Plan-Do-Learn Ain't P-D-C-A

Recently an old friend read my blog post about Plan-Do-Learn.  His observation?  "This is the PDCA cycle!"

For those of you who are not familiar with PDCA (plan-do-check-act, aka the Deming cycle, the Shewhart cycle, and/or plan-do-study-act), it is a Quality and Continuous Improvement process.  Plan for changes to bring about an improvement; Do changes on a small scale; CHECK to see if the changes are working; and ACT to get the greatest benefit from these changes on a large scale.  Stated simply, PDCA is about making controlled changes with the goal of getting better results.  It's good science.

My friend wasn't the first person to make a link between Plan-Do-Learn and PDCA, and I'm certain that he won't be the last.  While I can appreciate why he (and others) might think that there is a link, this post is an attempt to explain why Plan-Do-Learn is NOT the same as the PDCA cycle.

So what and who cares?  Well, if you know something about PDCA and make the rapid assumption that "this is the same as that", your mind closes and you stop learning.  I'm certainly OK with examining the two things side-by-side; look for relationships, test the hypothesis that they are the same.  Again, that's the purpose of this post.

So let's start with PDCA -- it helps you make deliberate changes to a process that is not producing the results you desire.  It's about applying scientific method rather than using the "Easter-egg hunt" approach (hey, there might be an egg over here... Nope.  Over there?  Nope.  How about over here?  Nope...).  Those of you who know something about Troubleshooting will understand.

In contrast, Plan-Do-Learn describes a Discipline.  It's not just for changes, it's something that you always do.  It's not about scientific method, it's about Being Effective.

OK, those of you who know something about PDCA are probably exclaiming (some of you loudly) that PDCA is an ongoing process (as in continuous improvement).  But before you jump on me with your hob-nail boots, let me suggest that the focus of PDCA is on problems, and the goal of PDCA is to make controlled changes (improvements) first in one thing, and then another, and then another until your process is producing the results that you desire.  In other words, there is a specific beginning (your process isn't producing what you want) and a specific end (your process is producing what you want) where you switch from PDCA to process monitoring (typically using statistical process control).

It is not my intent to say that PDCA is a bad thing. It's a GREAT thing. But it's not the SAME thing as Plan-Do-Learn. Apply PDCA where it makes sense (such as knowing what your sales process is).

Plan-Do-Learn was inspired by my observation that the BEST salespeople consistently engage in some form of SIMPLE pre-call planning (and other forms of preparation, such as practice and rehearsal) before the sales visit, they are willing to do what makes sense during the sales visit (including asking "stupid" questions or throwing out their plan if the situation has changed), and they consistently invest time to learn from their experiences (and to prepare for the future) after the visit.

Note the emphasis on Practical Action before, during, and after.

If you're learning about Plan-Do-Learn for the first time, it's entirely accurate to embrace it from the PDCA perspective, because you're making a change.  But in my opinion, that's where the comparison must end.

Here are four ways of looking at the differences between PDCA and Plan-Do-Learn:

1) PDCA is about using the scientific method when treating a Diseased Process.  Diagnose before you prescribe (prevent malpractice), and then follow through so that you're sure the prescription is giving the desired results!

In contrast, Plan-Do-Learn comes from the study of Healthy Salespeople - people who are consistently producing results in good times AND bad.  These people practice A Way Of Being that produces the results that they want Over The Long Run.  In this way, Plan-Do-Learn has roots in Neuro-Linguistic-Programming (NLP) in that effective communicators practice the discipline of K-F-C:  Know what you want; Find out if you're getting it; If you're not getting what you want, Change what you're doing until you get what you want.

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2) PDCA is about Treatment.  Plan-Do-Learn is about Prevention.

As an example, lets look at the parallel to Time Management.  You may be familiar with Covey's 4 Quadrants (urgent vs. important).  Q1 is about crisis management (everything is Urgent and Important).  Q2 is the sweet spot - prevention (Focusing on important things on a consistent basis, avoiding crises through prior planning).  Q3 and Q4 are right out - clearly you're in trouble if you're spending time on the unimportant things.

PDCA is something you do to get out of Q1. Plan-Do-Learn is a Q2 activity that will help keep you out of Q1 (as well as Q3 and Q4).

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3) Plan-Do-Learn has deep roots in the works of Stephen R. Covey.  Those of you who have read and practice "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" may have a better understanding of this.  Habits 1-3 are about personal effectiveness:  begin with the end in mind; be proactive; put first things first.  Plan-Do-Learn is the Discipline that allows us to put these Habits into Practice.

Discipline.  Habit.  Practice.  Powerful words chosen with clear, deliberate intent.  Words worth reflecting on.

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4) PDCA is about mowing the lawn.  Plan-Do-Learn is about keeping the lawn healthy and green (which sometimes requires mowing).

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The amateur fisherman will catch a fish every now and then, but he doesn't really understand why what he is doing works some of the time but not all of the time.  He isn't choosing a response based on deep knowledge, he's getting lucky.  When he catches a fish, he gets excited.  When he doesn't, he gets depressed.  He has no real idea of what results he's getting on average so he doesn't know how to tell the difference between good and bad days.

In contrast, the professional has a purpose in mind.  He knows what he's doing and why.  Because he's not perfect and because things change over time, he still makes mistakes (no one, and I mean NO ONE, bats a thousand).  The professional consciously learns from every situation, and he adds that learning to his Personal Encyclopedia which continues to grow over time.

The intent of Plan-Do-Learn is to create an island of constancy in a sea of change.  Every situation is different.  Situations can also change, sometimes scary-quick.  Strategies lose their effectiveness; what worked yesterday may not work tomorrow or today.  Plan-Do-Learn is a philosophy, a way of being, a discipline of applying 3 Situational Practices before, during, and after interactions with human beings. Most human interactions I've experienced aren't clean or scientific. They're gritty, messy, and intensly personal. It takes Presence to navigate this sea with Purpose.

Those who choose Deliberate Practice have learned how to stay in the Learning Zone.  They consciously choose to prevent the automatic pilot from turning on.  They work hard at it, because it's not easy to turn off the automatic pilot, or to prevent it from turning on all by itself.  Plan-Do-Learn isn't easy.  But it is worth doing.  The good news is that the first 100 times are the hardest.  A coach can help.  Got one?  Get one.  Period.

4 Ways To Look At Your Process

Joe Schmuckatelly gave me a call about a situation he was facing with an important prospect -- he was pretty frustrated and asked for my help with pre-call planning.  Joe knew that he had to put the elephant on the table, but he wasn't sure how to go about it in this Specific Selling Situation.  Because of the importance of this situation to Joe, we decided to invest some additional time on Step 1 of the Outcome Based Thinking process, "What's the situation?".

Joe had already invested a significant chunk of his selling time with this prospect to uncover needs, and had presented a solution to meet those needs that was within the prospect's budget.  Joe was convinced that he hadn't engaged in Premature Presentation and that he'd worked well with the prospect at all phases of the sales process, but the answer continued to be "no decision -- yet".  Joe couldn't understand why the process wasn't moving forward.

Joe was feeling significant pressure to close this sale.  Joe had arranged to quote a discount pricing guarantee contingent on quantities which was approved by sales management.  At the time, Joe had expressed a high degree of confidence that this pricing would secure the business.  A couple of months had passed since his presentation and now some embarrassing questions were being asked.  Not only was Joe under pressure to make his numbers, his judgment was being questioned and he felt that his credibility and reputation were on the line.

It became clear through the discussion that the pressure Joe was feeling might affect his behavior during the call.  We agreed on the need to focus on what we could control, and moved on to steps 2 through 4 of the Outcome Based Thinking process -- what are you hoping to achieve, what is the other hoping to achieve, and what might win-win look like?

I encouraged Joe to take a step back from the situation.  We started with a review of the basics -- where were we in 'the process'?  Although it seemed obvious on first glance (close the sale), Joe had learned in training that there are at least four ways to look at your Sales Process: as a list, as a flowchart, in what/how/why format, and as a radar diagram.  Because we needed a diagnostic tool that would help him examine his situation more closely in the context of his process, we decided that the radar diagram would be most helpful.

Assuming you're not familiar with these 4 Ways To Look At Your Process, a brief overview follows:

1. A list of steps helps you to name and understand the purpose of each step.
2. A flowchart helps you to understand where sequence is and is not important, and also to see how the process will respond to the ebb and flow of a real situation.
3. The what/how/why format helps you to learn the specifics of how to execute each step and to see the "Commander's Intent" that lies behind each step.
4. A radar diagram helps you to see where you are now, in this Specific Selling Situation, so that you can determine what you should be doing in order to move "the process" forward.

We used Joe's understanding of his Sales Process to create a Radar Diagram.  From the picture below, you can see that steps 1 through 5 contribute to step 6 (note the arrows leading from the outside edge to the inside edge).  During training Joe had learned to use this tool to answer the question, "Am I ready to present?"

**Note that I'm not suggesting this is the sales process to use, it's simply the process that Joe was using in the moment.**

Since he had already presented, I asked Joe to rate where he thought he was at that moment on a scale of 0 to 10 (0 being on the outside edge and 10 on the inside edge).  His self-rating looked something like the picture below (see marks in green).  Additional discussion about steps 1, 2, and 5 led us to believe that perhaps his position was not as strong as he had thought in these areas (see additional marks in blue).  From here we were able to craft an approach that we both agreed would be most likely to succeed.

A large part of Joe's strategy required him to put the elephant on the table, and the process above brought some clarity to where and how he needed to do it.  He felt that he needed to emphasize making it safe ("…there's probably something about this process that I don't understand…" and "…the last thing I'd want is for you to feel hesitant about sharing bad news with me… no is OK"), making it equal by sharing his needs and being prepared to share a Positive No ("…my team is hoping for clarity, we promised pricing based on quantities, we need to forecast production to continue these pricing guarantees..."), and discovering more about the decision process (share what he doesn't know or understand, and ask for clarity).

How Did It Work Out?

Later that week I got another phone call from Joe.  He was pretty happy about the results of the planning exercise.  The process was unstuck, and Joe learned some things from the prospect that he needed to know about the situation.  The prospect shared that he had an internal battle to win, and felt that he was close to winning it.  It turns out that a sister company produced a product that was similar to the product that Joe was selling, but that product wasn't working well in the specific application that Joe was selling to.  The prospect had done all of the analysis about what was working (and what wasn't), but was required to go through a lengthy and complicated internal process to justify the departure from what was perceived to be a standard internal solution.  The prospect asked for more time and shared his timeline, which helped take some pressure off of Joe.  Eventually (after a few more weeks), Joe got the sale.

During the Learn discussion, Joe shared that The Radar Diagram was most helpful to him in this situation as it helped him to Get Specific about what part of the elephant to put on the table.  Joe shared that the pressure he was feeling could easily have caused him to violate his own process by expressing his own needs more than the prospect's needs.  The pre-call plan helped him stay true to his process (and to his prospect's needs).

In reflection, Joe decided that perhaps he didn't know as much about what was happening at the account as he thought he did, and crafted some follow-up actions to rectify the situation (Treatment).  We also discussed ways of noticing this type of problem before it got big (real-time indicators) and discussed how to prevent it (Prevention).  Finally, we agreed that while this degree of pre-call planning isn't always necessary, some degree of pre-call planning is ALWAYS necessary.

Some key lessons from this situation might be:

Practice the discipline of Plan-Do-Learn. Set as much time as is needed, but Keep It Simple -- avoid Analysis Paralysis. Diagnostic tools can help. So can a coach. Got one? Get one. Period.

Know your sales process, make sure it's in control, but let the Specific Selling Situation drive your process. Develop a clear "Commander's Intent" for the situation; plan and prepare accordingly.

KFC - know what you want, find out if you're getting it and, if not, change what you're doing until you get what you want.  If you're not clear on your goals, use your diagnostic tools (e.g., a Radar Diagram and The Sales Engine) to determine where you are and where you should be going in this situation.

Elephant is the breakfast of Sales Champions. It's amazing what happens when you share what you're feeling and/or what you don't know but would like to find out (and why) with the other person. Elephant is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're going to learn when you put it on the table. If you can exercise the discipline to close your mouth, open your ears, and listen with your eyes, you'll almost always learn or confirm something *useful* and/or *new* about what's happening from the other person's perspective.

Treatment ain't prevention.  The Learn phase of the Plan-Do-Learn cycle helps you to identify (1) where things might not have gone according to plan [making an addition to your Personal Encyclopedia] and (2) how to notice and prevent this type of situation in the future.

Do you have a situation you'd like to share? How might a Radar Diagram help you with pre-call planning? Look forward to reading your comments.