A few weeks back, on a warm September evening a few old friends gathered for our quarterly, “boy’s night out.” What once was a thin line, all night affair had matured to dinner and a few drinks, always adjourning before 11pm. One of the crew, Charlie was bemoaning the fact that it was election season; he had to win reelection.
Charlie was the mayor of a small southern hamlet that could have been the set for Atticus Finch and Family. Charlie went on to explain how the rest of the table had no idea how difficult this process is, getting harder every four years.
A few of us, tempered by time, semi-immune to Charlie’s droning perked up; “Four years to win or lose, do you realize we get selected elected with every delivery?”
Unlike Charlie people like us who provide products or services must win our customers approval, satisfaction with every deliver, with every piece in every delivery.
The Challenge is to improve. The Customers, the Owners expect 100%.
Origami In the Pursuit of Perfection from MABONA ORIGAMI on Vimeo.
A Project Manager may have 15 years of experience and have led successful projects around the globe in nearly every industry imaginable. And to some degree, you can rest on those laurels. But not really – and certainly not for very long. In the project management game it’s all about what you’ve done lately and in terms of customer satisfaction, it’s all about who you’ve satisfied lately. In reality, you’re only as good as your last customer thinks that you are.
In sports there is an axiom, “you are only as good as your last game.” One of our group interrupted Charlie’s oblique drone, “My dad used to tell us that after we had a success. That we are only as good as our previous efforts and every sports game/project/life event should be played at a higher level because we have that much more experience to work with.”
Another at the table joined, fearing that Charlie would begin his droning discourse again, “My goal, our goal is to deliver every time. We ask ourselves everyday are we learning are we becoming more consistent.”
When you look at great teams, great cultures, it’s the consistency; it’s the owners, leaders expectations of perfection and the entire organization striving to continually improve…
Charlie finally got it, almost. He wanted the group to understand that with one event, one election he could loss his position as mayor. Finally, Walt the older guy amongst us old guys joined in, “In order to deliver every time, we needed to decide and agree on one thing. We agreed and all understood why we were in business. What one mistake costs. How we were judged and tested by every customer with every receipt.”
Lexus Replaces ‘Pursuit Of Perfection’ Tagline With ‘Engineering The Impossible’. Smart Move?
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