“Because only you will do A+ work.”

A little over 35 years ago a group of us began a business venture. It was going to be my first exposure to managing people and one of the other principals offered what at the time seemed a strange comment.

He said, “You will find that only you do A+ work.”

I understand that completely now.

While we speak constantly of the “team” in business, there will always be a hierarchy where someone is responsible for the outcome of the “team’s” actions. Someone who cannot walk away from failure without significant consequence.

Despite warning, it came as a surprise that others did not have the passion for our success that I did. While many gave an honest B effort with a few working at an A- level, only I had 24-hour A+ concern. Most were committed and well-intended professionals, but none reached my level. In fairness, they were simply not as invested.

Initially direct oversight was possible, but as our business grew we had multiple worksites spread across the eastern states and I had to hand off immediate responsibility to an onsite supervisor. I had spent the previous decade working in healthcare and began borrowing heavily from their quality control measures. I developed best practice standards, published policies and procedures, and developed a paper-based system of quality assurance – essentially a check list of “things done.” It helped but was limited.

Employees will always find a shortcut to completing any process. At times that resembles efficiency, but often it is avoidance of your best practice standards. They are willing to take chances you are not. The policies and procedures once labored over now reside in a three-ring binder gathering dust, while the paper-based quality assurance tool increasingly documents intentions and not actual actions. Then came the internet, web-enabled information flow, and now the cloud. There was a solution.

Every manager wants certainty, and they want it in real-time. Cloud technology, integrated mobile scanning, Wi-Fi, and cellular communication now provide that regardless of location. Done correctly these technologies can enforce A+ performance and provide actionable information. That is what the RiskWatchCloudTM is all about.

Initially, our primary concern was medical safety and emergency response. Eventually that grew to include building safety and on-line training. The light of opportunity went on; we wanted to provide certainty of safety process assurance and training to others. We began RiskWatchSystemsLLC in 2015.

At a later point, an inciteful group asked us why the technology used to ensure safety and training could not be used to address the needs of other work-related processes. We tested that concept and were amazed at its success. Today, we provide a comprehensive management tool that will facilitate training, safety, and work-related process assurance.

Importantly, we learned that technology alone is not enough. Simply digitizing our old paper-based system resulted in a spreadsheet approach that retained many of the old limitations. What was needed was a strategy that would engage all personnel levels in a way that was meaningful to each and provide broad based accountability.

We discovered that the front-line staff must become a collaborative and accountable team member, supervisors require a labor-saving management tool, and leadership needed actionable performance indicators in real-time that would allow corrective measures before a systemic problem evolved. The RiskWatchCloudTM now does exactly that, providing both the strategy and technology that will prepare an organization, prevent unintended consequence, and document process compliance.

When it comes to critical actions, tasks, and training, you no longer need accept less than an A+ performance!