I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people like me!

Remember the good old days, when you were what you ate? Life was simpler then, yes? Now, depending on which TV self-help guru you watch, you are what you eat, or what you think, or what you're grateful for, or what you already have, or what you want. There's an entire school of thought that says you attract what you focus on most; therefore, if you think about being broke all the time, for example, you'll merely get more of the same.

So much pressure to be positive at all times can be exhausting! (It can also lead to mediocre SNL skits and their spin-off merchandise.) Ironically, if you find yourself thinking negatively, you're likely to start beating yourself up for thinking negatively, which then makes you feel even worse (hey, maybe there's something to that "you get what you focus on" theory, after all).

Whether or not you believe that thought is power, in business it's critical to focus on what's important. And many companies, without meaning to do so, place too much focus on the negative.

I can fix that!

Consultants make millions of dollars every year helping businesses fix problems; problems ranging from low employee morale to inefficient processes and everything in between. Managers spend hundreds of hours in meetings each year researching who did what that caused a bad result. Of course organizations need to put energy into fixing what's wrong. It's appropriate and necessary to research mistakes and customer issues; it's appropriate to investigate problems. Root cause analysis should be a key ingredient in any effort to resolve significant business problems. And no manager can be effective if s/he doesn't work with team members to resolve issues.

But when we focus too much of our energy on problems, we sometimes forget to pay attention to what we're doing right. We think that the parts of our business that are working well may not need as much of our energy as the parts of our business that are crashing. So we turn our minds to solving the problems at hand. And if your organization is in the middle of a rough patch, it can seem as though all you do is deal with problems day in and day out. This can be demoralizing, even to the most optimistic of employees.

Stay too long in firefighting mode, and people start burning out and leaving. Your best people are the ones who will start bailing out first (because they're the ones who will easily find other jobs). As turnover increases, so does the workload of the folks left behind, which can lead your organization into a spiral of more problems, more burnout, and more turnover.

The Art of the Autopsy

Why not shake things up a bit?

Yes, you have to deal with the problems. But how about taking some of those analytical skills and putting them to work finding out what you did right? There's no rule that says root cause analysis can only be used to figure out what caused a problem; you can use root cause analysis to dissect your successes, too. This isn't some warm-and-fuzzy strategy to make your employees feel better; it's a way to identify what you're doing that works, and then identify CAPAs (continuing and positive actions - as opposed to the corrective and preventative actions identified in traditional root cause analysis) to help you repeat what works.

Conducting regular success autopsies can benefit your organization in a number of ways. First, it puts your attention on the positive (which does provide an emotional lift, and everyone likes to feel good). In addition, it forces you to sketch out, in detail, all the people, processes, systems, and environmental factors that contributed to your big wins. You'd be astonished at how many people are involved in the success stories  - people you might never have considered as active team members; people who might not otherwise get a lot of recognition for their contributions). Finally, it teaches you to brainstorm on ways to repeat all the small wins that add up to the big success stories.

In an upcoming entry, I'll outline the process of conducting a success autopsy. In the interim, you can start by putting a bit of focus on what your team is doing right. Spend a little time talking through why you had a good outcome; take the time to thank the unsung heroes on your team. Accentuate the positive.

Focus on what you're doing right, and you might just find that you'll have fewer problems to deal with over time. Then you can create an upward spiral that leads to more success, more productivity, and happier employees. Even Stuart Smalley couldn't find a way to put a negative spin on that.