Raising the Bar
MODULE 2 - THE RTB PROGRAMME
Raising The Bar
in Action
Lunch with Coach
The restaurant Coach had booked was impressive. Smart. Quiet. More expensive than anywhere I would normally go. It certainly made me feel important.
Talking with Coach was easy. He was a good listener, informal but still professional. He was certainly the kind of person you could trust within minutes, which meant communication came easily.
Over lunch, I asked him where Raising the Bar had come from.
He leaned back, took a thoughtful sip of coffee, and began.
“It started when I became a senior manager,” he said. “I realised my line managers were acting like team leaders. My line leaders were behaving like senior employees. And my middle managers were stepping down to do work the line managers should have been doing.”
He gave a small shrug.
“In truth, Joe, no one was operating at the level they were paid to.”
“It all stemmed from underperformance,” he continued. “Because someone further down was not doing their job, the person above stepped down to cover. Then the person above them stepped down to cover that gap. And on it went.”
He paused, letting it settle.
“It took time, patience, and a couple of changes in management to get everyone operating at their proper level again.”
Then he smiled slightly.
“That was one of the things that later helped shape Mind the Gap. Once you start looking properly at performance problems and seeing them as gaps, closing the gaps becomes the strategy, not performance management.”
Over the meal, I told him everything.
How convinced I had been that I was going to get fired.
How close I had come to leaving.
How the resignation letter was still folded neatly inside my jacket pocket.
How yesterday I had been ready to hand it over during my ‘fucoffee’ meeting.
He raised an eyebrow at the phrase.
“Fuc-coffee?” he asked.
I laughed.
“That’s what the other managers call it. A running joke about Alan. When he invites someone for a coffee, it is usually their last with the company.”
Coach smiled, but his eyes remained thoughtful.
I told him what I had heard from the other line managers. That the previous manager had jumped before he was pushed. Rumour had it that he had been ‘made an offer he could not refuse’ after the grievance outcome.
Lunch ended soon after.
He told me to take a walk around the block, clear my head, and meet him back in the meeting room in fifteen minutes.
As I headed outside, one thought kept running through my mind.
If Coach was right, maybe the problems in my department were not as complicated as they felt.
Maybe they were simply a collection of gaps waiting to be identified and closed.
The Bar-Gap Cycle in Action
When I got back to the meeting room, Coach was already setting up the screen.
The Raising the Bar Cycle filled the slide.
Underneath it was a simple heading:
Continuous Improvement
Anne had been in while we were at lunch.
Fresh coffee.
Water topped up.
Notepads reset.
Coach looked up as I entered and smiled.
“Right, Joe,” he said. “This afternoon we have got a lot to cover, and I want you to see how the Bar-Gap Cycle actually works in practice.”
He waited until I sat down.
“Everything we do from this point forward follows the same process.”
He pointed towards the screen.
Bar-gap Slide
“First, we establish The Bar. Before you can identify a gap, you have to know what good looks like. Too many managers jump straight into fixing problems without first understanding the required standard.”
“I call it starting with the end result in mind.”
Clever, I thought.
He tapped the screen.
“Next, we appraise the department and assess the team's performance to identify where the gaps exist.”
“We then identify the priority goals that need to be addressed. The important ones. The ones requiring immediate action.”
“Following the cycle, we put together draft plans for achieving those goals. Close the Gap plans.”
He smiled.
“And that is exactly what I aim to achieve by the end of this session.”
He looked towards me.
“Okay, Joe. Let’s start.”
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Continuous Improvement
Anne had been in while we were at lunch.
Fresh coffee.
Water topped up.
Notepads reset.
Coach looked up as I entered and smiled.
“Right, Joe,” he said. “This afternoon we have got a lot to cover, and I want you to see how the Bar-Gap Cycle actually works in practice.”