I Would Hate It, Too!

My son Brandon, who had just finished a training session on our software with a new client, walked into my office the other day with a big grin on his face to relay what the client had just said during training. "Dad," he said, still grinning, "our new client told me his employees HATE the new systems."

Concerned, and wondering why that called for so much grinning, I asked my son, "But, what does the OWNER think about our software?" Brandon said, "Oh he LOVES it! In fact, the client said it was the first time he felt that he had any control over his business and a way to hold his employees accountable for their daily duties."

Even as I was relieved that the owner liked the systems, I couldn't help commenting to Brandon a little facetiously, "Well, I would hate it, too, if someone gave me a two-page daily routine checklist of my actual job duties and then EXPECTED me to actually do them every day. Yes, there are some things that are just too boring, and I shouldn't have to do them, especially if I don't feel like it...you know, mind-numbing things like checking the server back-up and then testing the backups to ensure the data is actually there."

I was on a roll now—sarcasm just rolled out, as I continued, "There are also those pesky little duties like filing job tickets and all the other paperwork that is really a nuisance to me. Someone should only have to do those not-so-urgent tasks when they feel they have the time. And, come to think about it, I would ALSO HATE IT if my boss asked me to keep my desk and work area clean and organized, which is not my cup of tea. It may be doable for those neat freaks, but it's just NOT me. I'm a little more free-spirited.

"And besides, I can't believe anyone would put cleaning on a checklist and expect someone to do THAT every day. The next thing you know, the boss would put cleaning my equipment, like the plate processor, on a scheduled preventive maintenance checklist, and expect me to get it done on a certain time table. Besides, we should do that dreary duty only if there's little work in the shop, or if the plate processor starts giving us problems. Right?"

Finished with my tongue-in-cheek rant, I said to Brandon, "Yes, it's unbelievable that many consider it a burden to do what they are paid to do, and what's more mind-boggling is, many owners and supervisors think it's unkind or even unfair to hold people accountable nowadays."

Why was Brandon grinning? Because he loves helping business owners gain control of their companies by overcoming the obstacles and roadblocks. Brandon and I both agreed that as long as the owner is paying us to train them on systems that hold everyone accountable—including themselves—and it makes our clients HAPPY, then we are happy.

Brandon and I have both witnessed for years the proven benefits of removing chaos from a business through quality controls, service controls, maintenance controls and many other control systems. We refuse to be daunted by those who say they HATE IT, when what they hate is accountability.

Bravo, to our client for bravely continuing the good fight to regain control of his business after all of the years of hating the waste and chaos that had taken it over. Been there, done that, and I couldn't go back. I would hate it, too!

Did I mention? Great Systems Work!