I hear a recurring mantra from conventional operations management within relational service organisations. I’ve been hearing it for years.
That mantra is the (apparent) necessity for ‘consistency across the front line’.
It often starts with decrying that “we’ve got 1,0001 [front line workers] and 1,000 ways of doing things. We can’t have that, we need consistency!”
So, to examine this presupposition, I’ve imagined a conversation between a senior operations person…and a coach:
…nor in your (leading1) measures of success.
Short post time…
Context: I regularly participate in reflective conversations with people. I often ask them to ponder the question “what is the purpose of your organisation (or part thereof)?” and I’m struck by how often the response includes something about “our reputation”2 (as in gaining, bolstering, or protecting it).
And so, to repeat the title of this post, your reputation has absolutely NO place in a purpose statement3, nor any system of measurement against this.
Here’s my reasoning…
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