|
|
|
|
Mid-year Review - Where are you?Stopping the Insanity Jack closed the conference room door behind him as he walked into the Monday morning staff meeting. He was right on time as always. The clock ticked 8:00 AM exactly as the door hit the jamb with a startling bang. This meeting was going to be different. He dropped a big stack of reports on the table and looked around the table making a mental roll call. Only Frank was missing. He sat down. Everyone waited for the shoe to fall. "I had a chance to review our year-to-date financial and operating reports this weekend," Jack said quietly. His soft words didn't match the hard look on his face. The shoe hit the floor. "I can't begin to tell you how disappointed I am." He paused. "According to these numbers we are going to miss plan if we keep going the way we are now. Our financial objectives are in real trouble. It's clear we can't keep going the way we are." Jack paused and looked around the room almost daring someone to speak. No one did. The only sound was a rustle as the executives shrank down in their chairs. A half dozen minds started scrolling through answers and excuses; trying to grasp that one great reason for failure that would save them. Was it the economy, the competition, the labor shortage, Y2K, or the heavy management workload? They'd all been tried before but somehow it was recognized that they surely wouldn't fly today. The door opened. Everyone turned. "Sorry I'm late." Frank smiled as he dumped his papers on the table and slid into a chair sloshing a little Starbucks coffee in the process. He looked around the room as usual waiting for someone to catch him up on the last few minutes. He dabbed at the bottom of his cup and the table, smiling. The silence took the room temperature down another 5 degrees. He finally looked at Jack and then he too slumped down in his chair not daring to say anything more. "We've been through this time and time again and I think we've found every reason and excuse in the world for not meeting plan. I'm not going to ask you to give them to me again," Jack said. "But, but…" sputtered Frank "I've really got it figured out. The competition is just too strong for us. I've got this analysis here that I worked on this weekend." He smiled proudly as he pushed the copies into the center of the table for everyone to grab and study. Nobody moved. "Frank, I don't think you were here when I said that we can't keep going the way we are," Jack said firmly. "We should be getting ready to start next year's planning process and yet here we're already in deep trouble with this plan. We're going to do something different. We're going to stop the insanity." Frank snickered but nobody else did. There was a sense of dread that the pressure and the workload were about to get worse. Golf dates and evening plans were mentally erased. Everyone looked at Jack. He continued "I spent Saturday reviewing these reports and I spent Sunday afternoon with a business consultant talking about where we are. I realized that as good a management team as we are, we are really missing out on some important things. It occurred to me that our 50 to 70 hour workweeks just might not be enough. We're all working hard but it's obvious that we’re not working on the right things in the right way. I know I've resisted bringing in outside expertise but now I think I've been penny wise and pound foolish about that. I'm not saying that you aren't great people but I think we're just too close to the forest to see the trees. "The business consultant told me that the Chinese define insanity as doing the same thing over and over again in the same way while expecting a different result. By that definition we've been insane. Now it's time to get smart and stop the insanity. The consultant asked me a lot of good questions that I just couldn't answer." "Jack, we know where we are today but some of what he's asking for is just pie in the sky. How do you expect us to come up with all that with everything else we have going on? I have to be in Chicago for the next two days and…" Frank whined before Jack cut him off. "Frank, we're done with excuses. Cancel Chicago. In fact everyone clear your calendars. Delegate what you must and reschedule the rest. We're all meeting Wednesday and Thursday to get through these questions and set the stage to be more effective in everything that we do. We're meeting at the Downtown Conference Center at 7:30 sharp Wednesday morning and we'll be there through dinner. Moving to the white-board, Jack said, "This is what we're going to do and what we're going to get out of it. By the end of the week we are going to figure out:
And what we would do differently if we had unlimited resources. "From that information we are going to set the stage to:
"By the time we're done with this process, we'll not only meet our plan but we'll exceed it. I finally realized that we can do this more efficiently and effectively with skilled leadership. The consultant is going to run the show as the facilitator. He'll focus on process and we can focus on content. This small investment will pay off for years to come. I don't know of any other way to get to accomplish so much in such an efficient way. I just wish I'd done it sooner. "The way the world is changing around us we don't have any more time to waste being insane. No more excuses. Now, let's get to work. Oh, and Frank, you won’t want to be late this time."
Not only does Business Solutions provide business consulting and training, we conduct professional meeting facilitations for a wide variety of settings. Read about Professional Meeting Facilitation to see if it's appropriate for your situation.
|
Cost Reduction & Profit Improvement
|
