Three Voices

WORLD-CLASS leaders are extraordinarily sensitized to their environment. And the environment within business organisations can be described in terms of three “voices”.

• The Voice of the Customer
• The Voice of the Employee
• The Voice of the Process

Business organisations exist to meet the needs of customers. Therefore, the Voice of the Customer guides world-class leaders’ every action and decision. Their employees are also guided by The Voice of the Customer literally in the case of employees who interact directly with customers and figuratively in the case of all employees. World-class leaders make sure that everyone shares an accurate and actionable understanding of what customers need and value.

In manufacturing and service companies alike, employees are the primary instrument by which business leaders meet customer needs. Of course, employees are not “instruments” at all. They are “people”, the most complex being on earth, and therefore the single most volatile determinant of business success. World-class leaders constantly seek out The Voice of the Employee - the sum total of what employees think, feel, need and believe.

According to Dr J M Juran, golfers who ignore the mechanics of their swing and note only how far the ball will go are routinely confounded by their inability to predict or control the outcome of their efforts. The same can be said of business leaders who care only about results. That is why world-class leaders continually tap into The Voice of the Process - data that tells them how work actually gets done in their organisations. By focusing on process data, world-class leaders are prepared to make effective, continuous adjustments to key work processes, thereby controlling and improving results.

Many attributes and abilities distinguish world-class leaders. These leaders do not necessarily try harder than typical managers - they just play by a different set of rules. Once they gain the experience and master the skills required to excel under these rules, they can dramatically reduce costs while literally delighting their customers. They can achieve quantum leaps in productivity while invigorating and inspiring the people who work for them.

There is one job that belongs to the leader alone, and that is making sure all the parts and all the people work together. According to Professor W Edwards Deming, it is possible to obtain the best car parts in the world, the best fuel injection system, the best tyres, the best spark plugs, the best engine, yet the car built from these parts may not run very well, if at all.

One can get the best and brightest managers in the world, yet have a poor or mediocre operation. In a system, everything has to work together, harmoniously. The parts and the people have to be optimized to work with each other toward a common goal. Improving one part alone may not help; it may even ruin the operation.

An orchestra is a good example. A person may know next to nothing about music, but he or she can hear the difference between orchestras. The conductor is responsible for making sure that everyone works together. Will the music be better if everyone does his best? If one tries to outdo everyone else?

Suppose a conductor became concerned about the productivity of the individual musicians. He started paying them based on how much time they played. If a piece only has a few violin lines, the violinist would not be paid much unless he played another instrument. To earn a good living, the violinist would put down his instrument to then run over to beat the drums. When that part was finished, he would leap over to the harp to play the cymbals. This orchestra would have great productivity but who would pay to listen to them?