Right People on the Wrong Bus

Jim Collins, the author of Good to Great rallied us to get “the Right People on our Bus.”  For the last 15 years CEOs and business leaders have used the latest hiring fads like Topgrading, Systematically Hiring Top Talent, “A” players only, Personality testing, Skill testing, Emotional intelligence and hundreds of other products and services that promise the “Right People” on the bus.

Since these tools, methodologies, skills and processes promise to bubble up the best people for your bus.  The playing field is being leveled so the person with the best profile, interview skills, application strategy, good looks and the right school is paid the really big money to get on YOUR bus and not someone else’s bus.

Don’t you wonder how that “right person” decides what bus to get on?  The bidding war for “right persons” doesn’t stop when they take the hiring bonus and take the seat on bus #1.

The more experience that “right person” gets on bus #1, the more they are offered from the driver of bus #2, and so on.

“Revenue Science™” observes that setting out to get the “right person” on your business might not be the best use of resources or create the best outcomes for that “right person” or the team already on the bus.

When the focus is on searching the population of all persons to short-list possible “right persons”, followed by testing, interviewing, vetting, security checking, grading, selecting, offering, negotiating and hoping the “right person” that successfully completes the process will take a seat on the bus and stay for a prolonged period, there is a lot of resource expended.

Getting that right person to take a seat is long and expensive.  Often the process of getting that right person takes as long as that “right person” stays in the bus.

What if the time, expense and the risk of on-boarding someone who is looking for a big paycheck until they find a bigger paycheck and cooler bus could be eliminated?

What if there was a line at the door of your bus and those people in line already knew that this is the bus they are passionate about boarding?  What if they knew where this bus was going?  What if where this bus was going was on the bucket list for everyone in line?  What if those in line were so excited about the trip this bus was taking that how much you pay them (must be reasonable) is not nearly as important as being part of the team and helping the team on the bus achieve their purpose?

Jim Collins was talking about getting the right people on a bus that was focused on making money from the market.  The bus believed hiring people with talent focused on excellence and high levels of production from doing their job, was what defined the “The Right Person.”

“Revenue Science™” tells us that producing the maximum sales and profitable revenue is the result of an organization (bus), driven by a purpose of “worthy intention”, achieved by deploying a Revenue Strategy.  The Revenue Strategy is focused on delivering the most possible value to the customers who share the same “worthy intention,” and are compelled by the value.  Those customers are eager to pay for that value since there is NO better option for the customer.

With this Revenue Strategy, everyone on the bus, all partners and all customers, are about making more money by executing on the “worthy intention” and working as an aligned unit, disciplined to continuously improve, by measurement and change as required.

When the direction of a bus is set by the “worthy intention”, the line to get on the bus is made up of those who “live” to go that direction and achieve the “worthy intention.”

What may surprise many is the pursuit of the “worthy intention” makes everyone on the bus more money as well as more personal satisfaction.  In the big picture, those who make more money doing what they love, stay on the bus longer and recruit others to the bus who add value and want to travel the same trip.

Don’t focus on the “right people” on your bus.  Focus on the bus trip to achieve a worthy intention and watch “your right people” get in line to get on “your right bus.”

When you build a Revenue Strategy that achieves a “worthy intention” shared by your customers, you won’t have to worry about who is riding your bus or their reasons for wanting a seat. A final thought by the way, everyone will make more money as long as the trip has a “worthy intention” destination.