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How to thwart internal inefficiencies proactively

Porus P. Munshi

THERE are two causes of business difficulties. One is change in the external environment; the other is the accumulation of internal inefficiencies. Dealing with the first requires strategic direction at the highest levels, while dealing with the second r equires constant awareness, stretch and self-discipline at all levels. Let us take a closer look at the internal inefficiencies.

Why do these inefficiencies occur in the first place? They arise, in the main, because managers:

* Become caretakers,

* Begin operating in comfort zones,

* Do not focus on long and short-term profits,

* And as a result of all of this, do not demand enough from their teams, and,

* Allow past failures to guide them more than successes.

Caretaker-managers: Most managers get into a performance-momentum rut. They get tied up in daily schedules or the hundreds of minor crises that erupt every day. As long as they deal with these everyday problems, and maintain last year's performance, they think all's well. But, merely maintaining business is just taking care of the owner's assets. No business can stay healthy, if there is no move to constantly add value, to creatively grow and expand.

Comfort zones: When we work at a certain level at anything, we acquire a comfort zone for that level. And once acquired, it becomes very difficult to step out of it. The vast majority of managers have never really stretched themselves and consequently ha ve never stretched the people working under them. They get results, meet budgets and feel contented with themselves. That core of striving that you see in the top athlete or a business leader is just not there. What does it mean to stretch? Stretching pe rformance is like stretching a hamstring. You do it bit by bit everyday doing just a bit more than the previous day. Too much stretch too soon and you could tear the hamstring causing a major setback, too little, and you will never touch your toes far le ss get your head to your knees.

Getting out of comfort zones is not easy. It needs both the willingness to stretch as well as a belief in one's ability. Why is belief important? For hundreds of years, everyone believed it was physiologically impossible for a human to run a mile in four minutes. Doctors, trainers and athletes said that our bone structure was all wrong, wind resistance was too great, lungpower was inadequate and gave a 100 other reasons.

As we know, Roger Bannister proved them all wrong and broke the four-minute barrier. But what was significant is that immediately after he did it, two others did it and in the year following his feat, 37 other runners did it and in the year after that ab out 300 runners ran the mile in under four minutes. What happened? There were no breakthroughs in training or physiology. Only beliefs changed. Beliefs combined with stretch are important factors in peak performance.

Poor focus on long and short term profits: A company exists to make profits. It is about numbers first and people a close second. If in any doubt about this ranking, just visit any company with the red ink flowing and you will see how people there feel. For people to feel good, to be treated well, a company has to make money. Any manager has to be constantly aware of how much his department contributes directly or indirectly to the bottom line, and then constantly strive to increase this contribution. W hen focus on the bottom line is lost, inefficiencies accumulate.

Demanding higher performance: It is nice to work in a relaxed, friendly atmosphere. But there have to be task demands hand-in-hand with relationships. The responsibility of any manager is to constantly stretch his team, to constantly demand a little more . When top athletes hire coaches, they do not hire them for their conversational skills. They hire them to constantly push them, stretch them.

Vince Lombardi, widely regarded as the greatest coach of all time, was not someone who preferred a friendly atmosphere to performance. As he said, ``They may not love you at the time, but they will later.'' And as one of the champions coached by him put it, ``He made us all better than we thought we could be.'' Obviously, this champ loved him later. In many cases, our greatest satisfactions come from having achieved some highly demanding tasks that we may even have hated doing at the time.

A coach is often a demanding, rarely satisfied individual who is always convinced that you have got a bit more ability under your belt than you are currently showing. A manager is no different. He has to constantly stretch and challenge his team to maint ain peak performance or flow. Peak performance occurs at the border of challenge and skills (see diagram).

When an individual begins a task, his abilities are low and so are his challenges. But in most cases, because everything is new, he is stretching himself and working at the limits of his ability and consequently peak performing. As he gets better at what he is doing, his abilities increase and are now greater than the demands of the task. As a result, he now goes into the boredom or comfort zone. At this point, the manager has to give him a greater challenge to bring him back to the peak performance zon e where abilities and challenges are perfectly matched.

Too much challenge or too many task demands, and he goes into the anxiety zone. But that is not necessarily bad. The individual now has to increase his skills to get back into the peak performance zone. This is stretch and striving.

All this is in reality a non-stop process. We are constantly moving into the anxiety zone as our challenges rise, then moving into the peak performance zone as skills match challenges, and then into boredom as skills overtake challenges and back to anxie ty as challenges are notched up further.

Pressure is always the key to performance. Optimum levels of stress are necessary for peak performance. Too little pressure and nothing gets done, too much at the wrong time, and there can be resistance.

Pressure separates the doers from the talkers. If someone lacks self-confidence, then stress levels can become too high and may undermine performance. If another lacks in self-management skills, then pressure can cause him to fall apart by creating a hun dred minor crises. For people skilled in handling demanding tasks, the feelings of uncertainty typically peak some time prior to the task and then as they prepare for the task, they settle down and become calmer and focused.

Past failures guide behaviour more than successes: Failures make us defensive, cautious and wary of trying out similar or new things. For instance, a person gets hit at the stock market and then never invests in stocks again. His past failure clouds his judgment. That is one reason why companies prefer younger people. They do not come with emotional baggage and preconceived notions towards various issues.

Failures are painful and like the burnt child not forgetting what caused the burn, we do not forget them and avoid all situations that seem even remotely similar to the failed endeavour. The difficulty lies in letting go of the past.

These five causes of inefficiency constantly crop up.

Dealing with them effectively at the personal level requires two things. First, a degree of brutal self-honesty. We do not want to think poorly of ourselves. It is easier and more comfortable to find reasons beyond us for the unfortunate things that happ en or the results that should have been but were not. Without self-honesty, no changes get made. We continue doing the things we have always done and get the results we have always got.

Second, there has to be a constant interaction between pressure and self-management. Self-management includes discipline, use of strategic thinking skills, clear goals, working towards the goal without giving up and the flexibility to change the paths t o the goal when necessary. The effective use of pressure and self-management leads to peak performance in any field whatsoever.