For a long period earlier in my career I traveled almost weekly to and from New York City. Over time I developed a great appreciation for the job then-mayor Rudy Giuliani did in cleaning up this great city. He based his strategy on the broken windows theory, a common sense approach to maintaining order by putting an emphasis on aggressively addressing petty crimes. As the theory goes, if you ignore someone tossing a rock through a window then they’ll eventually graduate to more serious offenses. As this mindset spreads across a large city like New York, chaos ensues; people no longer feel safe living and working there and law enforcement loses control.
Starting with eliminating the annoying, offensive (and illegal) “squeegee guys,” the NYPD began cracking down on simple quality of life crimes like loitering, street walking and petty theft. Over time neighborhoods became safer, development increased, tourism grew and the city flourished. Continued training and reinforcement (supplemented by the use of high level analytics) insured that this program became embedded in NYC’s operational DNA.
It has been well documented that the common link of all consistently successful companies is a strong culture. As a leader, the application of the broken windows theory is a great way communicate a clear message regarding what is or isn’t acceptable behavior at your company. Some simple examples include:
- You see someone littering in the lunchroom and politely ask him or her to clean up after themselves. Turn the other cheek, and eventually your lunch room becomes an eyesore that you would never want a prospective customer seeing on a plant tour.
- While walking the shop floor you see an employee improperly stacking cases on a pallet and politely remind him or her to review the company’s SOP. Ignore it, and pretty soon you’ll have inaccurate physical inventory counts and customers complaining that their orders are not being fulfilled accurately.
- While sitting in your office you overhear a call center representative treating a customer poorly or giving out inaccurate information and you immediately request that their supervisor review the call’s recording. Laugh it off and pretty soon you’ll be reading about what rotten customer service you offer on social media.
The moral of this story is simple: when people see their leaders paying attention to the little things, it sends a clear message regarding what is or isn’t acceptable across all levels and facets of the organization. If your name happens to be on the side of the building, or on the founder’s plaque in the lobby, I would argue this even more important.
I have managed and advised a variety of highly regulated businesses throughout my career. More recently I have worked with entrepreneurs looking to rapidly scale their internal and external operations. In both situations, the broken windows theory is a great tool for maintaining control while imparting a consistent cultural message. It can help define and reinforce your quality and safety protocols in a highly regulated environment while helping create the replicable processes required to achieve scale profitably in a high growth enterprise. Do not, however, confuse this method of positive reinforcement with its evil cousin (command and control). The former will drive long term success by building a winning culture while the latter will do just the opposite.
I have personally toured 1 million sq. ft. manufacturing facilities where leaders willingly broke windows on a daily basis. These facilities were cleaner, more organized and more efficient than tiny 10,000 sq. ft. warehouses that didn’t because good cultures and processes are scalable. The small warehouse would still be an inefficient mess if downsized, while the huge manufacturing plant could expand by 50% without missing a beat. Which facility would you want to work in, buy from or invest in?
The recent emissions cheating scandal at VW is a great example of how leadership’s unwillingness to break a few windows can create a culture that facilitates such a massive deception. I’ve done a fair amount of reading on the subject, and have not seen anything that implicates senior management in directly ordering this massive fraud. That said, it’s clear that the company’s culture of following the status quo and not challenging authority (which is dictated by senior management) sent a clear message to the rank and file that a Sargent Schultz-style of management (“I see nothing”) is not only acceptable but expected. What probably started out as a single rogue employee’s poor decision spiraled out of control because nobody in the organization was willing to break a few windows along the way. Had this initial indiscretion been headed off at the pass, a major international scandal (and its significant collateral damage) might have been prevented.
As you look ahead to the new year, I encourage you to break a few windows in 2017.