In the last eight months I have had the privilege of working closely with the senior leadership of a rather large organization, focused specifically on assessing and analyzing the organization as it stands today. Our work has seen us deep in document and process review, interviewing senior staff and managers, and assembling and presenting findings in order to find the path forward.
In the last few weeks our direction forward has been clarified, and we have moved to engage in a new way to address the findings we delivered to the organization thus far. Deciding that it was best to allow those who reported back on the organization through interviews to own their comments, complaints, and suggestions, we have taken steps to engage these teams to participate again—this time in developing next steps and recommendations.
Inevitably, this leads to challenges. One of the major findings we uncovered with this client was that everybody, and I mean everybody, is ridiculously over-booked. I have seen more than a few calendars with regular double, triple, and quadruple bookings throughout the day and week. Not only are there multiple grabs for each person’s time, they are frequently equally important and attendance at competing meetings can be a huge source of stress for the employees at this organization.
So, it should be no surprise that, when we pulled this team together twice in one week to review results and then break into individual strategy teams, we met resistance. Needless to say, we heard concerns, complaints, and apprehension (not just about time), from these groups, and the one comment that I found particularly interesting came from a place of scarcity—“we don’t have time for this.”
One manager put it particularly well: “If one of our findings is that we are too busy, have too many meetings, and struggle to get to the work… then what are we doing here? And during summer—our busy season?! We’re all on vacation, in and out, and this is the worst time of the year for this!”
Fair enough, I know that this is the time of year that I hope to get work wrapped up early and get outside. I know that people are frequently on vacation, and people have their core functions to attend to in addition to this transformational work. All very truthful and fair!
The question we posed to this client was this: “So when is the right time?” I will pose the same to you: when is the magical day when it makes the most sense to get to work on improving your organization?
There is an easy answer: now. I have seen this before, and often seen clients look to the future and say “it’ll be easier when ______.” That unknown is usually just that—wait for fall, instead of summer? Family responsibility pops up in a big way. Winter? All that weather, and we’re getting geared up in the New Year. Spring? Can’t have that, we are wrapping up the school year, prepping for the back half of the year, and getting excited for summer!
My point is that no matter when you think it’s the right time, there will always be obstacles. The toss-away examples above completely neglect the realities of the working world, and don’t take into consideration the ebb and flow of daily activity, and the spontaneous fires we all have to attend to.
So, I challenge you to give up the time aspect. To use a proven adage, it is always hard to work on it while you work in it. However, if you ever want to improve the in it part, you simply have to make time for the on it. Additionally, I challenge you to embrace the extra work—this stuff isn’t easy! And make time to improve your business. NOW is the right time!
Just in case you were wondering, these teams have embraced the present and are excitedly going to work to make improvements on their organization. They are finding ways to incorporate this work, and they will be better off tomorrow for it. Will you join them?
Alec Kisiel, Consultant, helps entreQuest's clients to grow and develop so they are able to recognize their full potential to effectively achieve remarkable results for their organizations and make a meaningful impact in their communities.
