The Power of Routines & Ruts

A business that can only create something once isn't much of a business. The value of any business is in its ability to consistently build or offer something to a level that is of interest to a buyer in need of their services or products. It may be foundational and simplistic to think this way but it's fascinating to see how many businesses miss this mark and are unaware of why their business isn't growing or profitable.

The same principle holds true for you as a leader in regard to the effort put in by yourself and your team. The value you bring to your organization directly correlates to your ability to offer and deliver what the organization needs consistently. A sales professional who consistently overachieves their target is more valuable than one who inconsistently achieves it. A CFO who leads a business through challenging economic issues is more valuable than one who can't handle it.

Again, nothing revolutionary in the above thought, but it's remarkable how many people miss this most basic premise.

In order to perform above expectations consistently, we must establish a framework for success. This framework will help to drive a measurable outcome that can be improved upon and help us to identify gaps that stand in our way of success. The framework needs to be flexible enough to adapt to new situations and circumstances but rigid enough that you lose your ultimate goal.

The most likely starting point is to acknowledge that your current reality isn't sufficient to meet your goal. This will prompt you to change something in your daily life. You attempt to change something, which most likely won't work the first few times. So you revisit the decision to change and determine if it's worthwhile. You fine-tune your attempt and try again. You are a little more successful this time because you learned from your past attempts. You make a couple more modifications and you get to the point of being competent. At this point, you have two choices. Do you settle for being competent in a skill, or do you want to excel? If you are fine settling for your current level of competence, your newly acquired skill becomes your routine or baseline level. If you want to excel, you push past competence and move to mastery of that skill. As someone once said, "Amateurs practice until they get it right. Professional practice until they can't get it wrong"

Routines provide us with a foundation for consistent success. This is why organizations like fast food restaurants, hotels, and manufacturers follow a very prescribed routine. You want a consistent experience each and every time you consume their product. Imagine how strange it would be if you ordered the same meal but got a different meal every time you went through your local drive-thru. It would lower the value of that organization and its offering if you couldn't rely on them for a consistent product.

The challenge with routines is that they can make us disengaged and unaware of the changes in the final outcome or market needs. This tends to happen slowly over time. The meal on the fast food line comes out a little slower than expected or the fries are a little colder than normal. You barely even notice the difference but over time, you reach the point where it no longer meets the needs of the buyer. You are in a rut. Ruts eventually end in new routines, either forced upon us through change or because we decide to make a change.

We are seeing this play out in the market as it relates to automation through technology. Jobs that took a large amount of manual intervention are now being automated to the point where you may not need as many people or people at all. In hotels, robot butlers bring food to your room. ChatGPT and other generative intelligence automation tools are reducing or eliminating the need for manual intervention. Why is this more desirable than having a human do it? Because it delivers a consistent output each and every time that can be measured and relied upon. Even if the output is less than a human output, consistency allows organizations to know what to expect and make adjustments accordingly.

This should be a wake-up call to anyone who is doing repetitive work in any size organization. Don't settle for just being competent; strive for mastery. Improve your skillset, level up your game, and find new and better ways to deliver more value to your organization. Yes, it will take more work than what you are doing now. Yes, you might even get paid less for doing more thoughtful work. It is much better than ignoring what is occurring and not preparing yourself for the future. Let's get out of our ruts and create new routines to propel us to new and better things.

I am starting to get into a routine after writing this weekly post for the past five months. Now I need your help to avoid getting into a rut. Please let me know what topics you want to see covered or your questions about leadership or business. Your ideas and insights help me to provide even greater value, so keep them coming.