Preparing for the Bus

We all know one, or maybe we are one. You know – the person that plans for all eventualities, including the most unbelievably improbable situations or opportunities.

I like to think I’m that person now, but that wasn’t the case many years ago. For me, this was a lesson presented over and over and over again by one of my favorite bosses. For every new idea, project or policy suggested for implementation, she would ask, “What happens if you get run over by a bus? What happens then? How do we pick up where you left off?”

The Bus; what happens after The Bus?

How do you prepare? How far in advance do you prepare? Where are these instructions kept? Who maintains/updates them? What is the basic plan if Employee A is unable to perform their job unexpectedly? Employee B? Employee Z? How do we mitigate the negative aspects of the loss of a staff member? How do we, as an organization, react publicly and to the family?

These are some the questions that constantly run through the mind of a planner.

The answer to that proverbial question is to write down the procedure, logon/password, instructions, etc., so anyone on the staff could step in if necessary during an emergency situation; even if that staff member is you.

This does not mean that everyone on staff knows every aspect of everyone else’s job. It just creates a starting point for those who need to step in when circumstances require.

Some people are inherently opposed to writing everything down for a variety of reasons. Some like to think they can keep it all in their head and act when necessary using just their knowledge. Others feel like writing it down opens the door to being replaced by a younger, less expensive employee, while some just don’t think it is important for anyone else to know because they like to control access for security (or other) purposes.

On the other hand, there are those who write everything down; what time they went to lunch or on break, and what day and time they spoke to "Mark at Intellimedia" about correcting a flaw in the system. This can be helpful, but in some ways it could also be just a little too much.

Over the past few years my team has been working on a project that took much longer to produce results than we anticipated. In the initial planning stages, several options for success were discussed and plans were devised. Over time it became apparent that success would be achieved when least expected; sure enough, it did.

Were we ready? Yes.

Did everything work out the way we planned? No, but we had Plan B, Plan C, and Plan D to pull from as circumstances quickly changed. Eventually we ended up with a combination of every plan that had been devised, and a significant amount of documentation to fall back on as new challenges appeared.

A leader’s job is to lead (no kidding!).

So, lead!

Sell the idea of documenting the key elements of each role in the organization to your staff so that if The Bus hits your organization, those tasked with ensuring the ship is not circling around rudderless have sufficient information to keep it moving in the right direction.

Perhaps working in teams to identify areas where members depend on others to perform their own work is the best place to start. For instance, if Sam depends on data from Kay, Sam should know how to get the data, where it is normally stored, or to whom he can go for assistance so that he can get what he needs if Kay is unavailable for any length of time.

I know this all sounds so simple, like Management 101, but how many of us actually have this system in place? How many actually have a plan for the eventuality of The Bus?

It’s not something we want to think about, but we should – and plan for.

Dawn is the Deputy Executive Director for the Academy for Eating Disorders in Reston, VA. Before founding her own consulting firm in 2013, she served as a respected project management and administrative operations professional in the military, higher education, and women’s healthcare fields for almost 30 years. As a volunteer, she currently serves as the Past Chair of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine's Women's Council. 

Dawn holds a Bachelor of Arts in Management from Trevecca Nazarene University, as well as a Master of Business Administration degree and a Graduate Certificate in Organizational Management from American Public University, and a Lean/Six-Sigma Green Belt. 

The Challenges of New Leadership

Change is a good thing, right?

Businesses and organizations refine and adjust their strategy based on many things, including the changing needs of their client-base and the market place. One of the most significant catalysts for change is new leadership.

Once the announcement of a new leader is made, the change process begins. 

And then, all the people say, “Oh, joy; a new leader who will want to change everything.”

As they say, change is never easy. There are multiple upon multiple studies showing that just the idea of change causes fear and stress for those involved. However, sometimes new leadership is not just necessary, but also vital to organizational growth and, even perhaps its very survival.

New leaders, be they CEOs or mid-level managers, certainly bring their own personality and management style to the top of the table. If they come from outside the organization, the most valuable asset they bring is not their education or years of experience, but a perspective quite different from those on the inside.

Good leaders know that recognizing and utilizing differing perspectives to make decisions about what must be changed is crucial. The difficulty in implementation comes from team members with the “We’ve Always Done It This Way” mentality, and those mired in GroupThink. Without trudging down the rabbit hole discussions of those two issues, I think it is safe to say that they have their own particular challenges which require situation-specific actions to address.

When I began my career in the early 1980’s, organizational leaders based decisions on input from their division or department heads, who gathered data from their subordinates in a very controlled fashion. Employees worked 8am – 5pm (or 9am – 5pm), Monday through Friday, and spent evenings and the weekends with their families.

Thirty years later, more Millennials are moving into positions of leadership, and facing an ever-evolving multi-generational workforce with different, and often competing, demands for engagement and working conditions. The younger generation not only expects, but demands to have a seat at the table and expects to move to another company in a few years to take the next step in their careers. They also don’t want to watch the clock, or be constrained by having to be in an office every day.

Older workers, such as those from the Greatest Generation and my Baby Boomer generation need to feel respected for the knowledge and experience for which we have worked so hard for many years to earn. We also need a seat at the table, or at least know that the new, younger leadership has heard and acknowledged the issues we bring to light. Like the younger crowd, I love working from home, but I also like the idea of having evenings and weekends free.

The leadership challenge with a multi-generational work force is finding a way to meet the differing needs, while building a cohesive and open organizational culture that allows and encourages employees to be passionate about their work and their organization’s success.

In the words of former Secretary of State Colin Powell from his book, My American Journey,

"The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership."  

Stepping into a new leadership role is an exciting experience. It is an opportunity to develop a vision for excellence and innovation, and to share that vision with an actively engaged organization. All leaders face challenges, however, it is their response to those challenges that determines their success.

If you have been a new organizational or business leader, what words of wisdom would you share with those who want to be, and one day will be, a new leader?

NOTE: This post also appears on LinkedIn.

Before founding her own consulting firm in 2013, Dawn Gannon served as a respected project management and administrative operations professional in the military, higher education, and women’s healthcare fields for 25 years. She holds a Masters of Business Administration and a Graduate Certificate in Organizational Management from American Public University, is a contributor on LinkedIn, and the author of the Management in Motion blog.

Dawn currently serves as the Past Chair of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine’s Women’s Council, and teaches health and safety classes for the American Red Cross. As an infertility survivor she has been a featured speaker within the Fertility Community, and written numerous articles on the topic of childfree living. 

I Quit!

Your VP for Research and the Associate VP of Marketing have both resigned in the last 30 days to take positions with different competitors. 

Disappointing, yes; but nothing to worry about, right?

However, your HR Director just left your office after sharing startling statistics on employee retention, which suggests that very few stay with your company for more than 2 years, especially in the Research and Marketing departments.

What is going on, and why hasn’t this been brought to your attention before now? Or, has it and you just didn’t understand what was actually being conveyed?

Perhaps you should talk with your remaining leadership team members, and ask your HR Director to initiate an employee survey to ascertain employee satisfaction and solicit feedback for improvements. 

Based on the information already provided, it seems certain that an organizational strategic change initiative is in order. Maybe it’s the politics, or the culture, or the work process itself. Maybe it's a little bit of all of those, and more.

For example, a friend came to me recently for advice on how to deal with some issues she was facing at work. Since we have been friends for a very long time, she knew I had faced similar challenges, and wanted validation for the options she saw as viable for her particular situation.

It seems the politics in her organization have completely taken over good management practices. Until now, she has done her best not to participate in the games her colleagues seem to enjoy and clearly benefit from based on the promotions and frequent public “at-a-boys” they receive, while she and her efforts are overlooked. 

Regardless of her qualifications and superior work performance, her unwillingness to play the game has cost her two promotions and given rise to the perception that she is not a team player. 

As we see it, her options are: 1) start playing the politics game and build additional strategic relationships within the company so that she is seen as a team player and can start getting the recognition for her efforts, or 2) find a new position with a different company.

Now is not the 

time to be complacent

Based on the resignations noted at the top of this blog and like my friend’s situation, could politics and a culture that supports promotions based on the participation in cliques be the core issue in your organization?  

Before you shake your head and say, ‘of course not,’ make sure that the survey conducted by HR includes questions about culture, politics, upward mobility and team cohesion.

Better yet, contract an organizational development professional to provide an unbiased company evaluation, and then work with them to design a strategic change initiative to address the issues revealed.

While it may appear that the culture of promotion via politics is widely accepted, it really isn't. In fact, it is patently toxic to the success of your organization!

Now is not the time to be complacent, thinking that these resignations and the data from HR are just small bumps in the road. 

Now is the time to lead by example, to take action to ensure your organization becomes the one everyone wants to work for; not the one they use to get experience and then leave for better opportunities.

  

Before founding her own consulting firm, Dawn Gannon served as a respected management professional in the military, higher education, and healthcare fields for 25 years. As a Lean/Six Sigma Green Belt, Dawn’s commitment and personal mission to improve the lives of others through service to the community focuses on providing administrative and volunteer management, consumer education, public outreach, event planning, relationship-building efforts, and strategic planning. She is the author of the Management in Motion blog, and has written a number of articles for RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association on the topic of childfree living.

Do You See the Forest or the Trees?

“Based on what you are saying, you obviously can’t see the forest for the trees in front of you. You need to see the bigger picture!”

How many times have you said and/or heard this? I’ve personally lost count.

And yet, many times we get so caught up in the great new idea we formed or heard presented at the last executive seminar we attended, that we actually fail to see how it fits into the big organizational picture; how many others and/or projects and programs it will affect if implemented.

As noted by Kotter and Schlesinger in the Harvard Business Review, one of the most significant challenges for business leaders is the ability to anticipate, recognize, and acknowledge the need for organizational change. Once they accept the need for change, they are then faced the additional challenges of choosing the method and degree of change, while developing a vision to move the company forward that is the most appropriate for their specific circumstances. 

Failing to consider these cornerstones when embarking on a change initiative can only be described as not seeing the forest for the trees. As we all know, the unintended consequences of focusing on the trees instead of the forest can be catastrophic in business. 

Sure, the keynote speaker (aka organizational development expert) at your last executive seminar presented a fantastic option for improving the efficiency of your organization; that’s his job. It’s what he does for a living, and his presentation was simply awesome!

Regardless of how good he made it sound, think about the forest instead of the trees. In other words, will you commit yourself, your organization, and the necessary resources to the work that must be done before dropping it on your employees, or are you just excited about the presentation you saw, and now believe wholeheartedly that it’s the quick and easy answer to all your organizational problems?

Change is inevitable

As Kotter and Schlesinger point out, there are many factors to be considered in the development and choice of manner for a change initiative in order for it to be successful in the long run. 

• How much change is necessary? 
• How will you engage and communicate with your organization so that they can see and support your vision? 
• How do you mitigate the resistance that is inevitable? 
• Can you sell this vision to your company and board even though it can take years to bear fruit? 
• Can you afford the cost? 
• Can you afford not to do it? 
• What will the new structure look like, and how will you manage the effects of the change?

Change is inevitable, and leaders who cannot, or will not, anticipate change and lead the way with a sound, innovative strategic plan and organizational structure its employees and board can get behind will find themselves at a distinct disadvantage. Just ask Ron Johnson how that worked out for him at JCPenney.

Again, looking at the trees only offers a beautiful, peaceful view filled with obstacles. However, looking at the forest rather than the trees, and then painstakingly devising a fully researched, inclusive and developed way through it is the only path to successful implementation.

Before founding her own consulting firm, Dawn Gannon served as a respected management professional in the military, higher education, and healthcare fields for 25 years. As a Lean/Six Sigma Green Belt, Dawn’s commitment and personal mission to improve the lives of others through service to the community focuses on providing administrative and volunteer management, consumer education, public outreach, event planning, relationship-building efforts, and strategic planning. She is the author of the Management in Motion blog, and has written a number of articles for RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association on the topic of childfree living.

How Bridgegate Shines a Light on the Power of Organizational Culture

She lied; and now she’s out of a job.

When the contents of emails between New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s Assistant Chief of Staff and a highly-placed Port Authority of New York and New Jersey were exposed last week, heads quickly rolled.

Now Christie is embroiled in a scandal about political payback that threatens his supposed interest in running for President in 2016, and the success of any of the initiatives he plans to lay out on Tuesday for his second term as Governor.

Regardless of your political leanings, I’m sure that at least once in your life you have found yourself asking the very same question Christie has been asking for almost a week now: “How did this happen?”

There are several other related questions that are just as important to ask as well, such as:

• What is it about the culture of my organization allows people to believe that this behavior is acceptable?
• What changes can I make that clearly state and show that unethical behavior, disregard for others, political payback and dishonesty is unacceptable?
• Is it even possible to remove politics from any organization?

While I can’t answer the first two questions without a thorough analysis of his organization, the answer to the third is unfortunately a resounding NO.

Politics, like change, is a fact of life and business. Author Gareth Morgan notes that everyone has specific interests in their personal and professional lives, and works with/uses others to promote those issues and achieve their goals.

Perhaps the answer to the third question is in the first. In his remarks on the scandal last week Christie defended the culture of his administration multiple times, pointing out that he believes he has an open, collaborative culture where transparency, trust and honesty are cornerstones.

Perhaps; perhaps not.

As Christie pointed out, for the moment “BridgeGate” appears to be an anomaly. However, corporate culture starts at the top, and is fed to the rest of the organization through the actions (or inaction) of leadership.

For example, Dominic Barton, Global Managing Director for McKinsey & Company is fighting a similar battle for the culture and reputation of that well-respected consulting company. In his effort to rebuild the business community’s trust in the company, Barton sought and has obtained the support of its board and the rest of the leadership team. Without that support, his efforts are doomed.

In short, everyone plays politics in every phase of their life, and change is inevitable. However, without strong leadership, any changes in culture or organizational behavior achieved in the short-term will not survive in the long-term.

I wish both Christie and Barton luck in their efforts.

Before founding her own consulting firm, Dawn Gannon served as a respected management professional in the military, higher education, and healthcare fields for 25 years. As a Lean/Six Sigma Green Belt, Dawn’s commitment and personal mission to improve the lives of others through service to the community focuses on providing administrative and volunteer management, consumer education, public outreach, event planning, relationship-building efforts, and strategic planning. She is also a published author on the topic of childfree living.