An economic downturn is an opportunity to revisit strategy, tactics and more importantly people and their skills to be competitive in the present and future environment.
Too often organizations begin to scale down their workforce with little or no analysis. Cutbacks are determined as a percent of the total financial goal 1) People from mature product lines are selected for layoff or early retirement 2) Sales and marketing people from scaling product lines are selected at random for layoff and 3) Administrative personnel by function for layoff. Next, budgeting processes trim training expenditures in the same crisis mentality, if not being used to fix the current emergency the dollars are cut from the budget to meet financial goals. Crisis is the mental mode of day to day activities. What has been accomplished? The workforce is reduced, expenses are trimmed, and the organization can rest its war against scale down efforts ---- or can it?
As the survivors begin to take inventory of skills and redistribute workloads they recognize they cannot do everything. Activity cuts will have to occur challenging others to do more or do without. The survivors also find a lack of skills to execute strategy and tactics and are without a budget to train those who are going to be held responsible. When skilled resources have been trimmed a best use of survivors’ strategy takes over and coaching by those who know the most is implemented; the inefficiencies begin.
Coaches, who have limited skills, and little time, attempt to teach those who do not have the talent and in many cases are not interested in learning new skills. Quality begins to be sacrificed, “get ‘er done” reigns, and revenue slips behind the forecast for budgeted expenses. Management is challenged to correct the revenue shortage and determines the best course of action is to permit part time and vendor personnel to be part of the solution. Those best fit for these positions are often the “terminated pool.” They are hired as consultants or part time people. All is well until the organization realizes they are paying more for these services now then when the people were full time employees.
The solution to this economic downturn crisis model is to visit strategy and tactics; determine the skills required for execution efficiencies, locate the people with those skills and act accordingly when determining scale down, training budgets and necessary hires. Then implement a “hiring and wage freeze” to insure productivity and employment cost control. The organization will be rewarded with increased efficiency, commitment and loyalty. Revenue will remain consistent with the available market, expense control will flow from budgets, and the organization will be positioned for the next growth cycle.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Saturday, January 10, 2009
January 2009 Deep Insights
Turbulent times will not last and halting all investments for learning and innovation leads to a stale environment. Survival belongs to organizations that use turbulence as an active waiting period strengthening their skills, their knowledge of processes to improve employee and customer loyalty, and balancing investments in both long and short term learning. They commit to being AMBIDEXTROUS working both ON and IN the business.
In uncertain times organizations begin examining budgets to reduce cash expenditures without a focus on the skills needed to succeed today and tomorrow. The argument is made to reduce all costs and limit learning to what people already know. The organization is in “survival mode,” weathering the current crisis. The danger in this thinking is that an organization cannot allow its employees to become numb or complacent. An organization must focus its employees on HOPE, through an organizational commitment to learning the skills necessary to compete in today’s turbulent market as well as in better times. Learning energizes organizations to live through the turbulent times knowing they will be stronger in the future.
Energy through learning drives enthusiasm. It reduces inefficiencies, improves organic growth and helps an organization to focus on the opportunities not the turbulence. History proves innovations are not made by persons who have become complacent, but by those who are actively living today to improve tomorrow. These organizations know that their products and services must meet the customer’s needs, even more in turbulent times, and are constantly striving to create innovations that will exceed expectations. The innovations may be small steps or large leaps but they improve performance for today and lay the foundation for tomorrow. They drive personnel to exceed their capabilities delivering results beyond strategic goals. They commit people to a vision of survival painting a better life for themselves, their customers and the organization.
Energy through learning and innovations yields returns for short and long term investments. The foundation is laid for optimum results in a turbulent market and architecture for growth strategy. An organization will view itself in a light of leading change, leading customer and employee loyalty, leading its industry in return on investment and will be capable of sustaining itself in turbulent or good times.
In uncertain times organizations begin examining budgets to reduce cash expenditures without a focus on the skills needed to succeed today and tomorrow. The argument is made to reduce all costs and limit learning to what people already know. The organization is in “survival mode,” weathering the current crisis. The danger in this thinking is that an organization cannot allow its employees to become numb or complacent. An organization must focus its employees on HOPE, through an organizational commitment to learning the skills necessary to compete in today’s turbulent market as well as in better times. Learning energizes organizations to live through the turbulent times knowing they will be stronger in the future.
Energy through learning drives enthusiasm. It reduces inefficiencies, improves organic growth and helps an organization to focus on the opportunities not the turbulence. History proves innovations are not made by persons who have become complacent, but by those who are actively living today to improve tomorrow. These organizations know that their products and services must meet the customer’s needs, even more in turbulent times, and are constantly striving to create innovations that will exceed expectations. The innovations may be small steps or large leaps but they improve performance for today and lay the foundation for tomorrow. They drive personnel to exceed their capabilities delivering results beyond strategic goals. They commit people to a vision of survival painting a better life for themselves, their customers and the organization.
Energy through learning and innovations yields returns for short and long term investments. The foundation is laid for optimum results in a turbulent market and architecture for growth strategy. An organization will view itself in a light of leading change, leading customer and employee loyalty, leading its industry in return on investment and will be capable of sustaining itself in turbulent or good times.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
November 2008 Deep Insights
Creating change is the secret to managing change.
Organizations facing crisis often allow momentum to slowly dissipate into a wait and see process. They choose to hang on to a failing plan (that may have taken months to produce) rather than change course or walk away. To these organizations, to walk away or change would be akin to failure, while staying the course is seen as determination. At this stage crisis looms and the organization is immobilized; everyone is simply hanging on. In fact, just the opposite is what activates adrenalin, stirs imagination and mobilizes people to take action. Leaders raise the bar for current performance by searching for markets that have been ignored. Leaders challenge how monies are spent by seeking more from less. Leaders evaluate personnel and leave those with little potential or value behind. Leaders prepare the organization for success by creating an environment where crisis is an opportunity. They push through the fear of failure, knowing change is the soul of hope.
The journey to creating and managing change begins with a series of questions about an organization’s reality. What is the state of affairs within our ecosystem? How will others influence our action? Are there partnerships that should be broken? Made? Adjusted? Continued? Who is our customer? How can we meet WHO’s needs? Do we have the skills to deliver an experience to WHO that exceeds their expectations? Are our physical assets capable of producing the desired results? Will our personnel adapt to WHO’s needs? Do they have the mental tenacity to adapt? Are they the future of our organization? These questions must be answered in an inclusive environment that permits individuals, groups and partners to embrace reality as it is today and to form a vision of what tomorrow can be, leading the organization’s change. Strategy is then developed in collaborative surroundings generating buy in and momentum for execution. Collective action will protect ecosystem members and lead to a shared value increase.
Creating change is determined by the resolve to constantly observe ones ecosystem dynamics.
Organizations facing crisis often allow momentum to slowly dissipate into a wait and see process. They choose to hang on to a failing plan (that may have taken months to produce) rather than change course or walk away. To these organizations, to walk away or change would be akin to failure, while staying the course is seen as determination. At this stage crisis looms and the organization is immobilized; everyone is simply hanging on. In fact, just the opposite is what activates adrenalin, stirs imagination and mobilizes people to take action. Leaders raise the bar for current performance by searching for markets that have been ignored. Leaders challenge how monies are spent by seeking more from less. Leaders evaluate personnel and leave those with little potential or value behind. Leaders prepare the organization for success by creating an environment where crisis is an opportunity. They push through the fear of failure, knowing change is the soul of hope.
The journey to creating and managing change begins with a series of questions about an organization’s reality. What is the state of affairs within our ecosystem? How will others influence our action? Are there partnerships that should be broken? Made? Adjusted? Continued? Who is our customer? How can we meet WHO’s needs? Do we have the skills to deliver an experience to WHO that exceeds their expectations? Are our physical assets capable of producing the desired results? Will our personnel adapt to WHO’s needs? Do they have the mental tenacity to adapt? Are they the future of our organization? These questions must be answered in an inclusive environment that permits individuals, groups and partners to embrace reality as it is today and to form a vision of what tomorrow can be, leading the organization’s change. Strategy is then developed in collaborative surroundings generating buy in and momentum for execution. Collective action will protect ecosystem members and lead to a shared value increase.
Creating change is determined by the resolve to constantly observe ones ecosystem dynamics.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
October 2008 Deep Insights
The Road Less Traveled:
CRITICS challenge the behavior of one, a few or many. They seldom participate in the creation of what they criticize and rarely propose alternative solutions or evidence to justify their criticism. Critics love anecdotal discussions that feed emotional responses. They lie in wait for decisions to be made, then appear. Critics avoid participation and position themselves to fend off accountability and ownership. Their right, as they see it, is to voice their thoughts, take exception and dispute the behavior of others. Critics avoid criticism; their goal is to stand alone.
COACHES on the other hand encourage people to adopt reality and are driven to find the facts and embrace them. Coaches challenge anecdotal information and expect specifics or simply toss the anecdotal data aside. They listen but are not influenced, they probe, and they help others uncover their illusions. A coach adopts a mental model that embraces the traits of others. This model uses strengths to build collaborative behavior, action and/or solutions. Coaches help people concentrate on their strengths even when performing under extreme circumstances. They understand building a high performance team requires making weaknesses irrelevant by using the strengths of all. Coaches construct a route with others that includes interventions along the way. These interventions or meetings help determine what has been positive and what has been negative. Coaches direct dialogue helping the team redeploy its strengths increasing the positive and negating the negative. The goal is for everyone to succeed.
COACHING is an art, built on participation that holds everyone accountable for holding everyone else accountable.
CRITICS challenge the behavior of one, a few or many. They seldom participate in the creation of what they criticize and rarely propose alternative solutions or evidence to justify their criticism. Critics love anecdotal discussions that feed emotional responses. They lie in wait for decisions to be made, then appear. Critics avoid participation and position themselves to fend off accountability and ownership. Their right, as they see it, is to voice their thoughts, take exception and dispute the behavior of others. Critics avoid criticism; their goal is to stand alone.
COACHES on the other hand encourage people to adopt reality and are driven to find the facts and embrace them. Coaches challenge anecdotal information and expect specifics or simply toss the anecdotal data aside. They listen but are not influenced, they probe, and they help others uncover their illusions. A coach adopts a mental model that embraces the traits of others. This model uses strengths to build collaborative behavior, action and/or solutions. Coaches help people concentrate on their strengths even when performing under extreme circumstances. They understand building a high performance team requires making weaknesses irrelevant by using the strengths of all. Coaches construct a route with others that includes interventions along the way. These interventions or meetings help determine what has been positive and what has been negative. Coaches direct dialogue helping the team redeploy its strengths increasing the positive and negating the negative. The goal is for everyone to succeed.
COACHING is an art, built on participation that holds everyone accountable for holding everyone else accountable.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
September 2008 Deep Insights
WHO defines a company? Is it its investors? Is it the CEO? Is it its Management? Is it its Employees? Or is it all these elements combined? In order for a company to be successful, you must ask yourself WHO is the company I work for and what purpose does WHO ask me to embrace?
If the WHO of a company is left unanswered the company’s elements create individual strategies and tactics for success. Such individual tactics most likely will be in conflict with the collaborative efforts for the company as a whole. Investors demand short term returns that sacrifice long term investments. CEOs must decide between short term investor thinking, including their own financial rewards and long term investments for the continued success of the company. Management is trapped seeking performance for immediate results, judging the contributions of its element, not the whole. Employees focus on their efforts to become a valuable proposition but do not recognize efforts for the element will not necessarily lead to results for the whole. The diversity of these answers creates a selfish interest by each element that must be overcome by answering, WHO is a company?
WHO answered. The company is the provider of all to all. Without the company all elements have no today or tomorrow. The WHO is a living being, providing a product/service for which it is paid a fair market value. WHO must survive, WHO must be cared for, WHO must build collaboration between its elements to make contributions to the whole. Together each element must learn how and when to lead or follow. They must learn that their individual goals may not be the priority for the whole. WHO needs strategy to meet its market demands which require a leadership transfer from one element to another when needed. The elements of WHO must learn effective teamwork and how best to serve WHO with their strengths.
WHO is your company? A living being that requires all elements to make contributions in an order dictated by current and future markets for the WHO as a whole.
If the WHO of a company is left unanswered the company’s elements create individual strategies and tactics for success. Such individual tactics most likely will be in conflict with the collaborative efforts for the company as a whole. Investors demand short term returns that sacrifice long term investments. CEOs must decide between short term investor thinking, including their own financial rewards and long term investments for the continued success of the company. Management is trapped seeking performance for immediate results, judging the contributions of its element, not the whole. Employees focus on their efforts to become a valuable proposition but do not recognize efforts for the element will not necessarily lead to results for the whole. The diversity of these answers creates a selfish interest by each element that must be overcome by answering, WHO is a company?
WHO answered. The company is the provider of all to all. Without the company all elements have no today or tomorrow. The WHO is a living being, providing a product/service for which it is paid a fair market value. WHO must survive, WHO must be cared for, WHO must build collaboration between its elements to make contributions to the whole. Together each element must learn how and when to lead or follow. They must learn that their individual goals may not be the priority for the whole. WHO needs strategy to meet its market demands which require a leadership transfer from one element to another when needed. The elements of WHO must learn effective teamwork and how best to serve WHO with their strengths.
WHO is your company? A living being that requires all elements to make contributions in an order dictated by current and future markets for the WHO as a whole.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
August 2008 Deep Insights
Waking up to view a Strategic Plan Execution should not arouse panic. However, in most cases the view of reality is unpleasant. The crisis is there and only a miracle will resolve the lack of performance. Fortunately, wake up surprises can be avoided by structuring a culture of forestalling, not solving crisis.
Forestalling begins in the initial stages of Strategic Planning, when an organization diagnosis its environment and the factors that will effect its success or failure. At this stage your organization should ask: What elements will determine positive or negative influences? Who is best suited to closely watch? Who has the respect of the organization to call attention to their observations? This last question is important.
As observations will be the guide for forestalling crisis while allowing the organization to take advantage of an unsuspected opportunity.
Observations alone are not actionable. They must be coupled with a Strategic Plan that includes critical paths leading to indicators that will navigate the organization toward success. Without a plan for execution everyone interprets observations with their own ramifications, but with a plan, dialogue has boundaries. Dialogue leads analysis to determination of the effects of observations and the possible consequences on the whole of the organization’s Strategic Plan.
Knowing how the Strategic Plan, as a whole, will react to potential surprises allows everyone to participate in forestalling prior to solving random symptoms. The process of forestalling saves energy for root cause resolution, rather than draining energy through blaming others, pointing fingers or trying to prioritize symptom resolutions. These energy drains are eliminated in a culture of forestalling because people are thinking about the future, not dragging themselves into the past for causes that may not matter today.
Discipline is the final element. Surprises can come from within or outside of an organization’s environment. Therefore, forestalling requires a perceptive eye. What is thought not to matter may prove to matter. When this occurs, critical path execution landscapes must be redrawn to meet the new and improved Strategic Plan. A culture that forestalls will only survive when everyone is committed to making observations, spotting potential surprises, and taking action to prevent the derailment of the Strategic Plan.
Forestalling begins in the initial stages of Strategic Planning, when an organization diagnosis its environment and the factors that will effect its success or failure. At this stage your organization should ask: What elements will determine positive or negative influences? Who is best suited to closely watch? Who has the respect of the organization to call attention to their observations? This last question is important.
As observations will be the guide for forestalling crisis while allowing the organization to take advantage of an unsuspected opportunity.
Observations alone are not actionable. They must be coupled with a Strategic Plan that includes critical paths leading to indicators that will navigate the organization toward success. Without a plan for execution everyone interprets observations with their own ramifications, but with a plan, dialogue has boundaries. Dialogue leads analysis to determination of the effects of observations and the possible consequences on the whole of the organization’s Strategic Plan.
Knowing how the Strategic Plan, as a whole, will react to potential surprises allows everyone to participate in forestalling prior to solving random symptoms. The process of forestalling saves energy for root cause resolution, rather than draining energy through blaming others, pointing fingers or trying to prioritize symptom resolutions. These energy drains are eliminated in a culture of forestalling because people are thinking about the future, not dragging themselves into the past for causes that may not matter today.
Discipline is the final element. Surprises can come from within or outside of an organization’s environment. Therefore, forestalling requires a perceptive eye. What is thought not to matter may prove to matter. When this occurs, critical path execution landscapes must be redrawn to meet the new and improved Strategic Plan. A culture that forestalls will only survive when everyone is committed to making observations, spotting potential surprises, and taking action to prevent the derailment of the Strategic Plan.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
July 2008 Deep Insights
Tracking financial results is an important element of any successful organization’s operation. However, it is not the end all. Organizations must develop navigational measurements that predict what the results will be and encourage strategy or tactical adjustments as needed.
Financial reporting paints a picture of the effort expended by an organization from a historical viewpoint. Therefore, organizations can only take action after the fact. Damages that could have been avoided accumulate; actions that would enhance results in a timely fashion cannot be taken. To avoid such issues, organizations must drill beneath financial goals to find tactics/activities that are integral for financial success.
Once established, tactics/activities must be converted into commitments between people. Actions taken through commitments are the foundation of an organizations successful execution of its strategy. Commitments encourage people to hold each other accountable. Transparency in commitments creates the trust essential for negotiations when collaborative action is needed.
Negotiations are necessary to understand how each person will deliver their commitment. Negotiations build awareness of situations that may hinder or add unnecessary conflict. Through negotiations, planned interventions can evolve to guarantee performance. Interventions should focus on at least two items: anticipation of situations that could occur and what actions should be taken to successfully execute the organization’s strategy. People must approach this process in the spirit of experimentation, not entering negotiations or interventions to place blame. It must be a place of support and collaboration, people working together to meet commitments.
Commitments made in a transparent public forum, in a collaborative environment of experimentation will usher an organization into financial success, beyond expectations. Tracking and measuring commitments is the navigational pathway to successful financial results.
Financial reporting paints a picture of the effort expended by an organization from a historical viewpoint. Therefore, organizations can only take action after the fact. Damages that could have been avoided accumulate; actions that would enhance results in a timely fashion cannot be taken. To avoid such issues, organizations must drill beneath financial goals to find tactics/activities that are integral for financial success.
Once established, tactics/activities must be converted into commitments between people. Actions taken through commitments are the foundation of an organizations successful execution of its strategy. Commitments encourage people to hold each other accountable. Transparency in commitments creates the trust essential for negotiations when collaborative action is needed.
Negotiations are necessary to understand how each person will deliver their commitment. Negotiations build awareness of situations that may hinder or add unnecessary conflict. Through negotiations, planned interventions can evolve to guarantee performance. Interventions should focus on at least two items: anticipation of situations that could occur and what actions should be taken to successfully execute the organization’s strategy. People must approach this process in the spirit of experimentation, not entering negotiations or interventions to place blame. It must be a place of support and collaboration, people working together to meet commitments.
Commitments made in a transparent public forum, in a collaborative environment of experimentation will usher an organization into financial success, beyond expectations. Tracking and measuring commitments is the navigational pathway to successful financial results.
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