Managing Through the Meltdown

With financial turmoil continuing and strong indicators of a worldwide recession, the challenge of deciding how best to respond is pressing on nearly every business. While taking rapid action can be critical, the risks of hurting your company’s ability to take advantage of opportunities, or to position itself for the eventual upswing, are high. Across-the-board hiring freezes or X% staff or budget cuts work quickly, but don’t discriminate between “fat” and “muscle.” Hasty decisions can discourage people even more than the business conditions themselves—if they see the actions taken with little clear rationale. Even though many leaders recognize these “unintended consequences,” they are at a loss for an alternative.

The good news is, times of crisis offer an opportunity to sharpen people’s commitment to change and to challenge assumptions that stand firm when things are “fine.” With the right leadership and focus, fear can be channeled into action that makes your business leaner and meaner, and even better at delivering what your customers really want. (They’ll be relying on you, or your competitors, to help them when times are tight!)

Here are some “tips” to consider, which some of our clients are using to help, and not hurt, their operations:

• Look for Untapped “Synergies” - Many companies have longstanding duplicate functions, often the legacy of a past merger that was never fully integrated. Now may be the time look harder at those redundant efforts and really finish the merger process. [See related article, below]
• Rethink How You “Delight the Customer” - Believe it or not, some of the “special things” you do for customers may not be all that important to them. You can cut costs, and refocus on really value-adding activities, by scrutinizing and even eliminating some unappreciated extras.
• Focus on “Manual” Versus “Automated” Solutions - The notion that automating an activity will make it more efficient sounds good in theory. But in practice the up front investment to achieve those savings, not to mention the lead-time and effort required, can be huge. Now may be the time to look for ways to work smarter by having people do things better and differently (or not doing things that aren’t important) and put off that big IT push.
• Take on the Big Opportunities Now - Beyond, or in addition to, the “quick hit” opportunities, slower business volume (which hopefully will be short-lived!) can give you the time and resources to launch more aggressive business transformations. Somewhat like a butterfly, you may use the tough times like a chrysalis, reforming in key areas so you emerge in a totally new form.

Easier said than done? Of course! Depending on your circumstances, the best response might be go into survival mode and wait for better times. On the other hand, it may be your competitors who are making the best of a challenging situation, or your customers who are rethinking their future needs. So, simply laying low can have its risks, too.

Pivotal offers a variety of services, as well as experienced change and improvement consultants, that can help you make the right moves in uncertain times. These include:
• Facilitated Working Sessions to define opportunities and set priorities for quick efficiency improvements.
• Operational Diagnostics to pinpoint non-value-adding activities in the business and problems that are consuming time and resources.
• Kaizen/Workout Events that drive short-term action and results.
• Leadership Assessment and Development services that help your managers and executives make smarter choices, adapt to new challenges, and lead change.
No matter how you respond, or how long the crisis impacts you and your organization, responding effectively to challenges is now a fundamental business competency. Today’s turmoil may actually present a valuable opportunity to test and build your ability to adapt and thrive amidst adversity.
For details and questions on Pivotal’s change services, contact us.

Thoughts on Habits – Both Good and Bad

Anyone scanning the entry dates in this Blog will note that the postings have not exactly been fast and furious. That’s annoying to me because the intention has been and still is to offer some regular comments and insights on topics of leadership, change and business improvement. The trouble is: I just have not gotten into the habit or routine of making entries, which is obviously essential to meeting that goal. (For some reason, the voice of Captain Kirk —— “Captain’s log, Star date …” comes to me.)

Habits are an interesting thing. Even though the topic seems to have been swamped by “7 Habits” mania, there still seems to be a lot of room to explore how they affect our behavior and effectiveness in our jobs and the success of any organization.

For some reason, most of what we’d call “good habits” require, at least to begin with, a meaningful dose of discipline. Even something as simple as saying “Please” and “Thank You” for most of us began with a lot of prompting (and annoying blank looks) from parents and other adults. The “habit” of posting to a Blog requires the discipline to do it on a regular basis—not something I’ve yet shown—and then convert that into something that comes naturally.

Many of the most important business or management habits are just the same. Establishing clear goals, for example, or communicating effectively require effort to get right and usually only become routine and “easy” after time and practice.

But the scary news is that the dark side of bad habits demands very little effort or practice at all. In English, the phrase “fall into bad habits” makes clear that all you need to do is let go, and down you tumble.… I’m not sure why the good is hard and the bad is easy, but it poses one of the most fundamental reasons why having a successful organization stay successful is so difficult.

So … Since I clearly need to work on my Blog-posting habit and since the concept of how habits, good and bad, provide a key to leading organizations in a fast-changing environment, I’m going to stick with this theme for a little while and connect it to some of the big issues we’re confronting today. My sense is it will be interesting and hopefully thought provoking.

But I’ll leave that to the next post – coming soon!