Militant Diligence: Making it RAYN
Potential clients, interns or employees who are in the midst of their preliminary research into RAYN will read the line, “Militant Diligence is the only way” and wonder, what is Militant Diligence? It’s not a term found in the text of business schools or self-help books and despite its soldierly sound. And it won’t be in any military manuals either. Militant Diligence is a term that was coined by RAYN CEO, Chris Rudd and his former colleague Brady McFadden. Diligence is a good headspace to be in but these two gentlemen were unhappy with the intangible nature of the term so they tweaked it to better serve their needs.
So what does adding the word Militant change?
Militant diligence means not only being on top of the things that happen in a business but being thorough in ensuring that the processes of business are conducted with the same precise steps every time. This militancy is not a comfort blanket sown from repetition. It is a tool for ensuring quality and precision in practice. Using the sales process as an example; if you diligently follow the same steps while moving prospects through your sales pipeline and one sale goes awry, militant diligence allows for tracking of went wrong and where.
Like the control in a well-designed experiment, your previous, countless repetitions through the pipeline, become the lens to view the unique instance through. After comparing the process to the problem, the flaw in communication, process or any of the multitudes of things that possibly could have gone wrong will come to light.
In the event that you should adopt the militant diligence concept it is important that you remember that militant diligence applies to process. It is highly suggested that you do not go out to the world and begin attempting to force everything into neat rows.
Good Example:
1. Call prospect
2. Take notes
3. Make record of call in CMS
4. Add notes to contact management system
5. Find next contact
6. Repeat
Bad Example:
1. Call prospect
2. Tell yourself you’ll write notes about the call in a bit
3. Forget to record call in CMS
4. Find next contact
5. Repeat the mistakes from the first call
When applied to functions without clear processes, militant diligence becomes just militant and there is already enough of that in world. It can help when learning an instrument or sport for muscle memory but being adaptable and flexible in all areas of life, including business, is as indispensable a skill as understanding the value in process.
The next time that you find yourself struggling through the, “How do I get this done?” and, “What went wrong?” of your day. Consider that maybe militant diligence is what’s missing from your business.
Now, Go Do with militant diligence.
