The “Better is the Enemy of Good”

The Concept:

“Better is the enemy of good.” I was in my first year at Booz Allen & Hamilton and my boss, Bill O., was providing me with some constructive criticism as we prepared for a briefing at the CIA. We had been working late for several nights straight on a variety of projects and now we were in the 11^th hour finalizing this briefing. This particular presentation was going to be pivotal – our process management practice was banking on winning the business; much was at stake. And, as usual, when the stakes were high, Bill, the former Air Force fighter pilot, was the calmest guy in the room. I was working hard to get the presentation just right, adding great graphics, agonizing over every phrase, every bullet point. So Bill waited a while, then sidled over to me and delivered his message. Honestly, I thought he was nuts. But I did what he said and wrapped up the work so that he could get home and rest before the big presentation.

Sure enough, he nailed the presentation and the new contract was ours. In typical Bill fashion, he was fairly low-key about the outcome. He knew we had a good team, and he was confident that we had a winning story to tell. Bill knew exactly where to place additional emphasis and where to allow for “good enough.” It’s been almost 17 years since that conversation and I have never forgotten the lesson, a gift that continues to give, year after year, client after client.

In this EIR, we would like to briefly highlight two process areas where most businesses could benefit from Bill’s mantra: Key Performance Indicator (KPI) analysis and process flow charting. Each of these activities is essential to cross-functional process management, yet many companies fail and fail miserably at these tasks. There are a variety of reasons for this failure, but one reason in particular stands out. Many senior executive teams engage in process efforts that are far more complicated than is required. Let’s start with KPI’s.

Most of the companies we have worked with over the past 20 years tend to fall into two camps which we will refer to as “all or nothing.” We have witnessed numerous instances where the definition and collection of KPI’s was too daunting and the executive team essentially capitulates and does nothing, continuing to measure their business department by department. We have also encountered companies where the opposite is true – the executive team wants a grand KPI dashboard with automated data retrieval, data warehouse-type manipulation capabilities, and sophisticated statistical analysis tools. And they wait, and wait, and wait for the magic bullet, perfect dashboard to come on line and solve all there measurement problems. Invariably, the dashboard collapses of its own weight and ends up going nowhere. Two problems, very different in makeup, yet both can benefit from the same solution.

Sample, sample, sample…

We strongly recommend that our clients begin with sample data. Sampling helps those companies that have trouble getting started by providing the executive team with a general sense of how well the process is performing as well as how easy/difficult the data is collected. For those seeking the perfect dashboard, sampling helps the executive teams take action and move forward immediately without waiting months/years for the perfect solution. We recommend that our clients pick an arbitrary period of time for data collection and begin by using Excel to craft simple run charts/bar charts in order to capture overall trends in the data. Bottom line - take action and refine your dashboard as you go.

Finally, let’s briefly discuss process flow charting. Again, here is another area in which companies tend to overplay their hand. We have witnessed countless examples of companies mapping their processes to the highly detailed task level, ending up with flow charts comprised of 500-1000 boxes per process flow. These executive teams concentrate on trying to capture all discrete aspects of their processes, believing that they need to understand every single problem within each process. Again, these efforts tend to collapse under their own weight – thousands of boxes on numerous flow charts with very little sense of the story that the process is trying to tell them. Again, the solution is straightforward. Better is the enemy of good . Focus your efforts on capturing the process flows to the level which allows you the best view of departmental hand-off points, data flow-through from system to system, and key process points for effective KPI sample collection. As a rule of thumb, try to depict your processes at the 100-200 box per flow chart level and further develop those areas that your sample data points to as problems.

Remember Bill’s mantra and you will be well served in tackling your process issues. In the world of process, better really is the enemy of good. And never argue with Bill or you may find yourself called upon the stage, with 30 seconds notice, to present the next part of the briefing to 100 CIA directors and one seriously amused boss.

 

About the Author:

Jon Windley is a former co-founder/managing partner at NextWave Performance LLC.

©2007 NextWave Performance LLC