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Benchmarking - Old hat or revolutionary new tool ?

Bench'-mark a surveyor's mark cut on a rock, etc. indicating a point of reference in levelling (from its horizontal line forming a bench for a levelling instrument): anything taken or used as point of reference or comparison, a standard, criterion, etc. (also adj.)

The best of the best have within them a standard by which they know they have achieved the level of excellence that they want. And those who excel are constantly developing that standard so that they push themselves to continuously improve and grow.

Traditional Benchmarking techniques use external references as the yardstick; 'the mark cut on the rock'. These external references will typically include company performance data and rely on the sources of this date providing accurate and useful information. I would challenge that a lot of this data is completely useless and I would like to offer a different way of thinking about Benchmarking that can revolutionise not only the way you strengthen and enhance your business but especially how you grow yourself.

Modelling is a means of Benchmarking that uses not only the external measures (the marks in the rock) but draws especially on the internal yardsticks that we use to know if we have achieved the standard that we want. We often take for granted those internal measures that enable us to know when we have done a job to our own satisfaction or how we know when to stop. Think of someone that you know who does something with an excellence that you would like to reproduce. I guarantee that if you ask them how they do what they do and especially how they achieve the standard that they do, that what they will tell you will not contain the key pieces that make the difference. The inaccuracy of the data that they provide will not be deliberate (well it may be in some cases although it really doesn't matter if someone attempts to mislead - they would do so anyway without the intention). The inaccuracy will be because they take for granted or are unconsciously aware of the pieces that make the difference.

In a Sunday Times article about the brilliance of Michael Schumacher on the eve of the 1997 Japanese Grand Prix John Barnard, responsible for the technical development of the Arrows motor racing team is quoted as saying .....'It's a kind of mental attitude, a total commitment. He has this innate ability to go quickly, which means he is able to concentrate on what the car is doing a lot more. He can recount clearly every corner around the lap and this feedback is clear and sharp. It's what all the really good ones have got. Alain Prost was the same . You could talk about something a week after it had happened and he'd still give you the exact picture.'

What John Barnard is doing here is modelling the difference that makes the difference between the top drivers and the rest. He is sensitive to the subtleties that make the difference and these subtleties are, as here, the internal processes; the thinking strategies. When you are sensitive to these you have the ability to Benchmark in this real time way for any result that you want to reproduce. And Benchmarking isn't only limited to learning from others - it is an approach you can use to get more consistency in what you personally do.

One of the first examples of this form of Benchmarking in the UK was in BMW who wanted to develop the skills of their salesforce. They were about to launch a new range of luxury car and recognised that they only had a few members of the salesforce who could sell consistently successfully to the target market for this car. For all the training that they carried out they could not identify the difference that made the difference. An enlightened member of the company called in one of the NLP consultancies who pioneered the use of modelling in the business world at that time - a company called PACE. The consultant from this company studied the top salespeople at work. He watched and listened to them in order to find out what they did that made the difference. He explored their inner worlds; the thinking strategies that resulted in the consistent success that they achieved. And he discovered the difference that made the difference, that even the salespeople studied were unaware of. He discovered subtleties in behaviour and the way these salespeople used language that enabled them to relate effectively to the target market. Once these strategies were discovered they were taught back to the originators of them so that they could achieve even greater consistency in the results that they achieved. And these strategies were taught to the rest of the salesforce and they achieved all the targets for the sales of the new car in that following year.

Stephen Covey in his book 'The seven habits of highly effective people' also alludes to the unconscious processes that affect the results we get. He talks of a stimulus and a response. When something happens or something occurs outside of yourself then you respond in a particular way. Sometimes we respond in the way we want and sometimes we don't. For example if someone speaks to you in a way that you don't like then you might just shrug it off or you might lose your temper. The point is that you have a choice even though you may be unaware of this choice. Between the stimulus and the response is a gap even though it may be microseconds. It is what you do in this gap that makes the difference. Do you visualise what could happen next? Do you tell yourself something about what has happened? Do you replay what has happened and sound out what might happen next? You might do any of these things and whatever you do choose will influence how you feel and therefore how you react. The more conscious you become of the choices you are making in this gap then the more influence you have over what you do next and how you feel. The point here is that you do not have control over what happens outside of yourself but you can have influence over what you do next and in particular what you do in the gap.

Applying this same kind of awareness to others as well as yourself gives you access to the internal standards that make the difference. This is a form of inner Benchmarking. You probably already do this instinctively do this in some areas of your work and life. Modelling gives you the choice of extending this awareness so that you can benchmark those processes and skills that you admire and want to learn.

There are many sophisticated techniques that enable you to develop the skill to do this. To start with just begin by asking the question - 'How?'. Use this question in preference to 'Why?'. 'How do you do that?' 'How do you maintain that confidence?' How do you ensure that you feel connected to your customers?' 'How do you stay calm?' But equally 'How do you get yourself stressed?' 'How do you lose your temper?' The underlying premise is that whatever results you achieve you have an internal strategy that contributes to this. By asking the question 'how?' you invite your conscious mind to become aware of exactly what you are doing to get the results you are getting.

What results have you achieved today so far? And more to the point 'How have you achieve them?'