Want to improve your business? Eat a few pork chops.

"Eating Porkchops is one of the best things you can do for your Business" -- Major Williams

Eating Pork Chops will improve your Business

Ok before we get started.  If you thought this article would give you an excuse to eat pork chops, I’m sorry that is not what this article is about.  On a lighter note this article will explain what a pork chop is other than a delicious piece of meat and how it can improve your business with a whimsical little story.

Full disclosure... I heard this story. I was not able to locate the original source it was given during a presentation.

James was watching his mother prepare for their monthly family Sunday dinner.  He noticed his mother cutting pork chops into circles.  After cutting the porkchop into a circle and throwing the excess in the trash he patiently watched what she would do next.  She applied seasonings, flour and gently placed several circles in a large cast iron skillet.  The little boy was puzzled and finally asked.  “Mom, why are you cutting the pork chops in a circle before you cook them?  She responded. “This is how we’ve made pork chops since I can remember.  This is how my mom taught us and her mom taught her and I’m going to teach you and your sister.”  

James looked unsatisfied with his answer and asked more specifically.  “But what about the parts you throw away?  It looks like a lot of food and you always tell us not to waste our food.”  Mom replied, “this is our family tradition.”  James sat there for a minute and followed up with “But why do we throw away the rest of the pork chop? It looks like we could eat it too.” James really loves fried pork chops. They are not cooked very often.  He is concerned about the amount of pork chops his stomach is missing..  

Time went on and he would not let up on the subject and kept asking. You know how tenacious a young boy can be.  The Mom resorted to a tried and true parenting technique to stop the barrage of questions.  “When grandma gets here, we will ask her.”  This allowed Mom to finish her task without James asking questions..  

Grandma finally arrives.  As soon as James notices, he rushes to her and asks his question.  “Hi Grandma, Why do we throw away all the porkchop?”  She looks toward her daughter and the daughter briefly explains the scenario.  Grandma replies, “ we’ve always done it that way.  It is our tradition.  G-ma (the great grandmother) taught me and I taught your mother and Aunt.”  The wiser grandma was able to shut down the questions a little quicker.  “G-Ma will be here in a few minutes, let's ask her.”  G Ma arrives and James greets her immediately with the question.  “G-Ma why do we throw away all of the pork chops.”  

If you haven’t noticed, the question has changed.  It went from why do we cut pork chops into circles to why are we throwing away the pork chops.  Another thing has happened during this process under the surface.  ALthough, Mom and Grandma stood together as a united front.  The tenacity of James has now piqued their curiosity.  Sometimes, it only takes one person, with curiosity to start a movement.  .

After a brief explanation from Grandma to G-Ma, all three, Grandma, Mom and James are eager to learn the answer.  G ma said,   “Why don’t we all sit down for a moment and we can talk about it.”  G ma begins. “Back then, pork chops were a special meal to us because we weren’t always able to have meat for dinner.  When we were able to save up enough to buy pork chops we saved them for Sunday dinner.  Sunday dinner was more about all of us coming together to enjoy each other's company, talk about our week, and plans for the future and really just to have a good time and love and laugh with each other.  We only had a small round cast iron skillet to use for frying the pork chops.  To get the pork chops to fit in the skillet we would cut them in little circles.  You can feel the brightness from the Light bulbs going off for both Grandma and mom.  G-Ma continues, “We didn't throw away anything back then.  We used it in various meals for the remainder of the week like stews, soups or added them to beans or greens for flavor.  Over the years, our lifestyles have improved and I guess the need to make use of everything is not as important as it was back then.  We did the best we could with what we had.”  

The grandma and mother looked at each other in silence for a few moments while realizing two things: 

The tradition of cutting pork chops is outdated.

Understanding the meaning behind traditions is important.

It was decided then in there the tradition of cutting pork chops would stop and the emphasis on the truly important part of the tradition would continue.  Being together with family and friends sharing stories, loving and laughing together.  Needless to say, James was able to enjoy a full size pork chops in future Sunday dinners. 

I use this story at the beginning of a process review workshop, it puts things in perspective about the journey we are about to take.  When we implement business processes in our business, we often build them based on the current situation.  What resources are available, what problems we currently face.  Once we get a process working with predictable outcomes, it becomes more or less a tradition.  Something we tend not to question or review because there are so many other things to be concerned about as a business owner.  These processes are handed down to new employees, sometimes (i.e. rarely for most small businesses) documented and placed into operating guides or standard operating procedures.  During a session, we identified a process that was treated as tradition and it reminded me of this story. I thought as a participant chimed in.  “Hey we found a pork chop, let's eat”  that was a great example of how to use this story and  I’ve been calling these processes “Pork Chops” ever since.  

Pork Chops, although producing a predictable result are wasting valuable resources and virtually stealing from the company.  

How to reduce the amount of pork chops in your business?

Schedule an annual meeting with key members of your team to review a few of the critical processes within your company.  The three critical components of every business are:

• Customer Acquisition Process

• Order Fulfillment Process

• Payment Collection Process

These 3 processes are the most likely to have Pork Chops within them.

During the meating use this 3 step process:

E.A.T

• Evaluate

• Action Plan

• Test and Measure 

Evaluating each critical process in your business.  An annual review of the process is a good step in making sure pork chops are not overtaking your business.  I would recommend taking baby steps only to look at just a few key processes and see if there are any pork chops involved.  It sometimes helps to have an outsider help with this process.  either someone from a different department or bringing in an outside advisor. It is simple just start with asking why.  

Action is the name of the game. An action plan to improve the process and eliminate waste.  Information and or products should touch as few hands as possible from start to finish.  

Test and measure the results of the changes to objectively determine if the changes made are improving the process.  This feedback of measuring the results creates an objective view of the process or removes the emotional attachment to how things are done.  It is important for there to be some measurable item tied to the process.  Some examples are time to process , cost to process, Lead time, wip time, waste produced, number of defects, etc.  The process is more useful, if you were already tracking the numbers.  If they do not previously exist, during the Evaluation phase, a metric should be created and measured for a period of time before implementing any changes.

Bringing it all together

Reviewing these processes on a regular basis, usually annually will help you identify potential pork chops and as a team developed improved processes to account for the current business environment.  

The goal of this annual review is to take a step back and ask the question why.  Why do we do this?  Is there a better way?  

It is easy to live by if it ain't broke don’t fix it.  However it could be those very pork chops that are resulting in high turnover, lower profit margin than the industry standard, cash flow issues, and continuous frustration within the company.  

Until next time...  And Happy eating 

#processimprovement #businesstransformation #leadershipdevelopment

This article was originally posted on Linkedin.com and Medium.com Moving to personal blog site.