Before the Rooster Crows: A Predictable Event

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Some people apply the old adage, “before the rooster crows,” to various circumstances without fully understanding its meaning or importance. I believe a great use of it would be — a predictable event in business!

The old saying comes from a 2,000-year-old story, regarding a non-conforming, yet preventable event, foretold days before the infraction occurred. Fact is, the story claims the person responsible for that non-conforming event would perpetrate it — not once, but three times before the rooster crowed.

As a result, upon hearing the rooster crow the first time, the person responsible for the three non-conforming events was distressed at the accuracy of the prediction. But sadly, instead of owning up to the matter, he gave up and turned away, dejected.

What’s worse, the man decided NOT to do anything constructive to correct his gross error. Almost unforgivable!

Folks, I’ve heard many a rooster crow in my day! You know, those WAKE-UP CALLS that go unheeded by many business owners.

To explain: In business, the "crowing roosters" are often employees, customers or family members; fine-feathered friends, trying to warn owners and upper-management that predictable events are looming on the horizon. In fact, many right at the door!

A Predictable Event Will Occur, Rooster or No Rooster

Here are some examples:

“Cock-a-doodle-do” – “Hey Bob … our new client rejected the project we just completed, because Willy Paul, our lead-tech, failed to read his special instructions on the Job Ticket. The entire project needs to be reworked in two days. I told you we needed to put in some Quality Control systems or this was going to happen over and over!”

“Cock-a-doodle-do” – “Hey Bob … Jimmy, our best worker, left on vacation and we promised to have that big job for TechMass delivered tomorrow. We can’t do that now! I warned you this would happen, if we didn’t put some type of Request for Leave system in place!”

“Cock-a-doodle-do” – “Hey Bob … that new $10,000 piece of equipment you just purchased is missing! Someone left it at a job-site and no-one knows where … or who’s responsible. Boss, I suggested three times that we need some type of tracking system for our equipment. This loss could have been prevented!”

Before the Rooster Crows | Call to Action

As you know, this is a small sample of crows; wake-up calls heard by owners and managers. More importantly, these are NOT just the sounds of some boastful chickens, but warning-bells that predictable errors and miscommunications will come to wreak havoc on a business.

Therefore, I suggest you embrace those “cock-a-doodle-dos” as your personal Wake-up Calls and your CALL TO ACTION!

Imagine taking each “cock-a-doodle-do” seriously, by finding their root-cause, and doing something systematically to STOP them, permanently! The result? You would hear that continuous "crowing" fade, and see a more peaceful culture, a more joyful crew emerge.

More importantly, thousands of dollars lost to waste could be saved!

The GOOD NEWS is, errors and miscommunications are absolutely preventable; and, yes, forgivable!

Did I mention? Great systems work!