Consistency

Something happened at my day job recently that made me realize that the word “consistency” is going the way of “extreme” and “normal” and “regular”. It is losing the meaning that it SHOULD have.

I was disciplined at work for an accident, “consistently” (according to the store manager) with someone who had done the same thing purposefully.

Let's be really clear here. I tried to explain this to the manager, and then to a regional director, but neither got it.

Actions cannot and SHOULD NOT be “consistent”. Anyone who keeps doing the same thing in the same way either lacks courage, imagination or intelligence. RESULTS should be consistent, the actions taken to achieve that consistency should vary from situation to situation. Always, though, consistency of the end result should be the goal.

For instance, the consistent goal of business, time immemorial, has been to bring in as much money as possible with as little outflow as possible. The ways that we have achieved this through the years have changed significantly and need to keep changing. I always love it when some American says to me that something is the right way to do something because it's “always been done that way”. Really what this means is that it's always been done this way as far as you know, because, being an American, history for you began the day that you were born and will end the day that you die. Anything that happened before your birth is inconsequential... anything after your death is irrelevant. I think that this is the attitude that leads us to ignore global climate change so as not to inconvenience ourselves. We're seeing really minor changes in the weather and temperature. No big deal. We can live with it, right? The problem is that it's just going to keep getting nastier and nastier... more and more extreme. But hell, that'll be the KID'S problem, right?

So you see how our consistent actions are resulting in an outcome that is not consistent with what we claim in this country? We need to be FLEXIBLE in our actions if we want the same better world for our kids that our parents claimed to have wanted for us.

It's the same with business. Any business that does the same thing... in the same way... every single time... regardless of variables... will not last. Of course, just like with the global climate change issue, who cares what happens to the company in twenty years, right? If I aim at the short-term only (and remember anything that happens after me is irrelevant) then “staying the course” regardless of icebergs can be beneficial. Makes the books look really good for today and tomorrow. And that's all that matters. If my “consistency” causes the business to go bankrupt in twenty years because no one decent will work for them anymore out of fear of unjust “discipline”... well... that's simply not my problem.

Which brings something else about “consistent” to mind. Consistent is a relative term. Nothing can be, in and of itself, consistent. It can only be consistent with something else. So if your actions are “consistent” with your actions, then they're consistent with nothing. Doing the same thing in the same way is idiotic... I think, though, that people have a hard time saying “I'm going to do this the same way every time because I'm too (unimaginative/stupid/lazy) to look at the variables of each individual situation.

Which is inconsistent with the idea of long-term success and growth of a company.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, who could say almost ANYTHING better than I can, said “Consistency is the hobgoblin of the little mind.”

See how that works?

Peace.

Randal