Flying to the Finish

This post is an update on “Where’s the Finish Line.”

Great story that has made the rounds: A 5-year old girl made the subdivision swim team and finished last in her first meet. The parents were upset but kept it to themselves, not wanting to dampen her spirit. The girl went on to finish last in every meet all season… and continued her streak of last place finishes through the 6- and 7-year old seasons as well.

Mom was embarrassed and going crazy, so she decided to have a chat with her daughter before the first meet of the 8-year old season. She took her daughter aside and said “Honey, I want you to try really hard to win your race today.” The little girl looked up wide-eyed and said “This is a race? I thought we were just out here to meet people.” Upon reflection, the daughter added, “You know, the lanes and all the people cheering make a lot more sense to me now.” From that point forward the girl became a top-notch swimmer, which had previously been impossible because she didn’t understand the purpose and goals of her endeavor.

Don’t let this happen in your organization. I remember working for an airline and being responsible for block time — how long it takes to go from city A to city B. My numbers were based partially on historical data and partially on the desire to not be embarrassed by poor on-time performance if I shot too low.  That’s the race I was running. My numbers went to the scheduling department, who without fail requested that time be removed. That would make the schedule look better in the system so they could fill the seats — a very different race. And this was in the days before “passenger experience” was fashionable, so today there would be a third voice (correctly) pointing out that neither of us were considering the implications of our decisions on our customers. We all had different perceptions of what constituted “good” numbers, so we were aiming for different finish lines.

I also remember asking the president of a health plan that had 8 million members what he expected the membership count to be three years down the road. He answered “15 million,” at which point the rest of the leadership team had to be given oxygen. They had been thinking that increasing to 8.2 million would be a positive result, only to find their leader was thinking 15. The strategy and activities needed to increase from 8 to 8.2 would obviously be different than what would be needed to go from 8 to 15, so the lack of clarity was a significant barrier to success.  They did not have a consistent view of where the finish line was.

Make sure that before you engage in anything –a strategic planning process, a departmental plan, an improvement project, change management– that all the key stakeholders have a consistent view of what success looks like. You need to make sure you are all trying to cross the same finish line.