THE PROMPT

PROMPT:  An important CUE or INCENTIVE -- A CALL TO ACTION

You can't believe how many times I've heard business owners and managers say, "We ask an employee to do a certain task or action -- they do it for awhile, but then they forget or fail to do it consistently -- sometimes not at all."

For example, this week one of my new software clients told me about how they had needed to have one of their employees fill out a form they had designed with the names and quantity of Finished Goods they were inventorying for their customers, and the employee had failed to do this consistently, whereby my client ended up doing it himself. I could feel the tension from the client and his managers as we discussed the problem. They were frustrated and perplexed.

I asked them, "Do you have a PROMPT for your employee to do this task?"

"A what?"

"Do you have a PROMPT for them?" 

After explaining what I meant, I could tell that my client and his managers had felt they should just be able to show an employee how and when to do a task and it should just continue to happen.  Well, tell that to the Airlines!

Airline pilots would be lost without a series of PROMPTS.  Now you might not think a pilot should need a PROMPT to remember to lower the wheels before landing, but that's just one of hundreds of critical steps a pilot must remember (or, better yet, check off) in order to take off and land a plane safely. The pilot's list of PROMPTS helps to ensure that not one important detail is forgotten. 

If you've read my book SYSTEM BUSTERS: How to Stop Them in Your Business, you know I am a big proponent of Checklists for every employee, with PROMPTS to complete various tasks or actions.  Nothing is just committed to memory or left to chance.  That can be deadly in any business!

Our Checklists even include the time (or approximate time) of day certain tasks should be performed (i.e. 2:00 pm - Production Supplies ordered from vendors). I have seen Daily Routine Checklists bring order to many companies, along with other lists of PROMPTS (i.e. Quality Control Checklists, Service Control Checklists and Procedures).

About now you may also be saying, "I have made checklists with prompts, but some employees fail to complete and turn them in."
 
Again, I ask, "Where is the PROMPT for them to complete the checklist?"

Okay, Here’s How It Works . . .

First, we need to give the employee one of what I would call a "full circle" of Checklists, with a list of PROMPTS to complete certain tasks or actions.

Now we'll also give the employee an INCENTIVE for action by having a follow-up system that monitors, to ensure the employee has actually completed their checklist. We will do this by giving each MANAGER a Daily Routine Checklist -- yes, a manager ALSO needs his or her own Checklist!

Now then, on the manager’s Checklist there is a PROMPT to do a simple review of the checklists that employees under their supervision are required to complete and turn in.  If an employee fails to turn in or complete their checklist, then a System Buster Form (a non-conformance reporting document) is submitted by the manager to upper management. The PROMPT for that action is also on the manager's Daily Routine Checklist. 

The System Buster document is received and reviewed by the owner or upper management and the root cause of the non-conformance is determined.  Next to be determined is the action needed to prevent this non-conformance from happening again (in this case, an employee not completing their checklist).

The manager, as well as the employee who failed to complete the checklist, will sign the System Buster document which states that this was a personal error of non-conformance.

When an employee has been asked to sign one or two of these System Buster documents, they begin to see the big picture -- the importance of compliance as a team for the highest quality product and the benefits to all -- and they have an INCENTIVE to complete the action or task on their Checklist in a consistent manner.

Is the successful completion of job duties by an employee not what we’re all looking for?  Now can you see how PROMPTS work?  This is how a prompt on one checklist can be influenced by a prompt on another checklist, and round and round it goes.  I call this completing the "full circle" of a system.

Great Systems Work!

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