CEO Message: Staying Focused: Stamping out the Random Good Idea

By Barbara C. Higgens, PMI CEO/Executive Director

Much of the success that PMI and its members have enjoyed since the new organization emerged in 1998 is due to our efforts to remain focused on key issues and to not allow ourselves to be distracted. PMI staff and its consultants follow strict guidelines to organize, prioritize and concentrate on the various tasks which you, our members, have deemed as “key.” For example, despite the myriad of legislative and regulatory issues facing industry today, PMI lobbyists focus primarily on initiatives surrounding water efficiency (e.g. flow rates) and water content (e.g. hex chrome, Prop 65, leachates).

Progress reports happen regularly on our Advocacy/Lobbying calls, and are now available as a “podcast-like” audio summary posted on our website. Technical updates are delivered through the “Tech Talk” conference calls. Meeting reports for these calls as well as the “Outreach” calls are posted on the Members Only portion of the PMI website.

Working off of comprehensive “to-do” lists, PMI staff breaks projects down into manageable tasks, and the progress is reviewed at our weekly staff meetings. We regularly touch base with our membership through our conferences, conference calls, one-on-one interviews, and satisfaction surveys to ensure that we are still rowing in the right direction. From time to time, we propose enhancements to our marching orders in view of changes in the world around us and/or potential new initiatives and opportunities.

The foundation for our various projects is the Strategy Map which was included in last issue of Ripple Effect and also available online. As the PMI Board works to update PMI’s strategy and set metrics, much care and thought is being given to the topics, wording and priority of our goals. See President Fernandez’s article. Our top priority is to promote the interests of our members in the context of our two-pronged focus: Technical Expertise and Advocacy/Outreach.

YOU are the primary focus and beneficiary of the efforts of PMI as we address the issues of most importance to you. Supporting each of our objectives is a list of specific action items which will be pursued to accomplish each goal. In this way, we stay focused and effectively stamp out the often glamorous and tempting but deadly “random good idea.”

The “random good idea” you ask? I addressed this topic first in a 1999 issue of PMI News (the former name of our Ripple Effect newsletter) and again in 2005. Perhaps it’s time for a review. While innovation, re-invention, and creativity are key to the survival of an organization, the random good idea is the rascal which can derail even the most focused among us. It’s the enticing offer that pulls us away from the core of our work. “Hey gang! I just got a call from a promoter offering to help PMI start up its own industry trade show complete with our own magazine… And we can advertise our new direction on the ‘Jimmy Fallon Show’ at a special half price advertising rate Thursday! Whadda ya say? Let’s do it!”

And with that, projects are dropped, re-prioritized, budgets are blown, and the train is off the track. What an exciting idea!

BUT – does it fit the plan?

The random good idea is the business equivalent of those legendary, annoying phone solicitations we all get at home (though thankfully less frequently these days). Has such a call actually persuaded you to make a major purchase that you really hadn’t already been considering? “Say! As a matter of fact, I DO need aluminum siding. Thanks for calling!” Probably not. More than likely the call came at an inconvenient time and distracted you from something important.

Having been a personnel director for a company with phone sales as a big part of the business, (it’s a long story — don’t get me started), I can say that such calls, at best, simply hit the prospect at the right time. That is, the plan was already in the works and the call just moved the decision forward, as opposed to actually selling the person on the idea.

Our approach to business planning at PMI operates this way. When presented with an opportunity, we bounce it against our well thought-out plan. Is the proposed opportunity already a part of the plan… and the budget? If it is… GREAT! Let’s do it! If not, is the opportunity compelling enough to have us change our strategy and reallocate our dollars? If it is, then let’s re-think the plan and include the proposed opportunity. If not, let’s abandon the idea and get back to the plan!

As with all businesses, the PMI office is barraged on a daily basis with unsolicited calls to: change our phone system, join an association, co-sign a letter in support or opposition to something, advertise in a new directory, travel to a convention, exhibit in a trade show. We keep our sanity (while keeping our budget in-line) by evaluating these random good ideas in the context of our strategy map, and then making decisions accordingly; that is not to suggest that we are inflexible or adverse to new ideas. (Nearly everything about PMI has been revised or at least re-evaluated over the past 17 years, and certainly we have made some significant changes.) It’s a matter of reducing the distractions and avoiding the temptation to try to be a “jack of all trades, master of none”.

Until next time… we’ll stay focused and be on the lookout for the insidious random good idea.