Roger and His Fabrication Shop, Chapter V: Assessing the Journey
Rick Phelps
Synchronous Solutions
When Coach Rick started the Zoom session a few minutes early, Roger was already on and ready to roll, not even waiting for the coach to kick off the coaching session.
“What I feel like expressing is I am FIRED UP! I went through our 3-Year and 1-Year plans with my leadership team, and frankly, I was stunned. You told me when we started this process that I would over-estimate what I could accomplish in the short-term, and under-estimate what I would accomplish in the longer term. I didn’t really understand that at the time, but I absolutely see what you mean now. Our 3-Year goals are now looking like they should be our 1-Year goals, and we have pretty much completed all of the 1-Year goals and objectives! All of us were amazed at how much we have accomplished over the last eleven months, and how much more relaxed things are now. We are ready to set even more ambitious goals next week at GrowthCLUB! And that’s what I feel like expressing,” concluded Roger.
“What I feel like expressing is my team is excited about next week’s GrowthCLUB. There will be more businesses building their next set of 90-Day Plans than we ever have had before! We have a great learning session lined up and awards to give out to the most improved in multiple categories. I am excited to hear about your leadership review and preparations, and that’s what I feel like expressing,” answered Coach Rick.
“Thank you, Coach! I suppose you want me to start with the numbers?” asked Roger. “Of course you do,” Roger continued without waiting for a response. “Revenue is up 27% year over year, while Profits are up 79% year over year. Our $T Ratio is up 5.7 points to 66.3%. Our Cash Gap is down to 2.7 weeks, and our Labor Gap is currently a positive $11,500. Our Conversion Rate is up 7% while the number of leads is up almost 15%.”
Coach Rick had a huge grin on his face as he listened to Roger rattle off these numbers. “Impressive! And I don’t just mean the numbers! Tell me about the change in “Roger,” year over year.”
“The change in Roger?” asked Roger as he laughed. “Well, for starters, last year’s version of Roger didn’t even know most of those metrics existed, much less how to pronounce them or calculate them! Hmmm, and last year’s Roger was a stressed-out mess working all the time to not even break even, while now things are relaxed, the business is generating the cash needed to grow, while I have more time to enjoy life with my family. I certainly like this Roger a whole lot better than the old Roger, and so do the people around me!”
“That’s great, Roger!” exclaimed the coach, “Tell me about what you and your team are thinking about with respect to your 1-year and 3-year goals that you will be working out in GrowthCLUB next week.”
Roger began giving his coach an overview of what could be expected at next week’s planning session, laying out Roger and his team’s focus for improving the business over the next 90 days.
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Why bother planning? As we are witnessing in Ukraine, ‘no battle plan survives the first contact with the enemy’!
The value of planning is not in the plan, but rather the focused thinking that goes into creating the plan. Every 90 days we bring our coaching clients together for a day of learning, assessing, and planning the leadership work for the coming quarter. At the end of the year that planning day expands to cover the longer-range planning for the next year and three years too.
PRIORITIZE – FOCUS – FINISH — that’s our mantra!
If, as a business owner, you don’t regularly take the time to examine your goals and objectives, along with progress being made on them, you will begin to drift and lose focus. Before you know it, months, even years, have gone by and you have made little progress toward your dreams of a finished business and a life beyond work.
Experience has shown that after three months things have changed so much that any plan barely reflects the current reality. Quarterly planning comes right when it is needed. The energy for implementing the past plan is waning. Time to re-energize and re-prioritize what you and your team are working on!
The end of another year is fast approaching. Do yourself and your business a huge favor – block out a day to review the year’s accomplishments, set objectives for next year, and chart out the course for the next three months for how you will make progress towards those goals!
You will be glad you did!
Contact Synchronous Solutions for more information about how our Synchronous Flow Operating System can transform your business, and to learn more about our ActionCoach Executive Business Coaching offerings.
Visit the website www.SynchronousSolutions.com .
Rick Phelps has been applying the concepts of Synchronous Flow to difficult industrial problems at dozens of businesses and organizations around the world, since the early 1980s.
In 2009, as Cleveland Cliffs’ Director of Continuous Improvement, Rick took on a failing Lean Six Sigma organization, refocused their improvement work using Synchronous Flow, and created a shop floor, engagement driven, continuous improvement process that Cliffs credits with creating a sustained $100M per year reduction in production costs.
Now, back working with Ed Hill at Synchronous Solutions, Rick is once again applying Synchronous Flow in the countertop industry, and having a blast! Rick lives with his family in the Cleveland, Ohio area.