“Twenty-two million dollars. That’s our profit gap, and we have six months to close it.” Imagine hearing that as the newly appointed CEO of a sprawling food distribution company with 45 centers and thousands of employees. Traditional approaches would demand weeks, and more likely months, of analysis and planning.
But this CEO needed results now.
Where did she turn? Not to an army of consultants or a massive restructuring plan. She turned to her frontline employees, believing intuitively—from her own journey up the ranks —that they held the key. But she also knew that simply asking for ideas wasn’t enough. She needed a process that delivered speed to results.
The Challenge: A Mandate for Rapid Results
The company’s entrepreneurial culture meant distribution centers operated with autonomy, good for many reasons. But now, in a slowing economy, those inconsistent practices were hurting profitable operation. A traditional, slow-moving, top-down approach to change behaviors wouldn’t work.
Our CEO client needed a way to implement best practices for restoring profitable operation quickly while leveraging local knowledge. It was a perfect fit for the Ideas to Action foundational belief: Prioritize Speed to Results. Empower frontline employees to act on their ideas guided by clear guidelines, a non-burdensome improvement process, and a clear deadline for achieving measurable results.
The Solution: The Ideas-to-Action Process and the “1-4-60 Rule”
We partnered with the CEO to deploy the Ideas-to-Action Process. After aligning on key enterprise-wide profit drivers, the core of the solution was launching frontline action teams at every distribution center, all operating under the simple, powerful “1-4-60 Rule”:
- One hour per week: For focused team meetings, minimizing disruption.
- Four hours per week (max): For team members to work on implementing their chosen solutions.
- Sixty days: To move from identifying opportunities to implemented solutions and measured results.
Why the strict guidelines for participation? Because as we’ve learned many times over from stalled, disappointing initiatives, “The motivation to change is highly perishable—especially at the front lines.”
This 60-day sprint model became the engine of the turnaround.
How Sprints Delivered Speed
Within two weeks of the initial planning session, all 45 teams held their first meetings using the Ideas-to-Action toolkit. The 60-day cycle created immediate urgency and focus:
- Quick Wins Prioritized: Teams focused on solutions achievable within the sprint timeframe.
- Simple Tools: Easy-to-use guides and templates allowed teams to quickly generate, evaluate, and prioritize ideas without getting bogged down in complex methodologies.
- Action Champions: Distributing ownership (each team member championed an idea) accelerated implementation.
- Rapid Feedback: Regular check-ins and the 60-day reporting cycle provided rapid feedback and allowed for quick course corrections.
The Results: Speed Fuels Success
The teams didn’t wait months for analysis. They implemented simple, often no-cost solutions based on their frontline expertise: standardizing fuel surcharges, improving tracking of damaged goods credits, optimizing routing for short lead-time orders.
Six months later, the results were clear:
- 227 profit-improvement actions implemented across 45 locations.
- Half the $22 million profit gap closed.
- Record earnings followed the next year.
As employees shared later, the quick wins and the manageable 60-day deadlines were powerful motivators, keeping energy high and proving that they could make a difference. One team member noted, “Getting right to workable solutions in the first hour was refreshing… The quick wins kept us coming back for more.” Another added, “The sixty-day deadline was a real motivator… we weren’t looking at an endless time commitment.”
Prioritizing Speed: A Leadership Imperative
The food distribution company’s story is a powerful testament to prioritizing speed to results. By trusting their frontline employees and equipping them with a simple, fast-acting process like the Ideas-to-Action 60-day sprint, they achieved a remarkable turnaround in record time. It proves that you don’t need complex, multi-year initiatives to drive significant change. More often than not, the fastest path is effectively empowering your people to act quickly on what they already know.
Are you ready to accelerate results in your organization?
Learn more about the Ideas-to-Action 60-day sprint model by preordering the book today!
