It happened one Thanksgiving Day. My mom and her sisters gathered around the dining room table and placed a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle. I’d seen them do it every Thanksgiving Day of my life. They were a remarkable team when it came to piecing together those puzzles. And one of them, in an unrivaled gesture of leadership, would always stand the box top on its edge at the head of the table. What I had always seen, but never really saw until that particular Thanksgiving, was the role of the box top.

That box top was the vision. It was a crystal–clear, exact representation of the goal. There was no mistaking it. There was no margin for error or confusion in what to do. The placing of that puzzle was a zero-defects process.

It all started with an outline. Identify the straight-edge pieces and work together to form the boundaries of the puzzle. After the outline was established, they worked with precision and purpose, each teammate knowing exactly what to do and how their e fforts fit into the overall picture.

Adding team members was a cinch. Someone would walk up to the table, and by simply looking at the box top, knew exactly what the goal was and how to help reach it. Someone may say, “That’s what we are doing,” and it was all the instruction needed.

When they finished the puzzle, they admired their work and congratulated each other. And why not? Those puzzle placers had reached the goal, and it looked exactly like the goal defined in the beginning. The results were built into the process. The finished puzzle looked just like the box top.

Does your dealership have a box top for 2010? How good or great 2010 will be in your store depends on how clearly you project your vision to your organization, managers and front-line employees. It goes beyond training. Well-trained dealership employees will instinctively do things right, but are they doing the right things?

For example, if one of your goals for 2010 is to improve BDC or Internet processes, is every detail stamped out to fit perfectly with the other pieces of the equation? The initiatives of each team must interlock to reach the goal.

Do your guest services personnel, BDC staff and service advisors all understand how to do things in a way that helps the other teams be successful?

As business comes back, there will be a need for hiring new employees to take care of the customers. If you hired a new employee today could you point to something and say, “This is what we are doing”?

Chances are that you do have a box top in your head! All leaders do, but are you demonstrating that unrivaled gesture of leadership to your troops by standing the box top on edge for all to see?

This is really more than a metaphor. It’s a model we need to adapt moving forward. Clearly state the goals for your company and precisely where you want the organization to be at the end of 2010. Then, put it in the hands of your talented front-line consultants, advisors, appointment coordinators and support staff.

Show them what you want and let them map out the processes to get there. With a box top, they’ll get it done. It will be easy for them to see what fits and what doesn’t fit. Process improvement teams breed groundswell support for the vision of the dealership leadership team.

When front-line employees get to define the “how,” they take responsibility for it. Instead of doing the right things because you told them to, they are doing the right things and doing them right because it fits their game plan. They own it.

If you’ve never implemented process improvement teams, get help. An experienced facilitator will guide cross-functional teams through the process, empowering your employees to be creative. Let the facilitator lead them to a place where all dealership processes are mapped out and where performance standards, accountability and discipline become part of your dealership culture. Then, train front-line employees on the processes, and put measures in place to assure adherence and prevent process erosion.

It is a simple process but not always easy. We are talking about change, which is never easily accepted across departmental lines. Secondly, managers have to stay out of the process. Let the facilitator keep the company’s best interest in play. When managers are involved, front-line employees don’t open up. Fear gets in the way of the best possible results.

We’ve all heard the saying, “A leader’s job is not to see the company as it is, but as it can be.” You see it; now share it with the rest of your team! At the end of 2010, you will be able to stand back and admire your work, as the puzzle placers did.

Just follow the process; the results are built in.

Vol. 7, Issue 2