Shortly after My Secret Life on the McJob was released, I began fielding phone calls from quick serves asking me to speak at their annual conventions. One of the Majors was cautious, however, and asked me to interview with its chief people officer first.

We spent an hour together, one I thoroughly enjoyed, even when he asked a question that caught me somewhat by surprise: “Why didn’t McDonald’s get mentioned very much in your book?” he asked. “You talked about Burger King and Arby’s, Wendy’s and Krystal, but almost nothing interesting about McDonald’s.”

I thought about this for a minute and realized he was right. Sure, I had a few comments about McDonald’s, but considering I had worked undercover at two of its stores, they weren’t very well-represented in the book. If I could answer the question now, I think I would do a much better job than I did back then.

Think about the people who tell good stories at parties. None of these stories follow the pattern: “Yeah, nothing much happened today, and yesterday was pretty much the same.” No, good stories always recount unusual events, either bad or good. My book has lots of Burger King stories both great and not so good. And it also has sprinklings of other stories about events at other chains all documenting good or bad management experiences. I didn’t talk much about McDonald’s largely because, well, they were boringly consistent. Nobody did anything insanely bad nor did anyone overwhelm me with great managerial technique.

Here was my epiphany: To be great, first you must be consistent. Some months later I asked Rich Floersch, the executive vice president of human resources at McDonald’s, what he thought of my consistency theory. With a small smile, a bit of pride slipping out in an unguarded moment, Floersch granted that this was a major goal of McDonald’s.

Everything the company does in human resources—and I don’t think this is an exaggeration—is aimed first at eliminating the bad end of the behavior spectrum. McDonald’s wants to create a scenario in which everyone is average or better. When you stop to think about it, this is nothing more than a “zero defects” policy applied to crew and managers. And I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to say that McDonald’s is in continuous improvement mode.

In recent months I’ve also had the opportunity to talk extensively with other major brands about the path to excellence. Burger King, KFC, Pizza Hut, Subway, and Taco Bell have all given me great information that I will share with you in my future book, The Leadership Compass: Finding Your True North.

When I talk with these brands about the importance of consistency it’s common to hear that it is a major goal. The real challenge is figuring out how to build consistency into your store culture. The answer is easier in smaller chains. At the extreme, a brand with one store depends on the owner/operator to have a consistent reaction to regular store events. Consistency builds predictability. If crew members see the same behaviors repeatedly in specific situations, they know what will come next time and, more importantly, how they should behave when the manager isn’t available.

I’m not arguing that it’s easy to be consistent. Things happen away from the job that affect our moods, and mood can be a wrecking ball for consistency. My main point is that it’s easier to be consistent in single-store operations. Multiunit operations usually have multiple general managers, all with the potential, if left to their own preferences, to react differently to the same situation. Oops, goodbye consistency!

We have many real-world tales of strong leaders and owners who through their charisma or management practices create a consistent culture, usually one that closely reflects the leader’s personal style and reactions.

Southwest Airlines, Hewlett-Packard, and Wendy’s (to name a few) all faced this size challenge. Many industry experts think Wendy’s was doing fine in handling the growth-culture battle, at least until the death of its founder, Dave Thomas. Certainly McDonald’s has wrestled with this problem, and many believe they are having considerable success in building a common framework all the way up to the 30,000-plus store level.

How has McDonald’s kept up such steady progress? I think you need go no further than CEO Jim Skinner and his resolute belief in the Plan to Win. This plan lays out where McDonald’s wants to be, how the company plans to get there, and what actions it needs to take now. In and of itself, this document is nothing special. But the internal dedication to live and implement the principles included in the Plan to Win is extremely impressive.

At every level of policy and practice, thoughts and actions are anchored in the principles set forth in the Plan to Win. Employees are hired, trained, compensated, and appraised based on how well they imbed these principles into their programs and behaviors. For example, Floersch has an HR Plan to Win that outlines human resource’s role in the overall strategic plan.

I think McDonald’s success doesn’t come so much from what it does. The content of its programs isn’t all that different from what I’ve seen in other leading companies in other industries. But how it does it is different.

Look, for example, at McDonald’s training programs. You can easily see how the Plan to Win principles are being implemented even at that level. When everyone’s on the same page because they’ve been exposed to the same guiding principles reinforced in every detail, consistency is a wonderful byproduct. Why not make it your goal to build a consistent operation?