How the internal quality of our organization impacts it bottom line results

I have had the opportunity on two occasions recently to interview the senior staff of business organizations. They were unusual in that they both had amazingly healthy cultures. Staff had collegial and cooperative relationships, they were focused on their mission, were innovative and were delivering results and serving customers in competitive markets. I gave them high marks for the engagement of their staff, their culture of results and the quality of their strategies. In both cases, the businesses were growing and their potential for the future was bright.

So why was I there? Because in both organizations there was a recognition that as well as they were doing, there were internal issues that if resolved could allow them to go to the next level of growth. These leaders recognized that the internal quality of their organizations had a direct impact on their bottom line results.

Think about this. In a flat world, everyone has essentially the same access to information. But that does not mean that all can deliver the same results. To the extent that we allow internal processes or culture to get in the way of what we do we compromise our effectiveness. So paying attention to the internal culture, relationships, processes and the inherent disconnects within the organization becomes a key component of ongoing success.

In my experience, there are three key factors that ought to be paid close attention to.

One: Relationships that are askew. When relationships between staff are strained cooperation, communication and innovation suffers. Solving relational disconnects impacts the whole organization as well as the ability to be all that the organization can be.

Two: Processes that could be more efficient. In the competitive environments we all work in this is a huge factor. Ironically, it is often in our times of success and growth that we ignore this factor because we don't have the time to focus internally with the work we are doing externally. Yet, focusing on our internal processes is the key to future growth and effectiveness. The goal of efficient processes is to drive wasted time, energy and money from the system and foster cooperation and efficiencies that will give us a competitive edge.

Three: The quality of our services or products. In a recent conversation, I discovered that service calls needed to be done on about one third of installations from a well known and successful home product supplier. Driving down such time consuming service calls would obviously make a difference to the bottom line as well as to customer satisfaction.

The key to all of this is developing a system for ongoing analysis of the internal culture, relationships and processes of an organization whether they be in the for profit or non-profit sectors. This presupposes that there is as much attention paid to the internal quality of our organizations as there is to the services we provide to external customers. The first directly impacts the second.

Taking the long view of ministry strategy and results

A key factor in ministry success is whether we take a short or long term view regarding our plans and strategies. Many leaders are impatient and reactive and in their pursuit of ministry success they chase strategies that yield quick results at the cost of long term success.

A long term view of ministry results recognizes that you must lay a strong foundation upon which to build for lasting results. This includes finding the right people (staff or volunteers) who can help you get to your destination and creating a healthy results oriented culture in which the staff works. A third component of the foundation is having absolute clarity about what you are about, what your goals are and how you intend to get there. The right staff, a healthy culture and ministry clarity take time but any shortcuts here will short change your long term success.

Even with these three components in place, any strong ministry strategy must be built carefully and systematically. All too often we tend to substitute action (lets get going) for the hard work of thinking through philosophy and strategy that will yield long term results. The better the thinking on the front end, the better the results in the end. This is particularly true when your work involves change from the past. The process you choose will determine whether it is permanent change or a blip on the screen.

What gets in the way of building a strong foundation? First, we are often way too impatient to see something happen and shortchange the work we need to do to ensure that what we are building is built to last. Second, the foundational work is frankly hard work. It requires time, thinking and dialogue with the right people to put in place the framework for what you are trying to build. It is easy to default to action without the requisite deep thinking and analysis that good strategy requires. Third, too often we are chasing quick wins and while nice, quick ends usually don't yield long term results.

There is an ironic twist to the many conferences we go to in order to learn the secrets of success - often put on by large churches. They got where they are in most cases by a deliberate process of moving in the same direction toward a strategic goal. They did the work to ensure it lasted which is why their success was years in the making. We want to emulate them so we quickly rip off their strategies - forgetting that it was not the program or specific strategy that got them to where they are but a deliberate journey of clarity, patience, deep thinking and a long term strategy to achieve long term results. 

Long term success takes longer than short term wins. It also yields way more fruit than the latter. It is harder, slower, more work but ultimately it wins hands down in ministry results.

All of T.J. Addington's books including his latest, Deep Influence,  are available from the author for the lowest prices and a $2.00 per book discount on orders of ten or more.