Ep. 2: Outliers & Best-Known Success Patterns
MultiView Inc. This content is based on MVI's work with over 1,300 organizations extracting nine eighty nine data elements with nine twenty two cross calculations over twenty seven years on a monthly basis, and then systematizing the operational success patterns of the ninetieth percentile. Our intent is to get beyond the brag and the boast and simply share insights from our experience without manipulation or coercion to sell anything except helpful ideas. These messages range from intimate recordings from the Awakened Forest to concerts, national conferences, and broadcasts.
Speaker 2:Here we are this morning in the Awakened Forest and I'm at the cabin, and we're gonna be talking about the topic of outliers and understanding the nature of best known success patterns. Now this topic of being an outlier is appealing. Most human beings on an individual level as well as on an organizational level want to feel unique, special. And of course, I think that's good. That's motivation that drives us.
Speaker 2:So that's great. And then this idea of best known success patterns. A lot of fancy consultants and what have you refer to best practice. And to me, that seems a bit arrogant and unconsidered. Why?
Speaker 2:Because best kinda says, hey, I've got the whole enchilada here. I have complete understanding of this topic, which in truth, most of us in our honest moments realize that all topics are infinite. Here we are, a being with five senses to interpret the world, and there's a lot going on that we don't know about. So there needs to be this degree of humility thrown into the mix. And then a practice.
Speaker 2:A practice is really a pattern. And if we spend any time in nature, which to me is the truth about how life operates on this planet, we observe that it is a system of patterns and that random does not exist. Now that startles some people, that comment, that random does not exist. That is a human idea that that we language. But think about it.
Speaker 2:A meteor that hits the earth that extinguishes a third of all life happens. It just doesn't happen that frequently. This planet, this globe is pitted with all kinds of evidence of meteorites slamming into this world with great catastrophic damage, but it just doesn't happen that frequently. Or even when you are riding in your automobile and you have a fender bender. Well, that's not random.
Speaker 2:It happens. It happens thousands of times a day, just not to you. So if we can get with that nature is a system of patterns and that random does not exist, and we learn to flow with the patterns rather than rail or protest against the patterns, the more success we're gonna have on this planet. In fact, intelligence, as we define it, is really just two words, pattern recognition. Pattern recognition.
Speaker 2:So the question is, can we have the intelligence to recognize these patterns, the fast moving patterns, the slow moving patterns? And these patterns, or the recognition of these patterns, has great value, survival value, profit value, success value. If you realize there's these things called seasons that happen and there's this time when there's lots of food and later on there's not so much, and then there's none at all. Well, you can go, maybe I shouldn't eat up all my nuts. Maybe I should hold a few back.
Speaker 2:That's intelligence. So getting with the patterns of life, that's that's the ticket. So let's go deeper into this this morning. And of course, in the multi view world, we measure 989 data elements with 922 cross calculations from approximately a thousand companies every month. So everything that we talk about really has been quantified.
Speaker 2:But even with that said, we have to realize that the best known success patterns are happening in relatively few organizations. Okay? And almost everything, at least that can be measured, can be put on a normally distributed bell curve. And of course, in the middle, we have the fiftieth percentile. This is your average or your typical or what we'd call the mean, the mode, the median, or what we might say the herd or the huddle masses.
Speaker 2:This is where all of the measures of central tendency converge. And this is useful because with this knowledge of the fiftieth percentile, we have a basis of really being a professional in whatever field or industry we're in. Because with this, we can say, Hey, that's a high cost, that's a low cost, that's high quality, that's low quality. That's always good to have. So at minimum, to be a legitimate professional, we have to have this understanding of the fiftieth percentile.
Speaker 2:Okay? The herd, the huddled masses. But that's not where we want to live. We want to live in the extremities of the bell curve. We wanna be in that eightieth, ninetieth percentile.
Speaker 2:We don't wanna be average. And that's good, that's great motivation, and says a lot for our species. Now, there are three things or characteristics we know about these organizations that operate in the ninetieth percentile. First, they all use unique and powerful methods of people development. And you'll hear me talk about people development a lot.
Speaker 2:Why? Because we are humans in human organizations serving humans. We better get human. Okay? So for example, their training systems would be radically different.
Speaker 2:They wouldn't have orientation or orientation, the cure for insomnia. They would have fantastic training systems, what? Based on the realities of human behavior, nature, all those realities. Okay, so the first characteristic, they use unique and powerful methods of people development. Second, normally there are organizations that have meaning or cultivate meaning and purpose in the workplace.
Speaker 2:In some organizations, like in the field of post acute care, especially hospice, home health, highly spiritual organizations. If you're making cars or like MultiView, customer service and really being helpful to our fellow humans, that's part of it, just an innate goodness. But there's something in there, some driver that provides, again, motivation rather than just, hey. Just making money or whatever because that runs out after a while for anyone that's done it for a while, has accumulated a little bit, and suddenly it's like, well, is that it? Okay.
Speaker 2:So meaning and purpose. And then the third element of these organizations that operate in the ninth percentile is that they have unique and different compensation practices. It's normally just not hourly and salaries and all these things that are just so common. They would have incentives as well as disincentives. That is the pain element is brought into it that, hey, if standards are not upheld, this is what happens.
Speaker 2:It's painful. As well as, hey, you do good here. You look at your paycheck. Hey, that worked out well. Because why?
Speaker 2:Sitting here in nature like I am right now, again, we see this system of patterns, and it is a system of incentives and disincentives And kinda getting okay that if we want a result in our organization, create incentive. If we don't want something to happen, create a disincentive. And that's the way the world works. The natural world is a meritocracy. And if mama bird doesn't go out and get the worm, baby birds don't get fed.
Speaker 2:And that's the way it is. With that said, we're giving some things just easily like air, and I'm sitting in sunshine. So those are conditions of success are just provided with really no effort. So there's a little of the both going on here. Regarding this bell curve, one thing to keep in mind is that the bell curve is always with us.
Speaker 2:And why is that important? Because the herd is slow. So as we're talking about best known success patterns, recognize that once you start doing this stuff, you know, sometimes people have fear that, hey, everyone's gonna start doing this. Well, I'm here to inform you that the herd is slow to pick up. Fear will hold them back because whenever you do things that are new, it's scary.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of fear. Things could go bad. And so you do this, and once you I'll say this, get more and more comfortable doing things that the outliers do, that is that ninetieth percentile, you get so far in front of folks, they can't even see your dust. And the other thing about the bell curve is that you get to choose where you are on it. That's a product of your will.
Speaker 2:So the point is never focus on the mediocre majority. Now with this said, we have to know what the fiftieth percentile are doing. So let's get back to that bell curve. Why is that important? Because in order to have any legitimate claim of being a true professional in any field or industry, one has to know what average or typical is.
Speaker 2:And what can we do with such knowledge? We can look at something and say, That is low cost, or that is high cost, or that is low quality, or that is high quality, or that is success. So this measurement of things that actually can be measured that are on that normally distributed bell curve, That 50 percentile is important to know, even if we don't want to live there. So understanding the nature of best known success patterns. Virtually all best known
Speaker 2:patterns. Success patterns and innovations will pass through normally three stages. And let's take penicillin for an example. Okay, this guy develops this, and it takes him like a decade for people to accept that it works. I mean, they could give it to people and watch people be cured right in front of them and they still wouldn't use it. And this happens in the medical field, it happens in manufacturing, anything that is again new and different is just going to be fought against normally until it's time for that idea to to blossom or the acceptance.
Speaker 2:Or the idea that the world is not flat. That took a little time to get over. Or even the idea that washing of your hands decreases infections. This guy went to his grave. And then finally, he's saying, you know, he there he had a point.
Speaker 2:But that is the human reality. Human beings normally take quite a bit of time to accept the new. And these three stages, what's the first stage? Ridicule. You gotta be kidding me.
Speaker 2:Like in the multi view world, we have something called the perfect visit. We're dedicated to customer service and being just meticulous in the care and really looking at things from an emotional basis as to what that customer is going to experience. Well you bring something like that out and the first thing, well you can't do this. I've had nurses, physicians, or whatever just get upset that, oh, you're going to bring a process, a structure to this to increase the overall consistency or quality of the experience where we can go thousands of interactions without a single screw up or complaint because that's the reality of what we've able to achieve. And people will laugh at you and say, well, that's that's just hot air.
Speaker 2:Or this idea that we don't use budgets. Here, I am a CPA, system analyst, worked with, you know, again, these organizations, 1,300 of them at this point. And for ongoing operations, we don't use budgets. We use percentages of revenue. Now budget has great utility value, especially in building projects, things of a limited duration.
Speaker 2:But for ongoing operations, we're not counting up every Feet that you need or whatever. That's the job of that department, and all they have to do is have laser beam focus on that percentage of revenue, and then they get a piece of beating it and not going 1ยข over, but it's up to them to use their creativity. Again, you're getting a glimpse into the multi view world there, but when you say, hey, we don't use budgets, at least for ongoing operations, I mean, talk about the scowls and heckling. I mean, I've been in front of audiences, and and you can just feel people dropping over. That is the degree of pushback that you get.
Speaker 2:Or when we talk about compensation, there's another hot button that, hey, we don't pay people just salary and hourly. There's more creative ways you can incentivize people to get the results that you want. And then it's just like, no, that's crazy talk. Even though we all kinda get it on some level that there's something to it. So the first stage is ridicule of best known success patterns.
Speaker 2:The next stage is contempt. Instead of just, you know, oh, Andrew, you know, know, yours is good humor, and we enjoy listening to you talk. You know? That's the first phase. The next one is they just hate your gods.
Speaker 2:You know, God, this is this is evil, and, you know, they'll come off as some moralistic justification. I'm always surprised that, again, the human capacity for self justification is infinite. Well, we're doing this because we've done it always and it's working for us now and blah blah. Anyway, so there's this going into contempt. And then the third phase of best known success patterns is acceptance.
Speaker 2:Well, of course, you wouldn't use a budget, but rather a model for monitoring ongoing operations. Of course, you would use enlightened compensation for your people to get the results you want. Of course, you would perfectly design the customer experience to create absolute delight and repeat business and loyal customers. Of course, you would do this. And there it is, the three phases.
Speaker 2:And I guess we have to say, why? Why do people often have such a difficult or hard time implementing best known success patterns? And I think the first thing is just unfamiliarity. Know, humans tend to gravitate to the familiar and the comfortable. We are habit creatures.
Speaker 2:And new habits or thinking take effort and often courage, even if the new practice or pattern is easier. I think another reason is just lack of confidence or belief in the practices. And again, we have these magic people that we send out because it is magic when we start putting in these best known success patterns. And, you know, in eight months, an organization can just be turned around. But, boy, to get people to believe that that's actually what happens.
Speaker 2:Of course, we know it because it's quantified. Okay. Here's where we are. Here's where we end up. But to get people to believe that it's not some type of theory based or academic, idea.
Speaker 2:Oh, you know, we are in third wave management now, and we're doing this, this, and this, and no. This is real. Again, we have confidence because we have direct experience. We have directly observed hundreds of times, and so this creates incredible confidence. So there's another reason, just lack of belief, you know, kinda trust me, baby.
Speaker 2:And then they start to see a little result, and it's like, okay. Maybe there's something to this, and they they go all in. And the third reason is really has to do with leadership, especially the CEO, is the fear of public humiliation. And this is perhaps one of the greatest fears of human being. Being an outlier takes guts.
Speaker 2:And I'll just say this, even when you get ahead of the curve and you start to deviate from what the huddled masses are doing, you think they're gonna applaud and say, Hey, good job. You know, you're great and all that. No. They're gonna hate your guts. That envy thing comes up there and that's just the way it is.
Speaker 2:There are probably other reasons why people don't do best known success patterns like penicillin, pride, arrogance, which I suspect on some level is just really camouflaged fear. I think laziness also has to be factored in, just people in low energy states. And just face it, some people just have more energy than other people. And, you know, that's just a human reality. In fact, no two consciousnesses, have, you know, quite the same energetic state or vibration.
Speaker 2:And probably another reason people don't adopt best known success patterns is just because they're silly or stupid, and and they just maybe don't have the capacity to to embrace some of these things. And let me add this. Once best known success patterns are in place, why don't they stay put? And it's a curious thing with all of our multi view organizational work over, again, almost three decades of doing this. We can get an organization completely set up.
Speaker 2:They're getting 300% the profit margins they had before. They can have off the charts quality, even winning awards sometimes. And invariably, these practices dissipate over time. And this has a lot to do with just the hiring of, I'll say, average thinkers over time. You have to replace people.
Speaker 2:People come in and out of organizations. And most people are going to have an average intelligence or an average view of the world. And thus, this dilutes the knowledge of the best known ways of doing things. This is just part of it. And this is so much the reason why an organization wants to actually teach the purpose or what we'll say is the why behind the practices they use to operate their business.
Speaker 2:Another reason that best known success patterns don't stay in place is just boredom. So you can have paradise created. You can have record profits, record quality. And then someone comes in, well, you know, let's try something else. You know, we've been doing it like this for a long time.
Speaker 2:Let's take a shot at doing something. And there you go. They don't get the same results. And then it's like, well, how did we do it before? Oh, I can't remember.
Speaker 2:Because normally, it's a slow pattern happening. It's a slow devolution in this case, which is, of course, natural at the same time because nothing stays the same. So that's it. We, as human beings, we want surprise. We want entertainment.
Speaker 2:We want to experiment with the new because the new is exciting. But there's always an inherent risk and cost associated with really such moves. We've also learned that you can, you know, present best known success patterns all documented in a sigma type way, aligned with all the supporting tools necessary really for implementation, and they still don't get implemented. Why? Well, people just normally will say, well, hey.
Speaker 2:We're too busy. We're too busy with other things right now, or we're not ready. We have different initiatives or bigger initiatives going on. Mhmm. And so you're in a situation where really there's no ears to hear.
Speaker 2:I'm not downing anyone here or condemning anyone. It's really not any fault of their own. It's just that at some level, the consciousness has not taken root, you know, in these individuals to say, hey. When we start using best known success patterns from wherever we are, what we are going to redeem as much as anything else is time. And to me, that's actually when I start to actually prioritize what to put in, you have to say, what's gonna give us the most time?
Speaker 2:What's gonna give us the most life? And each time we get a new practice in place, oh, boy, I've got three or four more hours in my day, or I've got another two and a half days of the work week to work on other things. So the point is is embracing best known success patterns gives you life, and that's one of the ultimate payoffs of really thinking in terms of the adoption of such, practices. One of the most powerful things, of course, in the multi view world, we have this thing called magic services. That's basically our on-site consulting services.
Speaker 2:Obviously, we do hundreds and hundreds of organizations at one time and they phone in and we have all the supporting structures. We pull their data, they're benchmarking, all that. And that can be done, you know, remotely as well as services where we have developed, where we monitor people's operations. But when we're doing a magic engagement and it's where we were flying in, showing up on-site, we're bringing accountability to the table. Basically, we're going down, for example, our 94 action item list and just holding everybody to task.
Speaker 2:And is this best known practices in finance? Yes. Is this one in HR? Okay. Marketing, do we have this?
Speaker 2:Basically dogging the initiatives just to make sure it happens until it becomes a habit, until it becomes part of the DNA or the organization and goes forward. But again, no organization's gonna stay on kind of the straight and narrow, always upward trajectory forever. All organizations, whether you're the Roman Empire, which lasted approximately a thousand years, especially if you factor in the Etruscan period or whatever, it's just not all up. You're gonna have the valleys. You're gonna have the ups and downs.
Speaker 2:You're gonna have the natural oscillation of life, and that's just the way it is. So there it is, outliers and the nature of best known success patterns.
Speaker 1:We hope you are having the best day of your life. If you need something further, just visit one of the Multiview Incorporated websites or contact us through social media. Smoke signals, carrier pigeons, telepathy have not proven reliable. All calls are answered within three rings by a competent, real person. Thank you for listening.
