Over the past few weeks, you’ve been reading about the power of the Power Continuum – about how creating systems around prospecting, closing, and development can create consistent, excellent results across your customer life cycle.
What is so great about systems? For starters, systems:
- Take the guesswork out of the equation.
- Enable you to separate yourself from your business – and treat your business as a business
- Provide you a repeatable, scalable approach to the customer life cycle
- Give you the information you need to monitor performance and make decisions
- Increase transparency so you can proactively prevent bottlenecks and problems
- Enable you to take a 360-degree look at your customer life cycle, instead of always looking in the rear-view mirror
- Equip you to consistently excel with precision rather than flounder with inconsistency, achieving results that go beyond conventional boundaries
Using systems to go beyond conventional boundaries. It sounds like an oxymoron, doesn’t it? But it’s true…systems can enable you to do just that. Take Cirque du Soleil as an example. Have you ever seen a performance of the troupe? If not, you absolutely must go the next time they are in your city. As background, Cirque du Soleil was “born” in 1984 near Quebec, Canada. The idea was to create a theatrical show mixing circus art and street art, such as stilt walking, juggling, fire breathing, dancing, and music. Because Quebec had no conventional circus history, this new circus didn’t feel the need to be bound by conventional practices. So Cirque du Soleil went past traditional rules of the circus to defy the limits of reality and performance. You see this if you go.
The acrobatics, which comprise probably 90% of the show, are what amaze me. Performers do things that truly do defy reality…from balancing 20 feet atop a multitude of moving cylinders to unbelievable tightrope walking to flipping on a 4” flexible “beam” held on each end by other performers. The feats make your head spin. And yet, each is performed flawlessly. How can that be? It’s systematic precision. Performers are best in class before they are invited to perform with the troupe and, once they arrive, are immersed in training for a few weeks to a few months on a single show.
Cirque du Soleil has implemented systematic precision, but has also been smart to allow the systems to drive the technical aspects of the show, not the connection with their customer. In fact, as a spectator, you are awed by the precision, but experience the bond between the performers and the audience. The systems enable the performers to deliver the tactics of their job with precision, freeing them to interact with you, their customer, creating an experience unlike any traditional circus experience you’ve ever had. Take a peek at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eP6AJXprOXc.
Cirque du Soleil’s focus on systematic precision has delivered astounding results:
- In 1984, it employed 73 people; today more than 4,000 people are part of the troupe, including over 1,000 artists
- These people represent over 40 nationalities and speak 25 different languages
- Cirque has delivered shows in over 250 cities worldwide
- Over 100 million spectators have experienced the wonder of a Cirque show
- In 2010, over 20 different shows were featured around the world
Cirque du Soleil is a great example of how creating systematic precision in your business enables you to go beyond conventional boundaries, delivering a superior performance, a strong customer connection, and a stellar customer experience, all which drive business results that also exceed conventional boundaries.
Want to go beyond conventional boundaries? Create systematic precision.
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