Do You Know WHY?

You’ve heard it said, "The person who knows HOW is often working for the person who knows WHY!"

If you’re a business owner or manager, you’ve no doubt interacted with seemingly intelligent people, with much expertise and impressive backgrounds; people with certain "know how," but who don’t seem to get the WHY of an obvious situation.

As I often relate in my blogs — I love hearing great stories from our clients and prospects. Just a few days ago, a call came in from "Roger" that made my day.

"Hey Philip," Roger almost shouted, "you've got to hear this! You know Sean, my production manager, whom I recently made GM? Well, I was in the training room today, as he addressed a group of our lead technicians for restoration projects. Sean was frustrated, to say the least, and told them that they needed to "get it together!" Sean was going over all the errors the techs have been making, and showing them the COST of what he called STUPID mistakes."

"Philip, you know me," Roger continued, "I was about to jump out of my chair! I moved to the edge, thinking to myself, 'What? I can’t believe my GM is somehow puzzled as to WHY these mistakes are being made.' I know he knows HOW to stop them, because we have what I think is the best quality control system in our industry. But, guess what?" Roger continued. “Thank God! About the time I thought I would lose it, Sean pulled out our Day 1 Project Quality Control Checklist and said, "Guys, every ONE of these stupid mistakes are addressed on THIS quality control checklist."

Roger was ecstatic. "Philip, Sean then turned to me and said, 'Roger, you know when you raved about your systems, and WHY you had such a detailed quality control system? Remember, I told you I was onboard with your plans to make the systems even better? Well, I’m confessing to you, I thought your systems were over-kill and foolish. 'But,' Sean continued, 'I’m telling you now, Roger, I really AM onboard! I can now see the affects that stupid errors have on our business, and it’s not pretty.’ He then turned back to the technicians with a humble look.”

When Sean was production manager, it was obvious that he had some KNOW-HOW; but now, as the general manager, what he finally understands is the WHY — the REASON for reliable quality control systems that keeps a business on track and growing.

Did I mention? Great systems work!