As with many processes, I’ve found that what gets monitored on a regular basis tends to stay at status quo, or improve; what is ignored, tends to deteriorate quickly.
Let me give you a quick example: We just got back from twelve days in Maui (it was fabulous!) Yes, that’s why you haven’t seen a post since then… I just could NOT focus on work while I was there! [And, that’s good news, when you think about it…]
However, we left our swimming pool, and directions for maintaining it, with a contractor who would be working on the house. Turns out, the materials we were waiting for were delayed, so the contractor didn’t come for the last 8 of the 12 days we were gone.
Those of you who own swimming pools may be able to write this next part with me: we came home to a green swimming pool.
The algae was pretty prevalent, and we had to do something pretty quickly.
More worrying, the pressure in the filter was way too high, which can burn out a motor pretty quickly. So, instead of the pool being monitored, it was ignored. And, instead of the pool being swimmable, it wasn’t.
How often does this happen in business?
How often do we think that something is going along ‘swimmingly’ only to find out that we have a BIG problem – a problem that could have easily been avoided or minimized by a little attention more frequently?
Go review your processes now, and see which of them might benefit from a little more frequent attention.
