That particular brewery was facing a DECLINE in sales, and at that point in time, it was managing about 7,200 pubs.
Now for that chain of pubs, traditionally, the trick that has worked fairly well so far is to refurbish the old pubs whose sales are stagnating or are falling.
And on a logical front, it does make sense, doesn’t it? When people, or even yourself, are “bored” or “tired”, refresh the concept!
In other words, focus on those pubs that are not doing well.
But if you are quick to catch the flaw; this also meant that the pubs that were already doing well wouldn’t get their premises revamped. Don’t fix those that are doing well. Fix only those that are not doing well.
As the saying goes: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” Kind of makes sense here, doesn’t it?
Well, long story short: To test a theory out, the researchers managed to convince the brewery to revamp BOTH their well-performing pubs, as well as those facing declining sales.
The results?
The higher performing pubs that got revamped, got EVEN BIGGER results and growth than the pubs that were stagnating or facing a decline in sales in the first place.
When all things like location, competition, and other factors were taken into consideration, it became clear to the researchers that at the bottom of it all, it was the talents of the individuals working in the pubs that drove the pubs’ profitability. It is not just the pubs. It is the people.
And this is the secret sauce.
The more you invest in things that are already working well, the more you invest in people at their very best, the higher the exponential growth you will see in the improved performance!
Contrast that to the traditional business thinking:
“You have to work on your weaknesses.”
“You have to improve on where you’re lacking”.
We live in a world that is obsessed with weaknesses. We are always focused on developing our weaknesses and ignoring our strengths. And yet the research consistently shows us that it is in developing our strengths that our weaknesses can be ignored.
The secret to getting better results is to focus on developing your strengths and not just about fixing weaknesses or failures. The pub story tells us fixing weaknesses (refurbishing the non-performing pubs) will only give you incremental growth. But it is investing in strengths (refurbishing the pubs that are doing well) that will give you exponential growth.
So, putting this back in the context of what we do every day, the secret to great teams and families isn’t necessarily finding your flaws and working on them. It is important not to ignore them. It is about finding your STRENGTHS and working on them instead.