Leadership - Filtering Input

Lots of good food - I love eating!

I've been fortunate to travel the world sampling the best of its culinary delights.

Have you stood in front of an all you can eat Sunday brunch with piles of crab, shrimp, eggs of all types, caviar, salads of a half dozen varieties, and everything else you can imagine eating? I have. We all have in some form; chinese buffet or an 'all you can eat' bar at your local eatery.

How do you decide what to eat? What is the tastiest and healthiest mix? Most of us don't! We over eat or load up on our regular favorites; not wanting to take items we might not enjoy!

Imagine an infinite item brunch and you get a visual picture of the information a leader deals with every day. Blackberry devices and computers flow with information every minute of every day through the internet and business information systems. Cable news, stake holders, subordinates, peers, supervisors, customers, suppliers and support personnel add to the overload. Personal contacts such as friends, spouses, children, parents, and neighbors add to the distractions. No one can analyze all the data and information readily available to them.

As a leader, one of your most important skills is to develop processes within your organization to filter information into a process that produces success today. While allowing improvement for tomorrow, and achieving the long term vision.

Eliminate activities (waste) that are non-productive when introduced into the information and business flow. Eliminate from the brunch, items not fitting into a healthy diet.

Provide a mechanism in the information and business flow for feedback on the products and processes that promote continuous improvement. Provide crisper vegetables and season the items more favorably to the palate.

Motivate the team associates by providing the information and business flow to care about the quality of recommendations made. Eliminate functional silos promoting integrated teams. Excite the wait staff to understand brunch patrons' preferences and relate that data to business success such as cost (waste) control and portion size.

Develop each level of management / decision makers to understand and pass on not only the standard operating process information but more importantly test new information channels by spending some time examining new ideas from competitors, customers, and team members. Challenge the chefs to experiment with new tastes and recipe mix to keep the product fresh to satisfy fickle clients.

Envision the information and business filtering process that:
- support the most cost effective product (Eliminate)
- constantly provides quality customer preferences (Provide)
- empowers the associates to understand and do the right thing for the business (Motivate)
- promotes creativity and intiative in their decision makers (Develop)
Create a single special dish every day, with no waste, pleasing to the taste, unique, and every bite of food is perfect.

My final thought- Create an information and business filtering process that revitalizes an organization through lean business disciplines of continuous improvement combined with a strategic vision in a team environment. On a sunny fall evening, dine at a french bistro in the heart of Paris with a different chef each night of the week.