For business, tapping internal talent can be key to problem-solving – Brainerd Dispatch

Have you found the diamonds in your workforce?

The diamonds are those wonderful people who, on their own, bring solutions or opportunities to your attention that impact your process and profits. I was reminded of these wonderful people at a recent mentoring session with a successful client. There was concern about running out of storage space in the warehouse as the company grew. The employee overheard the discussion and on his own took a tape measure and measured each section. He then went on to figure out how to re-allocate the size and location of the storage spaces to significantly create storage space.

On the way home from the meeting, I went over my own career and thought of the people that came out of the woodwork and solved key issues that I faced. I can truly say that in every company for whom I worked, including my own, those people were there and made significant contributions. Let me share some examples.

Quality control. The company was a sub-prime on a government contract. The prime contractor was an aluminum company. The material came in rolls with a thickness target of plus/minus 10%. There was a cost penalty for being on the plus side of usage. Our quality person checked the rolls to confirm thickness. On his own, he charted the thickness of the material. Guess what. The material was always on the plus side. The company renegotiated the contract and changed the tolerance of all aluminum roll material purchased for all products.

Sales. For years we were trying to sell a big customer. We always heard no and the sales leaders had turned off efforts to seek business. The salesperson in the territory was driving by the company and thought “what the heck” and stopped by. Perfect timing, the company was trying to build the product inhouse and they couldn’t do it. They gave us eight days to solve the problem and we did.

Plant process. The company had a contract to supply 65 separate parts for a fighter/bomber. All deliveries were to be kitted for each plane. Each part was wrapped, and the part number written on the package. A woman came off the floor and said if we could get the parts to a given point, she’d guarantee getting the parts to the customer as promised. She was not the lead person but we said yes, and we never heard a complaint from the customer.

Office. Again, a new product with very competitive pricing. Material was estimated to be 45% of the cost to build and there were several parts of different thickness. The IT staff went to work to make the best solution to save materials. One of the people in the office decided to work on the process over the weekend and treated it like a puzzle. Each part was cut out to scale and color coded to thickness. By manipulating the parts, the material usage target was 5% points below estimate. Again, big bucks. The computer folks could never beat that cutting pattern.

There are many more examples, but the message is clear. These special people didn’t do it for the money; they were dedicated to the company’s success and were having fun. They certainly were rewarded but research has shown that good employees don’t come to work primarily for the money. They want to be appreciated and challenged to grow professionally. The real question is what the corporate culture was.

It was a culture that had:

• Open and thought-provoking conversations among the staff.
• The leaders had targets to reach that were attainable but a stretch.
• The leaders were growth-minded and willing to take risks.
• Blame was not part of the culture. Coaching and taking corrective action early is.
• The employees were engaged in the business and having fun. They knew the leaders liked and appreciated them.

I believe all of us business leaders have buried talent in our staff. Talent, if activated, will make a real difference in the survival, growth, and success of your enterprise. You will be well served if you create and nourish that culture. You’ll have fun, too. SCORE is here to help you.
Go to score.org,

Richard.jrdan@scorevolunteer.org

or 218-251-4413.

As a resource partner of the U.S. Small Business Administration, SCORE – which offers free business mentoring and education — notes the organization has helped more than 11 million entrepreneurs through mentoring, workshops and educational resources since 1964. The nonprofit SCORE was previously known as the Service Corps of Retired Executives.