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 Obsession
and Compulsion in Business
Fixing "Broken Windows"...
[Michael Levine] 3/13/06
Some people
suffer from a condition known as OCD, obsessive-compulsive
disorder. Its symptoms may include an incredibly focused interest
in one topic or the inability to function without certain rituals,
like frequently washing hands or locking doors over and over.
While in
personal life OCD is a challenge, in business, obsession and
compulsion are good things. In fact, they are necessary. Without
an obsessive attention to detail and compulsive drive to fix
broken windows in a business, disaster is being courted.
Contributors
Michael Levine - Contributor
Michael Levine is the founder of LCO- Levine Communications
Office, a Los Angeles-based public relations firm,
and the author of 17 books, including Broken Windows
(Warner Books, 2005). www.LCOonline.com -
E-mail:mlevine@LCOonline.com [go
to Levine index]
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You have
to feel personally affronted if something goes wrong with your
business. And that “something” can be anything.
You have to feel physically ill if something is wrong with
your business, now matter how small and (here’s a word
I use with great caution) insignificant it might seem. It’s
not enough to be concerned about your business; its not enough
to be interested in its success. You have to be obsessed, or
you are inviting disaster. There are a few companies well entrenched
in the American landscape these days as Starbucks. That company
that convinced the world that a four-dollar cup of coffee is
not ridiculous had a presence on what seems like every corner.
It’s hard to imagine that things could get much better
for Starbucks.
Indeed,
even the company’s chairman, Howard Schultz, believes
Starbucks is doing as well as it can do. He has warned its
investors that the current sales performance can’t be
sustained indefinitely. But he knows where the windows that
might be broken are, and he has plans to keep them crack-free.
Schultz
increased the paid training time for the company’s “most
motivated employees” by as much as a third, to thirty-two
hours, in early 2004. His plan was to make his employees better
educated about coffee generally, and by extension, better at
selling more brewed coffee and bags of whole beans.
That’s
impressive, and it is also a sign of obsession. Schultz understands
that Starbucks has expanded rapidly and that so much growth
often presages a fall.
His choice
- to improve the Starbuck brand by improving its employees‚ knowledge
of the product - is a bold move. It shows obsession on his
part, and it demands obsession on the part of those who work
for the chain.
Obsession
is a dangerous tool. It’s essential, but it has to be
handled properly to be effective. Yes, the customer base should
be made aware of your total commitment to service, but you
can’t demonstrate in such an overbearing fashion that
it become obnoxious.
The saying
that a chain is as strong as its weakest link has great resonance
in the world of broken windows for business theory. An employee
- especially one who has direct contact with customers - is
the most visible type of broken window imaginable.
Service
is the absolute center of broken windows for business. Your
product might very well be the best in the world, but if it’s
being sold and represented by employees who with every word
and action betray their complete indifference with the customer
and the customer’s needs, you will fail, without question.
Become obsessed
with your hiring practices, since it is much more difficult,
expensive, and damaging to hire a bad employee and then be
forced into a firing situation.
Obsession
is not just a line or perfume - it’s a cool, and valuable
one. Without it, you will be operating at a disadvantage, and
in business today, you need every single advantage you can
get.
There is
a very clear line between obsession and compulsion. Where obsession
merely demands an intense, focused interest on all aspects
of your business, compulsion requires more practice. It is
just as powerful and just as essential a concept as obsession,
but it relies more on instinct and conditioned responses than
thought and planning. Compulsion is to obsession what lust
is to love.
It’s
one thing to like your living room to be neat; it’s quite
another to be incapable of leaving the room if everything is
not in exactly the proper place. Compulsive behavior means
that you are paralyzed if things aren’t precisely the
way you have decided they should be.
In business,
compulsion is as useful a tool as exists on the planet. It
is perfect to help fix broken windows, as it will not allow
you to even consider going on with your day until that window
has been repaired. Compulsion implies a stubbornness, a devotion
to detail and order, that goes far beyond what most business
people believe to be sufficient, even excessive.
Compulsion
is all about consistency, since it tolerates nothing outside
the established order, and it requires all repairs to be made
immediately.
George Steinbrenner
III is not the most popular employer on the planet. In fact,
he is legendary for being demanding and uncompromising with
his employees, from the parking lot attendant to the $25-million-a-year
Yankee third baseman. Nothing is ever good enough, and nothing
escapes Steinbrenner’s notice.
“Buying
the Yankees is like buying the Mona Lisa,” Steinbrenner
has said. “You don’t put the Mona Lisa into a cheap
frame and hide it in the closet.” A broken window allowed
to stay broken - even if there is intention in fixing it eventually
- is the wrong sign to the outside world.
When it
does come naturally, compulsion is a practiced art. Train yourself
to notice the broken windows and then act on them immediately.
Refuse to move on to the next item on the agenda until that
window is repaired, or until the mechanism to repair it is
in place and operating properly.
Swift, decisive
action is essential in fixing broken windows. Every day that
goes by without visible action is a signal that the engineer
is asleep at the switch and anarchy rules. It is important,
even if the window can’t be fixed at this moment, to
erect a sign that reads “Broken window being repaired.”
Still, compulsion
is as useful tool as obsession, if not an even more useful
one, because it does demand swift action. If you are not able
to move on until you are satisfied that a problem is being
solved, you will be sure to solve the problem quickly. -one-
Michael Levine is the founder of LCO- Levine Communications
Office, a Los Angeles-based public relations firm, and
the author of
17 books, including Broken Windows (Warner Books, 2005).
www.LCOonline.com
copyright
2005 Michael Levine
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