In a previous life, I was a hall director on a college campus. In my first year, my department also had a new department head named Kevin. Kevin was very excited to make a difference and infuse some new life into a department that had been standing still for many years.
The middle of the second semester is the time when students choose where they were going to live the following year. Kevin wanted to do right by the students who were essentially our customers and did a sweeping survey of all the students living on campus. 100% of them. ALL 2500 OF THEM.
There were about 12 residence halls on campus, each with a hall director and each with student resident advisors on each floor. Kevin explained to us he wanted every survey back. We all nodded our heads and went along with him. This was in 1997, before iphones, before touchscreens and emails could only send texts. These were all done on paper.
He gave us PLENTY of time to get this project done. We had two weeks. I got all 180 of mine from the initial meeting, held my own staff meeting and explained that I needed them all back and waited for them to return.
I didn’t quite realize that Kevin meant 100% until I got a call from him one night. He said, “Matt. The surveys are due in two days and I am missing Bill Jones and Heather Smith from your building. I had collected 178 out of 180, 98.9% of them. This is better than any test I had taken my entire schooling career but it was insufficient.
At the end of the week, Kevin had all of his surveys. I didn’t know why it was so important to get 100%, but I didn’t really need to know. All I needed to know was that this was crucial for him and he was my boss’s boss, so I better get it done.
It would be so much easier today with the technology we have. You could send out a Mailchimp campaign or Survey Monkey (why are all of these companies tied to apes), and knock it out in a couple of days if you were really aggressive about it.
This is the best example I have seen of setting a measurable goal and reaching it. Kevin could’ve given us the surveys and trusted us to do our best and get the surveys back to him. If he didn’t intervene, I’ll bet he would have gotten 90% back.
How much time and effort did he put in to make SURE he got 100%? I would guess 2-3 hours. He had to make 20-30 phone calls to people to track down those extra surveys. 2-3 hours was the difference between acceptable and perfect.
Put that into context to whatever you are doing. 2-3 hours of proper, directed, and focussed work can make your results seem impossible. This can translate to hitting your sales numbers. It can translate into better customer service. Imagine spending 2-3 hours extra and that attention is focussed on giving your customers a better experience.
That experience taught me to stretch. It taught me that a little effort can mean all the difference. Honestly, I had to work about 15 minutes more than I thought I did to complete this two week task.
These examples show me that there is a deeper level of effort that we have at our disposal at ANY time. Don’t be afraid to access it.