The other day, I was in a discussion with the Regional Sales Head ,
Branch Banking , of
a leading Indian Bank , we were engaged in a serious chat , trying to design a training and coaching
initiative , which could possibly help the Sales Teams tame this bug which was popularly being termed as 100% FTR
(First Time Right ), or in simple language achieving zero errors, the very first time ,while
logging in complete and correctly filled application forms from customers for
all products , be it for Bank Account Opening , Credit Cards, etc.
Closer to mid year review, the time for the final reckoning
for all the sales teams was approaching.. Graphs and pie charts of all shapes,
shades and hues to pin the contenders as per their performance were ruling the
slide show , that he was simultaneously perusing on his laptop screen. He
began sharing with me ,data pertaining to this new bug which was hovering here
and there in everyone’s report card and though not even remotely connected to
actual sales figures, had in fact turned out to be the game changer in deciding
the final winner – I could understand the cause of his panic, the figures were
pretty dismal .. And as per their findings, the process of extracting relevant
data from the forms by the operations team who finally generated functional
accounts , was turning out to be increasingly tedious and overtly
delayed, largely traced to incomplete and
incorrectly filled forms that were sourced
by the sales teams, not only costing time lags and increased costs ,but
increasing cases of customer dissatisfaction too !
And hence the weight of this KRA in tracking the performance
of Sales Managers was all too high now !
This in spite the fact that the application forms are being
sourced and reviewed by Sales Officers and Managers who are very often graduates and post
graduates in their respective discipline and there’s nothing seemingly
complicated in the task of submitting error free forms. A symptom being witnessed not only in Banking
but in certain other sectors of the service industry, too, I bet !
And so the cycle of figuring the gaps, facilitating training
programmes, deploying additional resources, strengthening processes and check
points and of course tasking the supervisors with penalties and threats , as
also rewards on achieving 100% FTR continues…
While this shall be addressed and eventually effective
processes rolled out …, my mind wanders to the root cause and the question of
our obsession with FTR in not one but in so many areas of our lives , and what
could possibly be the reason behind
ultimately not achieving it as desired and as cited in the above case !
Yes, technically terms like FTR or getting it right the
first time, signify error free
processes and products and speak volumes of efficiency and effectiveness in any
business and are an essential pre-requisite for great customer experience ! No
question of any bargains there at all…the benchmark of quality is getting it
right the first time !
However isn’t it also
time to reflect whether being Right the First time has been kind of over rated
when it comes to all other aspects of our existence, and is it time we allow some room for making mistakes and errors
too, and improving at a reasonable
pace..?
I am prompted to straight go down to our childhood days- the
infatuation with FTR looms large from very early years ..
No infant possibly stands up and starts walking one fine day
without being preceded by stages of falling and getting hurt and crying and
calling for some attention from his caregivers, but here too, if there could
possibly have been a case of getting it right the first time, I can say without
a doubt, that such a child would prove to be a favourite of his parents !
Does it mean that
we as a
culture have collectively moved away from encouraging mistakes and gradual improvement
by doing and experiencing ,which could have ultimately led to better
understanding and more effective results ?
Going back again to our schooling and growing up years, we have
always noticed heaps of appreciation being doled out to the quick learners who
seem to be naturals and born with their gifts - be it mastering the art of
cycling at the very first stroke on the
pedal or doing quick math or humming the perfect tune of the classical raga
or staying afloat at the very first dip
in the swimming pool or making the perfect rounded chapati at the first try,
etc..
We have all witnessed at least sometime, these
naturally gifteds and the First Time
Rights in every field who managed to garner applause and adulation from all and sundry! And being early bloomers
further keeps adding to their advantage in many ways , helping them build more
self confidence and ultimately the
accumulative advantage spilling over to all other areas in life. The
winner has it all, as they say !
But the fact remains, that
some of them if not all, eventually lose out in learning to also excel
or pickup skills in areas where they are not naturals..
They may never get to realize the due that persistent efforts and an eye for details - needs to be
given ; or what we term - developing the growth mindset- is what they end up lacking!
And now what about those who can do extremely well not at
the first stroke but with repeated efforts and by following the process of
doing and experiencing and learning…
They too stand to win laurels but not so readily , isn’t it
? The impatience with a prolonged learning time being taken by some students, many a time prods parents and
educators to almost give up on them halfway as incapable and this leaves them
with a feeling of being a loser , harboring low self esteem, and almost terror
struck with the fear of making mistakes !
They rarely manage to
win the attention and appreciation of their mentors easily, and most often have
to stand up for themselves.. , but
those who ultimately do – prove to be
the ones who look at processes from close quarters and having done things first
hand , stand to understand better and deliver more effectively when it comes to
on-the-job situations like the ones discussed in the Sales team’s FTR numbers cited above.
So what is it so attractive about doing things right the
very first time and why are we so obsessed with raising generations after
generations driven by fixed mindset and
scared of failing even once..
In fact there
tend to be these three Biggest Blocks or
…Myths…bounding our existence, that I am repeatedly reminded of these days and
that I get to see deeply ingrained in so many.. ,
We forget that
making mistakes is not anti but pro
learning – and
that mistakes are very
often the starting point of unlimited
creativity, and need to be taken in the
right spirit !
But the unending
craze in youngsters’ and educators’ minds to always have it FTR with their
talents and gifts..rather than directing efforts towards gradual and continuous
improvement is what leads to this stage when post graduate degrees too fail in
helping them getting ATR , or Anytime Right , the basics - case in mind - checking correctness of application forms !
Students and children want easy answers and teachers and mentors
want techniques that work right the first time; and both share the fear of
failure. Zero defects has become a way of thinking and doing,
that reinforces the notion that errors are not acceptable. The idea here is that with this philosophy, one can
increase happiness by eliminating the
frustration of failure .
Think about it…
I go by the other route though ,as summarised by what Tim
Harford once quoted :
Thankyou for reading my post and I look forward to
your comments.
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