There are many ways to do fine work. One approach is for people to get the right balance between consistency and creativity on the way to achieving the desired concrete results.
Some businesses also follow another version of this approach. They aim to get the right balance between commoditisation and customisation in order to deliver customer success.
Commoditisation
They aim to deliver a commoditised service or product in a way that provides consistently high standards for their customers.
Customisation
They may also aim to – at times and within certain parameters – customise the service or product to ensure it meets the customer’s needs.
Customer Success
They aim to continue to provide a consistent service or product and, when appropriate, be creative to help the customer to achieve success.
Imagine that you lead a team. Let’s return to themes of consistency, creativity and concrete results. One approach it encourage people to focus on the following steps to consistently perform superb work.
Concrete Results
The first step is to clarify the team’s aims. You will have your own approach to taking this step. Whatever route you take, however, you may produce your own version of something along the following lines.
Consistency
Imagine that you want your team to consistently deliver high professional standards. You then want people to express their talents to add the brilliance. Let’s explore how you can make this happen.
Start by gathering people together and explain the context. If appropriate, you can cover the following points in your own way. It can be useful:
To explain how superb teams get the right balance between consistency and creativity;
To bring this to life by give specific examples of how teams have followed this approach;
To, if appropriate, invite people to come up with their own examples of how teams have followed this approach.
You can then invite people to tackle the exercise on this theme. Bearing in mind the specific results the team aims to achieve, you can then invite them to take the following steps.
To brainstorm the specific things – such as the strategies and specific tasks – they believe people should do or deliver in a consistent way.
To discuss these ideas and then settle on what they believe to be the key things they believe people should do or deliver in a consistent way.
Here is the exercise on this theme. The illustration provides space for just three principles. Your team may add many more strategies, tactics and tasks that people should do in a consistent way.
Creativity
Imagine that the team has clarified some of the things that people need to do or deliver in a consistent way. It can them be time to move on to the next stage.
You can again show people the big picture and explain the context. Bearing in mind the results to achieve, you can cover the following points in your own way. You can explain that it can be useful:
To keep delivering high professional standards in a consistent way;
To, when appropriate, apply their talents to be creative or find solutions to challenges;
To do this in a way that – as far as possible – gets wins for the company, wins for the customers and wins for the colleagues.
Depending on the field in which they operate, different teams will demonstrate creativity in different ways. They may aim either:
To do something special to provide great customer service;
To find solutions to challenging technical or human problems;
To deliver the goods by providing that touch of class.
Imagine that you have given people the context. You can then invite them to do the following things:
To brainstorm when they believe it may be important to encourage individuals to use their creativity to deliver the desired results;
To settle on what they believe to be the specific situations where people can use their creativity to deliver the desired results.
Here is the exercise on this theme. Your team may add many more than three ideas about how people can use their creativity to deliver the goods.
Concrete Results
Imagine that you want to help the team to be good finishers. Bearing in mind the results to achieve, you may wish to cover the following points in your own way. You can explain that it may be important for people:
To keep developing by building on what they do well and tackling areas for improvement;
To anticipate and rehearse how they will manage challenges and potential unexpected events on the way to achieving the goals;
To follow their successful pattern for finishing and do their best to achieve the desired concrete results.
You can keep encouraging the team to get the right balance between consistency and creativity. They are then more able to rise to the occasion when it matters and deliver the desired concrete results.
If appropriate, you can also encourage them to clarify and follow the steps they can take to be good finishers. Here is the final exercise you can invite them to do on this theme.
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