predictable eventSome people apply the old adage, “before the rooster crows,” to various circumstances, without fully understanding its meaning or importance. I believe a great use of it would be a predictable event in business!

The old saying came from a two-thousand-year-old story concerning a non-conforming, yet preventable event, foretold days before the infraction occurred. Fact is, the story claims the person responsible for that non-conforming, predictable event would perpetrate it; not once, but three times, before the rooster crowed.

As a result, upon hearing the rooster crow the first time, the person responsible for the three non-conforming events was distressed at the accuracy of the prediction. But sadly, instead of owning up to his infractions, he gave up and turned away, dejected. What’s worse, he decided NOT to do anything constructive to correct his gross error. Almost, unforgivable!

Folks, I’ve heard a lot of roosters crow in my day; those WAKE-UP CALLS gone unheeded by too many business owners. To explain: In business, the ‘crowing roosters’ are often employees, customers or family members; fine-feathered friends trying to warn owners and upper-management that predictable events are looming on the horizon. In fact, many, right at the door!

A Predictable Event Will Occur – Rooster or No Rooster

Here are a few examples:

“Cock-a-doodle-do” – “Hey Bob, our new client rejected the project we just completed, because ole Willy Paul, our lead-tech, failed to read his special instructions on the Job Ticket. The entire project needs reworked in two days. I told you we needed to put in some Quality Control systems or this was going to happen over and over!”

“Cock-a-doodle-do” – “Hey Bob, Jimmy our best worker left on vacation and we promised to have that big job for TechMass delivered tomorrow. We can’t do that now! I warned you this would happen if we didn’t put some type of Request for Leave system in place!”

“Cock-a-doodle-do” – “Hey Bob, that new $10,000 piece of equipment you just purchased is missing! Someone left it at a job-site and no-one knows where, or who’s responsible. Boss, I suggested three times that we needed some type of tracking system for our equipment. This loss could have been prevented!”

Before the Rooster Crows | Call to Action

As you know, this is a small sample of crows; wake-up calls heard by owners and managers. More importantly, these are NOT just the sounds of some boastful chickens, but warning-bells that predictable errors and miscommunications will come to wreak havoc on a business.

Therefore, I suggest you embrace those “cock-a-doodle-dos” as your personal Wake-up Calls and your CALL TO ACTION!

Imagine taking each “cock-a-doodle-do” seriously, by finding their root-cause, and doing something systematically to STOP them, permanently!  The result? You would hear that continuous ‘crowing’ fade, and see a more peaceful culture, a more joyful crew emerge.

More importantly, thousands of dollars, lost to waste, saved!

The GOOD NEWS is, errors and miscommunications are absolutely preventable—and, yes, forgivable!

Did I mention? Great systems work!