Is There Even A Recipe?

Hey guys, another Sunday. I just got my lean six sigma black belt and it was quite a task but that aside welcome to August. This post was inspired by Okpa (A local Nigerian food made from bambara nut and goes with a bottle of sprite). My mum and I wanted to make Okpa a few weeks ago and I suggested that we look it up on the internet and then she asked “Is there a recipe?” let’s define what a recipe is.

A recipe is a formula or procedure for doing or attaining something.

What are the two things a recipe introduces? Control and Consistency. There are many processes we run everyday and sub processes too but we haven’t realized that and we complain that it is getting out of control. If you read my post about measurements you might notice a little relationship.

Creating your own recipe could come from something as simple as how you take your orders if you are a business person or deliveries. To this you have to consciously know your process and have minute details about it, how long does it take from when a customer places an order to when he gets it, what is your response time and is it the same. Apart from helping you know your process and giving you control, creating a recipe gives you an opportunity to know where improvements could be made.

Do you ever visit a business chain, let’s say a Bank or a restaurant where similar processes are run, for example you walk into the banking hall and follow the signs till you get to the location of the deposit slip but then you go to another branch and you have to keep asking people where the deposit slip is? Imagine the banks had their processes under control, they could reduce the time a customer had to stay in the bank.

Achieving an optimum process and creating that perfect recipe that ensures success anytime it is used is the goal of this activity but then you still have to take some extra steps to ensure that the process is able to continue running at optimum performance. That means removing any impediment that increases idle time and promote those enablers that improve cycle time. My man Pat Conroy said;

A recipe is a story that ends with a good meal

At no time should your recipe give results with variations. so let your two spoons of salt be your two spoons of salt. Don’t forget to always inspect your process from time to time looking for ways to improve it. Whether it is just from waking up to sleeping, find one small thing you can adjust this week and always what? write it down and keep where you can see.

I know we could argue all day whether okpa goes better with Sprite or Coke but it is my blog post and I say Sprite. You can share your opinion in the comments. I will be putting up a Being Left handed in a Right handed World post this month so you can go back and read up if you missed any of the series. The date and details of the classes will be released some time this week on my Whatsapp and Facebook, that is if I haven’t released it already.

Have a blessed week. Don’t forget to share this with your friends and enemies 🙂 Gotta run…