One is too many

#oneistoomany

#ONETeam #SNAPS #SageandNotableAdvisesfromPatrickSalazar

During one of the internal business reviews, one of my Group Leaders (GL) told her manager that she was very proud that her Team’s error rate went down from 4% to 3% (the goal was not to exceed 5%). Her manager asked her to explain why she was not able to zero it out. This conversation went on for 10 minutes. The Group Lead finally said, “Why are you giving me a hard time with my error rate? It improved from 4% down to 3% this month. I know the others are at 1% - 2% so you should give me a break because I improved”

Her manager said “Our internal goal to bring the errors down to 0% applies to everyone including me. Behind each of those percentages is a customer”

The other Group Leads voiced out to their manager, “There is a reason why our goal is 5%. It means we can have an error rate of until 4.9% and we will not get penalized”. This conversation went on for another 10 minutes.

I entered the words “One is too many” in the chat box. Everyone paused. Then, the GL asked me “Pat, what do you mean?”

I reminded everyone of our mission and our core values. I reminded everyone that we must treat ALL of our customers like family.

In the case of my GL, I recall she is the one caring for her niece and her mother. So I asked her, is it acceptable to you that 3 out of 100 people will treat your mother badly when she does the groceries? She said “NO WAY!” Is it acceptable to you that 3 out of 100 school mates of your niece will treat her badly in school? She said “NO WAY!”

Finally I asked… So GL, is a one (1) time bad treatment to your mother or niece acceptable to you? She said with a low tone “Of course not, Pat.”

There was a moment of silence.

Then my GL said, “but it is impossible to get to 0%, that is why our goal is not to exceed 5%”

I said… “As leaders, we must mentor our frontline Associates that our operating mindset must be 0% error rate versus a mindset that we are allowed up to 5% error rate”

Everyone agreed and then focused on slicing and dicing their top error rate drivers and discussed how to get to 0%.

*About the photo

When my two younger daughters transferred to a bigger school, the protective father in me decided to be active in the Parent-Teachers Association in their new school. I was elected as Class Parent President in the class of my daughter, Tres, who was in Grace 6. Then, I was elected Grade 6 Parent Batch Representative. Finally, I got elected as Public Relations Officer in the overall Parents Council of the entire school.

In this photo, I am joined by the amazing Parent Officers of all the classes in Grade 6 during the Family Fun Day at Saint Paul College Makati.