I recently listened to a podcast interview of Simon Sinek, one of my favorite authors and motivational speakers, about the difference between consistency and intensity.
According to Sinek, consistency is more important than intensity.
He used these two analogies to illustrate his point. By consistently exercising for 20 minutes every day, you will see better results than if you had a longer, more intensive workout once a week. Now consider the other example he used of brushing your teeth: You need to consistently brush your teeth every day. You cannot just go see a dentist twice a year for an intensive deep cleaning.
According to Sinek, too many businesses react to problems with intensity, rather than consistency. They wait for major problems to flare up and then react with extreme measures.
What if they created systems, policies and procedures that could avoid the major problem altogether? Let us look at an example in the car manufacturing industry.
Some car manufacturers adopt policies to “keep the production line going.” Problems are usually discovered during quality control at the end of the production line or after the car is sold. Major problems, especially safety issues, must be fixed. Factory recalls are expensive and intensive.
Conversely, some manufactures empower every employee to stop the production line, and encourage them to do it, if they notice a problem. Once production is stopped, all the downline employees converge to assess and solve the problem before production continues.
Both manufacturers will ultimately deliver a good final product. One tends to handle problems more consistently than the other and does not need to react as intensely as a result. In the short term, keeping the production line going should produce more cars and generate more sales. Eventually their costs will increase and the long-term profits will probably be less.
How do you manage your business? Do you tend to be consistent or intensive?
