in a landscape firm and completely revamps his suffering yard. Usually, a crew of four or five people, with an intense focus on the yard over a week make it comely and presentable. I can only imagine the cost associated with all this work. The cycle then continues.

Another neighbor takes meticulous care of his yard, fertilizing at the recommended frequency and with the appropriate mix. He mows his lawn often and is careful to ensure that the rows are straight. He prunes his trees each spring as needed and trims his shrubs. For him, the result is a yard that has been interesting to watch mature into something ornamental. The changes were gradual but consistent. The cost to my friend was some yard tools, a mower, fertilizer and his own labor. He benefits from the exercise maintaining his yard gives him. In addition, he is proud of his yard and happy to tell others how they can do it as well, quick to explain it is not difficult but takes consistent time and effort.

I would finally like to point to first Three Insights of Organizational Excellence of the Shingo Model.

????????Ideal Results Require Ideal Behavior

As you look at the practical, real-world applications above, you can see this is a fundamental truth. Further, if you can see the truth in the examples, then it would stand for the same to be true in your organization. If that then, is true, what are the behaviors in your organization that may be impeding the results you want and wish to sustain? And how do you shift them to ideal behaviors?

Think about it. Ideal results require ideal behavior.