“You know, Penny, Roxanne made a lot of sense the way she spoke about total integration of the business. I didn’t completely understand some of the details, but the way she talked about integrating the efforts of people across the entire supply chain, and the way she described the path we could take to improve our results was eye-opening. It was exciting. She gave me the confidence that I haven’t had in a good while. We started thinking differently about the business.

“And, Penny, thanks for being a good listener again, and for putting up with me the past few months.”

Early Sunday evening the house was quiet. He and Penny were relaxing while reading recent best sellers. Greg was distracted by his thoughts as he read and was getting excited about a future with improved customer service results. He realized the path he was on would make Cosmetics Products competitive again, but wouldn’t make them the preferred supplier he wanted them to be. He remarked aloud, “How could I possibly have missed that fact?”

Startled, Penny said, “What is it, Greg?”

“I just realized that I’ve been feeling good about laying out a plan for survival, but not for excellence. That’s a sobering revelation to me!” Penny simply shook her head and went back to her book. But for Greg, the seeds were sown for Cosmetics Products to continue on the complete journey to business excellence. He would keep his plan to himself for a while so that his executive team would stay focused on the work at hand.

When he returned to work on Monday, Greg noticed an increased level of energy and enthusiasm among everyone on his leadership team. On Monday afternoon, he received an e-mail from Roxanne with her draft proposal. He sent it on to his team with a note that it would be on the Tuesday afternoon team meeting agenda for the following week. But when Greg arrived at his office this Tuesday, early as usual, he was surprised to find David pacing impatiently outside Greg’s locked office. He followed Greg through the office door.

“Hi, David; couldn’t sleep?”

David snapped back, “Greg, we need to talk. Oh, and good morning.”

Greg closed his office door and motioned David to take a seat. “Okay, what is it?”

David sat, but then stood up again and resumed his pacing. “Greg I’m getting really frustrated with your holding back on fixing our customer service problems.” Greg looked at David, taken aback, as David turned and faced him. “We’ve got to get on with the Capable Planning and Control and Capable Integrated Business Management Milestone. Let’s make the decision today so we can start cleaning up the mess we’re in. We can’t wait until next Tuesday! Let’s get honest with ourselves; there is no Plan B. I don’t understand what you’re waiting for. It’s the right thing to do. They are no smarter than us over at Capital or Tender Care, so I’m convinced we can start quickly to make a difference in our results. Roxanne hinted any number of times that you need to make the decision and lead the effort. We’re fiddling while Rome burns. What can I do to persuade you? The cost can’t possibly be an issue, given the return on investment (ROI) we estimated.”

Greg motioned for David to sit down again. “Take a breath and let me collect my thoughts for a moment.” After a pause, Greg continued. “I’ve learned to trust your opinion, David, and I value especially your frank comments. I agree with you completely. I’ll get Cynthia to arrange a 9:00 A.M. meeting today for the executive team.”

David looked relieved. He had taken a risk confronting his boss and hadn’t been reprimanded. “Thanks for listening, Greg. I couldn’t hold back any longer; it’s been keeping me awake at night.”

The team assembled, except for Zachary who was off-site for the day. They were puzzled by Cynthia’s request for an emergency meeting with no stated agenda. Greg got straight to the subject.

“Folks, David just took me to task this morning; on reflection, very appropriately. Thank you, David.” They all wondered what was coming next. “Okay, David, you take it from here and explain our conversation.” David gathered his thoughts and addressed the team enthusiastically.

“What I said to Greg is that I’ve heard enough; I don’t need any more convincing. We need to start the Capable Planning and Control and Capable Integrated Business Management Milestones now. We need to make our decision today and stop wasting time. We have the draft proposal from Roxanne. Let’s get back to her and get on her schedule as soon as possible. We can clear up any procedural stuff that we need to address over the next couple of weeks, but, meanwhile, let’s get started with the milestones and stop the hemorrhaging.”

Everyone began talking at once. Smiling, Greg raised his voice, “Hold on everyone! I love the excitement in your voices, but we need a little structure. This is an important decision for all of us. I’d like you to spend the rest of the day doing three things. First, I need your consensus recommendation on ‘go’ or ‘no-go.’ If the answer is ‘go,’ your second task is to tell me in ballpark terms what it means in the way of people resources. We have to agree on the initiative, confirm what milestones we are going to address, and assign champions and leaders. We’ll not get the urgency we need with a part-time person trying to do his or her regular job and be Milestone Leader at the same time. We’ll also need to assign a number of others to the various task teams. We don’t want the people you can spare, or who have time to do it. If we’re going to change our business culture and practices, I need to be assured that you’re going to put the best people we’ve got against it; I want people who will get the work done and done well. And third, I want a draft announcement that we’ll finalize today to let everyone know our direction and that it will be a top priority for us and for them. If we don’t show our unified commitment, it won’t happen.”

Several people began explaining conflicting appointments for the morning, but didn’t change Greg’s new-found resolve. “If this is worth doing, it’s worth doing well. Anyone have a scheduled meeting with a customer today?” Alexandra had an afternoon meeting scheduled with a key customer. “Okay, keep that one. Anyone have a personnel issue that can’t wait? No? Then let’s get on with it. Remember, you can’t make an omelet without breaking the eggs! We’ll meet again in the executive conference room at 3:00 P.M. That’ll delay the start of our regular executive meeting agenda, but it can’t be helped given the urgency.”

Greg had turned David’s challenge into a leadership opportunity; he’d sent them off with a new sense of excitement and energy. Greg next called Susan who asked if the decision to proceed had been made. Greg explained that it hadn’t been made yet, but that he was confident about what his team would recommend. Susan expressed her support and wanted to communicate to the Board that turnaround action plans were being executed. Greg suggested it would be better to await the formal announcement, but was pleased with Susan’s enthusiastic support.

Greg’s executive team, who recently had begun to think of him as “Greg the Hesitant,” would have been speechless had they listened in on his next phone call. In anticipation of his team’s recommendation, Greg phoned Roxanne. She answered on the second ring. Greg surprised her. “You know, I’ve been thinking about this all weekend, Roxanne. I believe the executive team has to be more directly involved, and that we need to be more aggressive. I really want to do Capable Integrated Business Management as well as Capable Planning and Control. What problems do you see?”

She first expressed her delight that Cosmetics Products had chosen to proceed. “I’m glad you’ve decided on Capable Planning and Control and Capable Integrated Business Management. From where I stand, they’re your obvious priority. Although they focus on the business management and the internal supply chapters, there are some requirements across all chapters. So you’ll need good participation from all the supply chain functions to cover the design teams we talked about.

“As to your question, let’s think through the implications. First, I’d hate for you to spread yourselves so thin that you aren’t successful. Do you believe you can manage that scope with your team? I know you have the capability, but can you make the time?”

“The answer is yes. If we don’t make the time to do both milestones, all of us may have more free time on our hands than we want. I am determined to show by example that I’m leading this business turnaround. It’ll be my success, or my failure. Taking on both milestones won’t be easy, but I simply don’t see an option. We’ll have to figure it out.”

“If you remember, in our last session I agreed that there might be a need to include both milestones in your effort to get the customer service results that you want. I think you can achieve both since some of their of requirements overlap. Given your commitment and that of your executive team, I believe you can pull it off. I’ll have to round up a couple of my colleagues to help educate and coach both teams. Some of the education is common to both milestones, so I’ll take that into account.

“You already have my draft proposal. When will you need it finalized, Greg?”

“Why don’t you give me an update of the draft and outline project plan by the end of today if that’s possible. I can wait for a few days for the final proposal.”

Roxanne said she would spend the day freeing up available days in the near-term calendar to help Cosmetics Products get started quickly. The longer-term scheduling would be a simpler matter. She would alert her intended supporting colleagues immediately to provide their availability over the next six weeks as a starter. “Remember, Greg, for the Capable Integrated Business Management milestone, you’ll need involvement of your executives, including a fair amount of your own time.”

Greg felt relieved that a plan for action was taking shape at last.

Meanwhile, David had suggested that the rest of the team begin their meeting at 10 A.M. to give everyone time to reschedule appointments. They agreed to meet in the Finance conference room since it was convenient and available.

Sara welcomed the team to her conference room. She had arranged refreshments and a catered lunch so they could work steadily until their meeting with Greg. As they sat down, Sara commented that she had received Roxanne’s draft estimate for supporting both Integrated Business Management and Capable Planning and Control Milestones, and that it should cause no funding concerns. “If we agree to launch this initiative, I’ll have to submit some paperwork, but that shouldn’t delay us. The numbers I have at the moment are close enough and show that the project will easily pass our financial hurdle rate, even if the cost increased by 50 percent.”

David was next. “As I see it, Roxanne offers us the only way I know of to get out of our customer service mess; the approach is logical and direct. There’s a proven path that we saw actually work in a couple of companies. I think she called the approach ‘organized common sense’, and I certainly agree with that description!” They then spent a little time discussing potential players they would have to free up for the teams, and how they would backfill their responsibilities. The discussion was open and positive. After lunch, David brought the meeting to order. “A while ago, Sara just answered the only question I had, which was about the budget. So, are we ready to agree to a ‘go’ recommendation?”

Back in his office Greg was smiling. Roxanne had just called with some good news; she and two of her colleagues were finishing early with another client and had two days open at the end of the following week. “Because of the size of the group and the need to be available for some design workshops, including a separate workshop for your leadership team, I’ll need the help of a couple of my colleagues for the meeting. I want them to be present on the first day to listen to your issues, become familiar with the people and the challenges, and have your people begin to get comfortable with them. On the second day, they’ll help directly with the workshops. The two I have in mind are Tom Wilson and Dan Evans. Tom has an extensive background in consumer goods, both in operations where he earned his Class A credentials, and as a coach in our group for the past five years. Dan spent his career in the pharmaceutical industry, specifically in sales and marketing, and worked on Class A project teams in two different companies. He joined our group nearly ten years ago and has been a coach for companies in chemical processing, heavy equipment manufacturing, and also in the electronics industry. I know both Tom and Dan will do a good job in the workshops and will be very helpful as you go forward. I included the cost of three of us in the proposal, but didn’t indicate specifically who would be involved. Is their participation acceptable to you, Greg?”

“Works for me. If you’re confident about their ability to help, I welcome their participation.”

When he reflected on the conversation after the call, he thought, “Was that me welcoming a consultant? Guess I’ve already started changing my behavior!”

Roxanne had told Greg that these two days would be used to help Cosmetics Products set up the work, and requested that the initiative champion, initiative leader, milestone champions, and milestone leaders be assigned prior to the workshop. Depending on progress, the executive Champions might not be needed for all of the second day; but should join in for a wrap-up. At this point, Greg felt a bit alarmed to be excluded from that part of the workshop. He thought to himself, “Gotta’ let go; gotta’ trust them; gotta’ stop micromanaging.” This was a new concept for Greg. He was continuing to confront and change his own counterproductive behavior.

The executive team, looking upbeat, reconvened at 3:00 P.M. Greg spoke up, “Okay folks, what do you recommend: ‘go’ or ‘no-go’?”

David replied, “We have a recommendation, Greg, but first we need to give you our rationale. Sara, take us through it.”

“Greg, I took notes for the team and David helped me summarize our thinking. There should be no surprises.” Sara spent ten minutes running through half a dozen slides.

David followed Sara’s presentation. “Greg, our recommendation, and we are unanimously committed to this, is ‘go’, and go quickly.”

Greg paused a moment, making eye contact with each of them, before saying, “Good! I expected that decision. How should we announce this? We need to make sure Alexandra and Zachary know of our decision before they learn about it through the grapevine.”

But within a few minutes Alexandra entered the conference room. “Sorry I missed the first part of the reconnect. Where are we?” David filled her in and said they were about to look at the proposed announcement.

Sara put up the proposed wording on the screen. Greg read it silently, and then frowned. “Well, that does cover all the points, but there’s no fire in it. Remember your feelings when I asked you for a recommendation? You were excited and passionate about moving forward. We need the rest of our people to be just as excited.”

“Maybe we make this more like a declaration of our intent.” David continued, “You know, like an official proclamation; something like, ‘We the Cosmetics Products team . . . are committed to . . . to achieve . . . so that we . . . by doing this . . . it’s our top priority project.’ That sort of thing. And maybe we can all sign it and make copies to display around this place, even in the plants, Field Sales offices and distribution centers. And let’s create a communication package so we can schedule department meetings to explain the new direction.” The excitement increased, and Greg decided it was time to demonstrate his commitment as well.

Before he could speak, Alexandra said, “We need a name for this initiative so that everyone from the Board to the shop floor to our customers can understand and relate to it. I suggest we make it simple and just call it the ‘Customer Service Initiative.’ ” Everyone nodded in agreement.

Then Greg spoke. “Well, while you have been enjoying a free lunch, I’ve been busy. I’ve already contacted Effective Management and reserved some of their time.” Their surprised faces showed that Greg had just scored a home run with his team. There was a buzz of approval and discussion in the room. “Okay, so I jumped the gun a bit, but I was confident about what your recommendation would be.” He paused for a moment, “Now the other news. I need you to clear your calendars next Thursday and Friday, and think about others who should join us for an executive and initiative team kick-off meeting. According to those slides of yours, you’ve already started to think about who should be on the teams. That’s great! Invite them to come along when you’ve finalized your choices. And we should also include our own subject matter experts. Roxanne’s coming in with a couple of her colleagues to help us get going. They’ll be here to take us through the milestone templates in detail, and to facilitate our job of setting up the initiative.” The excitement turned to anxious mutterings about how they would clear their calendars with such short notice.

Alexandra interrupted. “I’ve just been talking this afternoon with a key account. We’re this close to being fired by yet another customer. I can’t think of anything on anyone’s schedule that should take priority over the initiative kick-off. Greg, I’ll make sure our key marketing and sales managers will be there—no excuses. The sooner we get started, the sooner we stop the hemorrhaging, as David so appropriately put it. We just can’t waste another day without doing something to stop the loss of customers, revenue, and profit.”

Greg smiled. “Here’s my next piece of news. Alexandra, you will champion of the Capable Integrated Business Management Milestone and David will champion for the Capable Planning and Control Milestone. I will be the champion for the overall Customer Service Initiative.” David nearly choked on his coffee. “I think you all agree with me that Alexandra and David are the right ones to lead the milestones.” They agreed readily since David and Alexandra both had already demonstrated their passion and leadership. “You’ll both need to free up some time to get this show on the road and get a project plan in place.”

The team agreed that achieving this initiative was their top priority, and asked Greg to let them know who else he had volunteered from the executive team. This was the opening Greg needed.

“Well, actually I’ve volunteered the entire executive team to lead the work in achieving the Capable Integrated Business Management Milestone in parallel with the Capable Planning and Control Milestone.” This brought another flurry of questions all being asked at the same time until Greg raised his hands to quiet the group. “First I heard you tell me that getting our business sorted out is the top priority. I fully support getting customer service fixed, but I’m equally committed that we don’t slip back again to where we are today. I want us to have the most robust executive business management process anyone has ever seen. I want customers to want to do business with us. Together, these milestones will move us in that direction and provide a superb launch platform for taking on additional milestones in the future.”

The meeting continued longer than anticipated as they discussed the implications for current business; how to provide support for the milestones; and how to engage themselves in the Integrated Business Management Milestone—all at the same time. Most of the discussion was about potential candidates for the initiative and the milestone leaders, the persons driving the project teams day to day and hour by hour, and about possible cross-functional task team members. They concluded one person full time could be the initiative leader and lead one of the milestones but they would need another leader for the second milestone. Time and again they challenged each other to release people each regarded as key to the business, rather than offer up good but second-best candidates. Following additional discussion about the remaining elements of the Leadership phase of the Proven Path, and completing an abridged Leadership Team meeting agenda, they finished the long but exciting day at 7:30 P.M.

Greg phoned Roxanne the next morning to report the formal decision and the leadership team’s reactions. He told her they would call it the “Customer Service Initiative,” and that he’d asked the leadership team to round up their best people from which they’d select the milestone teams.

“Good,” Roxanne responded. “In addition, I think you should make an opening statement at the workshop before handing the agenda over to us. Initially we’ll cover much of the information from the facilitated diagnostic that I already shared with your leadership team, Greg, but we’ll get into more of the Checklist details. You should purchase a sufficient quantity of Checklists so that everyone will have easy access to it. The workshop will prepare them to begin working on the Customer Service Initiative. It’s important that all attendees take away from the session a clear sense of what they’ll need to do next. You’ll be surprised how much education will occur during the next couple weeks. The team sessions during the workshops will give us an opportunity to see whether the participants have the right mix of background and capabilities to identify and close the gaps to best practices. By the way, having your leadership team present for the two days will speak volumes to the others about the priority and importance of this effort. I really hope all of you can attend.”

“Not only can we attend, Roxanne, we’ll make sure there are no cell phone calls or any other interruptions. In fact, I think I’ll have the meeting scheduled off-site. It’s too easy to get distracted when we’re here in the main office. I trust that’s acceptable to you?”

“Perfect, Greg. We’ll need everyone’s complete attention. I really like the way this is shaping up. The most important foundation element in any culture change effort is the commitment of the leadership team. You and your team are demonstrating exactly what we need. That’s why I am so confident that Cosmetics Products will be successful in solving your customer service problems through these milestones. I’m also confident in your ability to complete the entire journey to business excellence successfully if you choose to go on after completing these first two.” Meanwhile, Cynthia had been busy and managed to hire a good venue.

Roxanne and Greg checked their calendars and planned logistics for the meeting, which would be held at the Marriott Marquis in downtown Atlanta. Greg selected that location so that the participants would recognize the importance of the event and to minimize interruptions. Greg would tell everyone at the beginning of the meeting to turn off cell phones and any other communications devices, a previously unheard of request in Cosmetics Products. He wanted the beginning of the culture change to be apparent from the first day. Roxanne suggested that in his opening address he should include the business case, why those present were invited, and what it would mean to them as individuals and to the future of the company. They also agreed to schedule a Thursday evening dinner to which Greg would invite Susan as the keynote speaker. Roxanne had heard a good deal about Susan and welcomed the opportunity to meet her. Greg couldn’t wait to get the ball rolling.