–You have been out to a restaurant before coming to listen to the concert. Your expectations are high. This is a special night for you. You have also paid a lot of money to be part of it. Ticket price, travel, hotel and dinner. The whole evening is about synchronization.
When a troubadour plays and sings, there is no need for synchronization between several performers. If the troubadour is good, it will be good too. If the troubadour isn’t very good, it won’t be very good either. All responsibility on the delivery lies with one individual.
If instead a rock, blues or jazz band is on stage, a smaller group has to synchronize their performance. I myself was listening to Danko Jones a few months ago, and there are only three of them. A guitar, a bass and drums. Three people who have to synchronize to ensure a good delivery.
Would classical music work without synchronization?
But now, for you and your loved one, classical music is on the program, which means that there are 50 people on stage who must manage to synchronize themselves to give you, your loved one, and everyone else in the salon a good experience.
All 50 have studied music for a long time, and probably played even longer, to get to this stage. It only takes one of the 50 to deviate slightly for you all to realize that the performance is out of sync. It will definitely not sound good if there is no one to synchronize all the musicians.
- The troubadour does not need any guidance on how to play, it is entirely up to the person.
- In the rock band, it’s a bit fluid, with different musicians controlling different things. The drummer is the one who keeps the tempo, while it is the singer, who can also play an instrument, who usually interacts with the audience and decides when to play the next song. A rock band on stage is a bit like a self-managing team where the different roles interact with each other in a fluid way.
- But in the symphony orchestra, someone is required to hold the baton, which is also a metaphor that has spread beyond the orchestra stage. It simply needs a conductor.
It is impossible for a symphony orchestra member to jam out like a jazz musician. Everyone has to play the same melody, in the predetermined beats and notes of the different instruments. Everyone must follow their tab. Anything else is unthinkable, if we are to make it sound good.
Instead, we mix it up
Now think of your business as a hodgepodge of different musical performances. Some things are done as a troubadour, i.e. one person is solely responsible for the delivery. An example is the person working in Customer Service who answers a straightforward question asked by a customer.
– Where can I find information about…, says the customer.
– That information is here…, says the customer service representative.
A simple interaction and full focus from the customer’s side on the customer service representative answering the question. A grumpy employee having a bad day, not being the right person for the job or not knowing what answers to give equals poor service.
In other processes, you might be like a rock band, with only a few people involved. This allows you to easily manage what you need to do without the need for a conductor.
But then we come to the processes in your business that are more extensive. It doesn’t have to be, as in the symphony orchestra, 50 people involved for it to be comprehensive. It is enough to have different people from different departments, and maybe one or two from outside your organization, and of course the customer.
Immediately, someone is needed to synchronize the work. Who is it? The head of department A, or B, or maybe department C? None of them see the big picture. That’s why it’s not so common that we have someone at all who synchronizes the entire flow.
Synchronization of your data
In some places, a planner has been appointed to tell people where to be and what to do, which unfortunately often only makes staff, who are ordered around to different places, feel that they are being micromanaged and have no control over their own work.
It is better for staff to tell themselves how to do their work and then to manage themselves from their own control. This is where digital management comes in.
First, you need to sit down with the process group, regardless of organizational affiliation, and design your process. This means that you create the flow that you want the value-adding work to follow.
Then, of course, you share the graphic description of what the process looks like and how you will work. We call this the logic process.
Once that is done, there are tools that can both describe the logical process and also translate it into an executable form, which we call an executable process.
In the executable process, you will be able to build in communication to other system supports and to all the different role holders. That is, the executable process acts as a conductor, ensuring that different people do different things at the right time, and that information also flows between the different business systems, so that you do not have to manually “copy” and “paste”.
If the process needs to be changed, it is up to the process group to decide what to change. You, working as a business developer, will then help to quickly implement the desired improvements.
Now everyone involved in the process can feel that they are working together, in sync, to create the value that the customer has expected.
The impact of unsynchronized work
How do you think the musicians in the symphony orchestra feel if they notice that it sounds fake and that there is a negative reaction from the audience? Indeed, they would get worried, feel sick and think the whole gig was pretty shit.
This is exactly how employees feel in businesses that experience exactly the same thing; dissatisfied customers, unsynchronized work, inaccuracies, crisis meetings, irritation, fixing things that shouldn’t be wrong, and so on.
Having a conductor ensures that the professional musicians in the orchestra give a great performance. To the delight of the audience.
Let your business and your customers experience the same. Think of it more like a symphony orchestra. The conductor, you get it by creating executable processes. You need synchronization in your business.
Want to know more about what an executable process is? Do you want to know how it can help you and how to create them? Then contact me for a quick chat by phone or online.
-Matts
