Add “Saving Lives” To Your Goal from What Would Mike Say? on Vimeo.
Do you know how many lives you saved on this day last year? Do you have daily goals to empower your staff to save more lives? We as human beings like to know what the objective is. And your staff members really want to know, is what is their goal, what is their objective?
Is it just to come in and clean and feed and care for the pets? Or do we want to come in clean, feed, care for the pets and find quality homes as quickly as possible?
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One thing that I have done for over thirty-something years, is set goals. Go ahead, ask your staff, “How many adoptions did we do last year?” Nobody knows?
How many adoptions is your staff expected to do today? What’s the goal? How many lives do we want to save?
I go into a lot of these places and they have no clue… because no one sets the goal.
We as human beings like to know what the objective is. And staff members really want to know, is what is their goal, what is their objective? Is it just to come in and clean and feed and care for the pets? Or do we want to come in clean, feed, care for the pets and find quality homes as quickly as possible?
They would like to know what you did on this day last year and what is the goal, the achievable goal, that you would like to do today.
For years, I have incorporated, the “Plus 1” Theory. For example, if we have done five adoptions on this day last year, then today we want to do six. We want to save one more life today than we did the same day last year.
When I started this concept I had everyone in the organization, from the Accounting Department, Administration, everyone on the staff, everyone wearing a large +1 button. When the adopter, or anyone, came in to our facility they would always ask, “What is the +1?”
And we would say, “Today we want to save one more life. We want to spay one more pet. We want to vaccinate one more pet. We want to help one more animal.” And it became contagious! Everybody was into it.
Every morning, before we went out to the Adoption floor, they would meet with their manager and hear what their objective was. Last year we did this amount, today we want to do this plus one.
We would have these big counters up, like you would see in a deli, we would have them up strategically in different offices and throughout the Adoptions area and every time an adoption was done, the button was pressed. Everyone in the organization knew what the goal was, what the objective was, and when we would hit it, phones would be ringing throughout congratulating everyone that we won this game of Life, that we have achieved our goal.
Never let them be discouraged if they don’t hit that goal. And always set achievable goals. Don’t set goals that you know aren’t going to happen. That’s why I use the “Plus 1” Theory because it is an achievable goal.
Sometimes, things might happen that will have you not make that goal. Let’s assume you live in the Northeast. On this day last year it was a beautiful day, maybe 40 degrees in October, and you did great in adoptions. But the same day this year you have a snowstorm and nobody comes out. That’s the answer why you didn’t achieve your goal and you have to share that with your staff. You never want them to get discouraged.
So remember, never set goals too high that they can’t achieve, but set achievable goals so they feel good at the end of the day. This will say, “We came in, we fed the pets, we cleaned up after them, we nurtured them, we loved them, and you know what… we achieved our goal!”
Again, we’re in the business of saving lives. Run it as a successful business and more lives will be saved.
