Daddy told me early on that I might as well do it right the first time because if I don’t I will have to do it again. We are living in a world where the focus is on the end vision of a task and doing “something” that will lead to realizing the end vision. We have strayed from the commitment and focus on doing a task right. In general, our society believes that we can do something incorrectly and achieve the desired outcome. Our lack of focus and commitment to carrying out a task on time, completely and correctly results in extra work being done to achieve the desired end vision.
Time is more important than money. Time is a valuable commodity that is not unlimited in a day and the amount of time we have is not promised. I can lose money and recoup my losses, yet I cannot recoup the time ill spent. A second chance does not negate the fact that your organization or life could have used the time more efficiently and effectively. Redoing a task in an organizational process results in a loss of time and money. In addition to these losses, team members become frustrated, disengaged, and untrusting of the organization. Ask yourself what could you and your team have done with the time spent on redoing a task? What task was not complete because you spent extra time on the same?
In all walks of life, people say that they finished a process, yet they did not complete all of the tasks within the process. Would the person want to eat a cake that has no eggs or flour? Would they expect bread to rise in the oven without including yeast? Carrying out a task incompletely can have several consequences for customer, consumer (end-user), service provider (individual), organization, and community. Over two decades ago, the daughter of one of my best friends had surgery after giving birth to her son. The anesthesiologist left his daughter without oxygen for four (4) minutes (240 seconds). Due to the anesthesiologist carrying out a process incompletely for a mere 240 seconds, his daughter has 10% of the normal brain functioning and laid in a vegetation state. The newborn son did not get a chance to know his mother. A husband lost his wife. A daddy and mother lost their daughter. Siblings lost their sister. The anesthesiologist and other employees lost their job. The hospital was sued and my friend testified before the legislators in that state regarding the maximum amount a person could receive in a suit due to medical negligence. These were just some of the outcomes because one person did not complete their job for 240 seconds.
On two occasions yesterday, I gave my order at the drive thru of a restaurant. The first time the person taking the order promised that they would communicate with the cooks and people working the window so I would receive the correct size of the items ordered. Needless to say, the order taker did not communicate with the team and I did not receive what I had purchased. In my second experience of the day, I did not receive the correct items on the screen. In both cases, I was able to communicate that I did not receive what I had requested and purchased before leaving the window. Both restaurants lost time and money meeting my original food request. Completing a task incorrectly is equivalent to not completing the task at all. It is vital that the instructions or blue print are followed to achieve the desired result for yourself or someone else.
You must have a vision, otherwise the people (organization) will perish. When everyone involved in the process of rendering a service or product is focused on and committed to completing the process on time, completely and correctly, the probability of achieving the end vision successfully increases.
Comments