Here is an interesting demonstration of the impact of "what good looks like," thanks to Matt Homann and Joyce Wycoff: Don't Be Later, Alligator
Joyce Wycoff shares an interesting strategy to keep employees from being late to work:
On Monday morning, my CEO and I stood at the company’s entrance lobby at 8:30 am sharp, the time employees were supposed to report for work. There was a constant stream of latecomers. As people strolled in, my CEO and I gave a warm smile and shook their hands, greeting them with a hearty ‘Good morning!’ ... then we handed each a slip of paper ... still smiling.
It read, "Thank you for coming to work today. I was here at 8:30 am to welcome you. Would I have the pleasure of greeting you tomorrow morning at the same time? Signed, CEO"
After a few days, there were no more latecomers. And we saved a big chunk in production costs.
While I don't necessarily agree with the idea of Big Brother watching over the employees, this CEO clearly decided that having people reporting for work on time is an important aspect of What Good Looks Like.
I've been using the idea of "What good looks like" with clients lately who are in the midst of creating a change. Beyond the "big change" there are a myriad of other things that have to change to be in alignment with the new way of doing business. Asking the people responsible for implementing the change to talk about what this will look like in their environment is important to making the change come alive. And beyond just thinking about what good looks like, there needs to be some effort at looking for these things. The CEO in the story above took it into her own hands.