Food. It makes a man do some crazy things. Like sit in line at the drive through. A large, franchised burger establishment to be exact. The whole time knowing that you are about to put things in your body that, if left on a shelf, will outlive you. Generally, not so healthy. Specifically, three Whopper Jrs. They are only a dollar a piece, so if you do the math, they cost 1.25 years of your life. For a dollar. It doesn’t get any better. Sign me up. I’m in line, aren’t I?

So there I was, in line at the BK, trying my best to suck my gut in and wondering if they still give out crowns to guys my age. I put my order in at the window and ‘drove around’. When I got to the window, it flew open and the ‘teller’ (what do you call those people?) didn’t really acknowledge my presence, just said, “Hey man, do me a favor and I’ll give you free fries”. Hmmm. What could I possibly do sitting in my car looking into the window? Clean it? He continued, “Pull your car up to where my hand is and then back up”. Aha. I knew exactly what I was doing. I pulled the car up, backed up and asked, “Am I helping with your metrics?” Blankly, he looked back and said, “Ya, I need to get this @#$%^ timer to stop”. Evidently, this purveyor of free fries was reviewed based on how fast he could fill an order. Stopping the timer made him look good.

Well, well, well. In some parts they call me Mr. Dashboard. I thought it was because I was so darn happening, but it has to do with the fact that I have four monitors at my desk and I like to see what is going on at Anvil through them. Some of the Anvil team thinks that I have some intricate camera setup, but they know that I’m not capable of installing something like that myself. What I have are a collection of metrics that I’ve set up for various parts of the company. I can say, for the record, metrics are coming to an office workgroup near you too. Our president and, well, elves, are putting together an analysis of workflows that will define metrics that in turn will help identify where we have weaknesses and what we need to do to correct them. Get it? Processes are measured, go up on my screens and tell me how we are doing. The metrics are there to help, not to harm. Monsieur ‘pull up to my hand and back up’ is killing his company by jobbing the timer. By not getting honest feedback, his management has no idea if their processes are right, if they are understaffed, or if changes should or can be made. Right now they know that they are pretty short on fries but little to nothing else. The important thing to keep in mind is that as metrics start coming out, they are a collaborative effort between management and staff. In order to be effective, you need to provide feedback and work within the system. It is a two way street. Jobbing the system doesn’t help provide better service for clients, it just makes them want to go over to Wendys.

Ask us about how we can help you find out what the fries in your business are. You know, the things that you are giving away.