Quality Bands

Kinda like having an alarm in your car that puts out an annoying beep if you are driving outside an adjusted range.

Say the posted limit is 65mph, and your alarm is set for 3mph over.  You drive 68mph and the beeping starts.  Turn up the radio and you can almost drown it out.  Sufferable for you, it is your system and you've been driving the car, and the route, for years.

Say your daughter's boyfriend needs to borrow the car because his is *cough* intheshop *cough*.  The dufus is a speed hound and can't be trusted.  He also listens to that screaming music.  He drives the car 90 without even hearing the alarm and, lo and behold, blows a gasket.  The exact thing the alarm was set to avoid.

How does this relate?

You are the QA supervisor at a small tool shop, manufacturing the same parts for the same customers for years.  You've survived outside audits and have been using the same excuses for why the distribution folks keep shipping the wrong things.  They make, on average, one mistake for every 500 shipments that leave the building. About two mistakes a week.

Sufferable.  Until the distribution supervisor changes and starts churning through people, increasing the error rate to one mistake in every 250.  Add that the external auditor for your QMS has changed to someone with a Six Sigma slant.  And, you've got a major finding.

How to avoid this?  You can put a governor in the car, limiting the speed to 70mph.  (Set in place additional inspection before the packages leave the building.)  This works, except you wouldn't be able to pass very many people on the interstate.  Not a huge deal, until your spouse absolutely NEEDED to get to the hospital and 70mph wasn't enough.  And who really wants to limit that fine Crown Vic you drive to 70mph?

You can actually take the car to the garage. (Improve the training of the employees and get management to understand that one in 500 really isn't great when you ship 175 a day.)  This is better, because you've repaired the equipment to allow it to perform the way it was intended.  AND, you know you can step it up to 85 on the interstate, if you so choose.

Either way, you should make certain your daughter's boyfriend doesn't think he can joyride in your car.

Continuous and Batch Process

Thought is a continuous process.  Every moment you are awake, the stimuli create memories.  Seldom are there times when a collection of experiences all coalesce into a huge set of memories.  We try for it, like in weddings, graduation ceremonies, funerals.  But if you stretch back, you can probably recall the little things that surrounded that big moment.

 How to deal with this in a story, the Kinda Like:
It's kinda like driving in a car.  Every foot, yard, mile; every stop, turn, lane change; everything that happens from the moment the car starts to the moment the engine is turned off is a continuous process.  The results of the trip are a batch process:  You left Point A and arrived at Point B.  You entire self arrived at Point B, at no time was a part of you at Point A and at Point B.

The trip is a continuous process, the results are a batch process.

One - Story

Trying to give a speech or make a connection with a fellow human can be difficult.  Trying to convey the message in a memorable way can be even more of a challenge at work.
Have you ever sat in on a lecture, sermon, or sales pitch and lost yourself?
It was probably because there was a story.  And, if the story was well presented, it was a tale that you could have experienced yourself, with just a little stretch.

When you tell these stories, you are doing a few things.  Each of them has a different impact on the audience.

To begin, you have to understand that not everyone will hear your story the same way.  Not everyone will get the message you intend.  This isn't your "fault."  It isn't anyone's "fault." It is just the way it is.  Of course, you can get most of the people to hear what you want them to hear.

So, you have your message, all tidy and neat.  Let's take an example:  You are the manager in a call center.  Your "job" is to make sure the people in the call center meet the company metrics.  Sure, you can argue that your job is to be supportive and understanding, to teach people how to be empathetic over the phone, to help people recognize early when the lead is viable or when the lead is just leading the caller on.  Those are all valid points.  However, you get paid for one simple thing:  hitting your numbers.  And, if you don't get paid, your family doesn't get food, clothing or shelter.

So, your message:  "Make your numbers."

You can come in at 9AM, starting the rant and gradually building up to a low shout, sprinkling your language with colorful colloquialisms,...  You can do that.  The audience will remember you were upset, feel like they were the cause, and self-sabotage their own performance for the rest of the day.

You can also send your message in high-speak, talking of successes with ample sports references that have nothing to do with sales.

Or, you can find a simple and elegant story, deliver it with precision and craft, and motivate your team to make the numbers.  If they hear the correct motivator, it will come through in their speech and be convincing to others.  It is contagious.

So, the "correct" story?  If you do it well, it can last months.  Seriously, some of the self-help people have made careers out of a single story.

What makes the good story?  You, the teller, can remember it.  You own the story.  You can answer questions about the behind the scenes of the story.

See, when you are the expert, the guru, the story tends to tell itself.  And, amazingly, due to the millions of years humans have relied on one another to "know" things, the expert is believed.  Not just believed, but trusted as good old Real Truth.  It has to do with the way we are wired.

I'll be writing quite a few "kinda-likes" in this blog.  Really bad stories.

Remember, a good story is when you, the teller, are the expert.