From The Editor | January 31, 2012

Rules for Increasing Organizational & Individual Frequency

monocello

By Mike Monocello, chief editor

At RSPA (Retail Solutions Providers Association) Inspire 2012, during this morning's day two education session, Brett Harward talked numbers to the packed room of point of sale VARs, software developers, and manufacturers. Specifically, he talked about measuring the performance of your employees, sales, business, etc. During his talk, Harward provided his "7 Rules for Increasing Organizational and Individual Frequency." In a nutshell, they are:

  1. Establish measurements in advance. When launching a new idea, hire, marketing program, etc., set clear expectations and measurable goals. Harward says that in the case of new hires, you should agree upon terms of firing during the hiring process to set clear expectations.
  2. Eliminate sacred cows. Put everything on the table. As soon as you place things above the results you want, it gets in the way of finding solutions. His example: you want to grow sales but your worst salesperson is your brother-in-law who is untouchable.
  3. Test unproven theories by "launching canoes and not warships." Canoes are cheap, easy to deploy, and inexpensive. When you find one that works, scale it to a warship (full-scale roll out).
  4. Measure results frequently and course correct as needed. Do employee reviews quarterly. An entire year without course correction is a big waste of money. If an employee isn't doing a good job, review them monthly. Still having a problem? Review weekly or even daily.
  5. Reward creativity and contributions. The most important behavior you can get from employees is to attempt to solve problems. Reward attempts to solve problems. Don't make the risk of punishment for mistakes higher than the reward for solving problems.
  6. Harness the IQ and power of others. Make the most of the unique points of view and experience within your organization to make better decisions.
  7. Don't be afraid to test new ideas. Success comes from going through things that don't work and finding the things that do work. Fail faster to find what works.

Pretty good stuff, eh? This is just a sliver of content from Harward and RSPA Inspire. Continue to check http://www.bsminfo.com/pos and @bsminfo on Twitter for additional articles and videos from the event.