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Do We Dislike Consistency?

Is consistency what drives our dislike of successful teams?

By Mark Riffey

For the record, I’m not a New England Patriots fan., but I can’t deny that I admire their process. In fact, I think their process is what most Patriot “haters” actually dislike. It’s not necessarily Tom Brady, even if you don’t like that he’s 40ish, looks 30ish, has 0.000003% body fat, a gazillion dollar contract, a supermodel wife, etc. Or that he’s been great at coming back from certain defeat, similar to Roger Staubach, John Elway and a few others. Still, I don’t think that’s it, except maybe for that last minute “miracle” in the Super Bowl against the Seahawks.

The thing about haters seems to be about the team, rather than the coaches, or players (except for Brady). I mean, you might not like how coach Belichick talks to the press (or doesn’t), but it’s tough to dislike his effectiveness. Consider the consistency of the results he’s produced across two decades with more or less a different group of players each year, Brady notwithstanding.

Perhaps there are all sorts of reasons to dislike the Patriots. Ultimately, I think it’s because their process produces fairly consistent results for two decades. Their process produces wins when we think they shouldn’t.

Process yields results

So what’s the point of the football talk? When a team (business or sports) consistently does well over a long period of time, there will be haters.

Consider the consistency of processes and results across your entire business. Now think about how these results impact customers and vendors. Customers despise inconsistency. If you ask your customers, what area of your business is the most consistent and most frustrating, what would their answer be? Think about your pet peeves with your vendors. Do you mirror them to your customers?

You may be aware of areas where your business is a pain to deal with. It may be due to results, services, delivery, and/or quality being inconsistent. Your opinion of what’s inconsistent isn’t the only one that matters. Your customers might have thoughts on that – and you should ask. While it’s good to work on improving the consistency of the things you’ve identified, it’s a really good idea to discuss the topic with your customers. A good time to do it: when they’re already complaining to you. You’ve already got them to open up and tell you what’s going wrong. You might think you should avoid giving them more reason to rip on you, but it gives you more chances to respond and repair the relationship.

Machines & Robots

You may not want to be “hated” like the Patriots, but it could happen. If you are doing right by your customers, employees, contractors, and anyone else involved for an extended period of time, it’s possible. Even so, the hate you might get from some people is their problem, not yours.

When your company’s success takes up more space in the competition’s minds than working toward their own success, that’s clearly not your problem. Your problem (challenge, really) is to get your company to the point where that could happen. The path to success involves a lot of things – and one of them is a significant increase in the consistency of what you do.

At some point, your company and your people might be seen as “a machine” or “robots” because of their consistency. As long as your customers don’t see them that way because they’re inflexible and stone-faced, you’re fine. To some, looking like a “machine” or a “robot” is a negative. To others, it means your team is well trained and you have systems in place to minimize mistakes.

Consistency Fatigue

If a competitor doesn’t like you and your business because of the consistency of the results your business delivers, much less the friendliness and skillfulness of your people, it isn’t your problem. Deep down, I think that’s the problem with the Patriots. Yes, most fans can look back over the years and remember when their favorite team lost to the Patriots in a game they “shouldn’t have lost”. Some of it might be that people are tired of seeing them at or near the top of the heap. This year, they got what they wanted.

Strive to produce consistently high quality results, coaching, mentoring, training, and execution. Let the haters hate.

Want to learn more about Mark or ask him to write about a strategic, operations or marketing problem? See Mark’s site, contact him on LinkedIn or Twitter, or email him at [email protected].