Focus on the Process and the Results Will Come

I am a huge fan of the Olympics. I am in awe of all the athletes and the dedication and training they put in to achieve the status of becoming an Olympian. As it turns out, this Olympics coincides with my vacation. This means I have the time to watch even MORE of the Olympics than usual.

Credit: CBS

Yesterday I was enjoying my morning coffee and watching the Olympics when on comes an interview with Kelci Bryant and Abigail Johnston, the two women who have broken the US diving drought in the Olympics and earned themselves silver medals in the women’s 3-meter synchronized springboard.

The interviewer asked them incessant questions, implying that their focus was on winning a medal. After about the fourth question on this subject, Kelci responded to him by saying something to the effect that they never focused on winning the medal. She continued by saying that what they did do is focus on the process of diving well. She then said that if they worked the process hard enough the results would come.  BRAVA! I said to myself. That is one very smart young lady.

I look to my own business and I can say the very same thing. Bishop-Wisecarver helps manufacturers and automation solution providers engineer linear and rotary motion products. Our 60-plus years of engineering expertise and best practices with more than 20,000 customers enables us to understand our customers’ design and application requirements, ensuring unique solutions that ship within two to three weeks. Our customers achieve 50 percent faster time to market, up to 100 percent lower maintenance and installed costs, product differentiation and longer product life.

What is the underlying backbone to being able to deliver this level of service to our customers? Our relentless focus on process. From lean/continuous improvement to engineering, sales and technology processes, we never stop improving our internal processes.

Scott Klososky likes to say the he who has the most data wins. I would revise that to say he who has the most data and best processes wins. Because, if you don’t have great processes, then you’ll never be able to truly exploit the data to its fullest potential.

So while setting the goal is important, it’s even more important to work on your processes because that constant refinement will result in achieving the goal.

What process has generated the biggest payoff to you? I’d love to hear your stories.