Staring at an unexpected profits shortfall? Hitting the wall on what to do with a team feeling out of control and low on confidence?
It’s a scenario many leaders are facing today. A uniform-rental services manager we worked with (whose team’s story is featured in Ideas to Action) experienced exactly that dilemma. He had built a great team at his local branch, and they were eager to help, but meetings focused on the urgent goal of improving profit margins quickly devolved into complaints about pricing and supply costs—critical issues, but ones his frontline team had no direct control over.
The energy was being misdirected.
The Temptation: Hit the “Easy Button” vs. Targeted Action
In situations like this, the common reactions are often tempting: Maybe lobby corporate for pricing relief? Maybe double-down on broad expense management initiatives? Maybe even consider restructuring or layoffs? These can often feel like the only levers available.
But instead of taking one of these potentially disruptive or misfocused “EASY BUTTON” actions, this branch manager paused and took some time for the crucial upfront work of in Step 1 of the Ideas-to-Action Process™.
He engaged in what we call “X/Y Thinking.”
Applying X/Y Thinking: The Path to Clarity and Control
This simple discipline involves working through a disciplined set of simple, but important questions in the face of any change challenge or opportunity:
- Identifying the specific business outcome to improve (the “Big Y”)—For his branch, the key metric was account by account profit margins.
- Identifying all the factors (the “Xs”) that impact margins—The team quickly brainstormed everything from pricing and supply costs to garment turnover, billing accuracy, customer retention, etc.
- Rigorously testing each “X” for ACTIONABILITY by his team—The key step: assessing which factors could the team actually influence through their daily work and insights? Pricing was out. Redoing supply contracts not practical or timely.
- Focusing on the “X” with the greatest opportunity and within the team’s control— The team’s discussion revealed a consensus on the sweet spot, the real leverage point for this team: accurately billing for lost and damaged garments.
Finding the Sweet Spot & The Motivating Team Mission
The result from this focused discussion wasn’t a complex project plan or unrealistic targets for improvement. Instead, it resulted in alignment on a profitability driver his team had ideas for fixing, and more important local control over implementing. By focusing on accurately billing for lost/damaged garments, the branch manager now had his specific target and the foundation for a mission his team could genuinely own and feel motivated by.
Unleashing Potential & Results
As expected, there was no shortage of ideas from the team (dubbed the Garment Guardians) assembled to attack the problem of inaccurate billing. This targeted approach, born from the discipline of X/Y Thinking led directly to actions that would generate over $125,000 in savings over the next year. Just as importantly, it fostered a renewed sense of control and confidence in a team that had initially hit the wall.
They experienced how their knowledge and their actions directly impacted a key business goal.
The Power of X/Y Thinking
X/Y Thinking is a simple, but powerful discipline that’s easy to master (even for those of us who might have occasionally dozed off in algebra class!). It forces clarity on outcomes (Y) and connects them directly to actionable drivers (Xs), ensuring efforts are focused where they matter most.
Ready to replace the “easy button” with a framework for precision planning like X/Y Thinking? Learn more about how it works in Ideas to Action. Preorder your copy today!
