February 2008 Deep Insights

Sensing a company’s position in its environment is an art often forgotten, as managing acute crisis overpowers the pause required to achieve future goals. When current crisis overpowers a company’s ability to pause, energy is exhausted each day with little or no thought of tomorrow. How can a company avoid such pitfalls?

First, pause at set intervals to determine the company’s current state. During this pause, determine the company’s preparedness to function, preparedness to embrace issues with skills that meet the need. Identify skills that are unavailable and the choices that are available to fill them. Will these GAPS be filled through development, can they be resolved by outside talent or can they be mastered through an environmental change to make them irrelevant. Continued revisions must be made for energy to be spent on results.

Second, each pause must embrace issues beyond today. A company must sense the environment and its influence on tomorrow. A pause for analysis will determine what best of all worlds the company will participate in, in the future. What learning is required to be prepared to function productively in the future, what new processes lead to preparedness and how flexible are they? A successful company must understand that today’s answers are only valuable if tomorrow will be like yesterday. History is important; to the extent it leads one to embrace development for the future but can be an albatross if providing a sense of security.

Uncertainty is universal and can not be a scapegoat for avoiding a pause to understand ones environment. Sensing today and tomorrow, making choices for a company’s preparedness will lead to energy allocation for success.