Q: I
have a small printing business, and employee errors are driving me
crazy. One customer rejection or one shipping error can cost me a
customer and a month's profit. I've fired people. I've
yelled and screamed. I've trained till I'm blue in the
face, and still I have errors. I know that large companies talk
about "zero defects," but is that possible? Are my
expectations unrealistic?
A:
Your concern about this problem is not misplaced. Customers have
zero tolerance these days for any kind of error. Ever since the
publication of Philip B. Crosby's book Quality Is Free, organizations have
realized that errors in any part of a business are extremely
expensive. Crosby estimated that the cost of quality was 25 percent
of revenue! This caught on to the extent that companies are almost
totally intolerant of any form of poor quality. "Zero
defects" was the battle cry of organizations large and small
for many years. When they realized that zero defects are
realistically impossible, it led to the current fad, "Six
Sigma." This means that Six Sigma organizations are not
satisfied unless error rates one in 1 million or less. While no one
would argue with such a goal, the problem is how to get from where
you are to there.
Technically, there are only two ways to get there. One is with
positive reinforcement, and the other is negative reinforcement. In
other words, we can demand improvement (negative reinforcement), or
we can do things to cause people to be excited about making
improvement. The most common way is to demand improvement and to
fire, discipline or "chew people out" when they make an
error. The problem with this approach is that contrary to common
belief, it is the slow and costly way to get improvement. In my
book, Bringing Out The Best In People, I write about the
fact that negative reinforcement gives managers the "illusion
of control," not real control.
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The fastest way to make an improvement in your situation seems
the slowest. That is, you should identify the behaviors that create
high-quality or error-free output, develop a way to measure and
monitor them, and then provide positive reinforcement for
improvement. You should not measure errors, but instead track
desirable behavior like "shipments without an error."
Remember, you want to measure what you want people to do. This
differs from what is commonly done, which is to measure errors.
Create a graph so that you have increasing numbers, not decreasing
ones. Place the graph in an area that people frequent every day.
Try to track results daily if possible.
Once you have determined the behaviors and results you want, you
need to develop a plan to positively reinforce the behaviors when
you see them and celebrate sub-goals along the way. Set small goals
in the beginning so that improvement is easy. This will allow
people to receive the positive reinforcement that will create
energy and excitement about improvement. Remember, the more you
positively reinforce, the faster the improvement. Think of positive
reinforcement in this case as any interaction with your employees
that communicates that you like, appreciate or value what they are
doing. When you reach a sub-goal, spend some time letting people
tell you what they did to make the improvement. And finally, be
patient with the small improvements. If you are, you will find that
you will make more and better progress than you believed
possible.
Aubrey C. Daniels, Ph.D., founder and CEO of management
consulting firm Aubrey Daniels & Associates (ADA), is an
internationally recognized author, speaker and expert on management
and human performance issues. For more about ADA's seminars and
consulting services or to order Aubrey's book Bringing Out the Best in People: How To Apply The
Astonishing Power of Positive Reinforcement, visit www.aubreydaniels.com, or
contact Laura Lee Glass at (800) 223-6191 or lglass@aubreydaniels.com.
The opinions expressed in this column are those
of the author, not of Entrepreneur.com. All answers are intended to
be general in nature, without regard to specific geographical areas
or circumstances, and should only be relied upon after consulting
an appropriate expert, such as an attorney or
accountant.