Behaviors of people in situations of change of course

I have been involved in situations of radical change in Europe, the Middle East and Africa; They usually call me when businesses are in really bad shape. In the current climate, I know that there are a good number of situations of change and more to come. I have several success stories and so many bad ones and I thought I could share some of my experiences with you.

In most exchange situations, lack of cash is the burning problem, so you should focus your effort on solving this problem rather than making the most common exchange mistake, which is trying to change too much at once. The key to success is to start with a survival strategy and focus on specific short-term goals. Your staff is exhausted, unmotivated, and frustrated; they cannot get involved in too many things. The new team has yet to prove its worth and probably still doesn’t have a very good understanding of the business or its problems (even if you think they do). If you try to do too many things too soon, you will lose the limited momentum you have.

I understand that you think “this guy doesn’t see that we don’t have time and we have to move fast”, but if you overload your staff, especially the drivers, you will burn them. And things will not move any faster, it will only prevent you and you will lose this precious time that I understand you do not have!

In a situation of change, it is inevitable that you will have to fire people. You must give full power of firing and hiring to the “crisis manager” and his new team of drivers, as within 2-3 months he will have to participate in his first round of layoffs. If you have unions, you need to engage with them from the beginning and identify the union members who really want to save the company. If they exist! By doing so, you will get their full support. Now is the time to identify the people responsible for the poor results of the company, you can easily identify them; they are usually proud of their role as a headache. These “opponents” are incompetent, unsavory and fight against change, and its drivers to the end. They certainly have a loyal following and following with them, but they usually don’t like them outside of their little circle and most people are happy to see them go. As you lay off people, you have to start building momentum and reorganizing the business.

By now you should have had some success, especially on the cash front, you know your drivers, you sat down with them, individually, to understand the root causes of the crisis and what can be done in the short term to survive. It should move drivers into key positions and bring in new talent to start solving tougher problems.

Only at that stage will you be in a position to formulate a real long-term strategy. Most consultants would recommend doing this first, but I found it to be a big mistake. When the new team begins to assess the problems facing the business and understands why it is in this bad situation, it is impossible to define a long-term strategy. As an example, in my last assignment, we recommend starting to implement shared services across all three business units. It turned out to be the wrong decision, as we later found out that the only way for the entire business to survive was to sell one of the business units. Then we had to undo what we had already started in HR and Finance consolidation. In my experience, the first year is a founding year, used to extinguish fires and put systems and people in place that will be able to prevent those fires from igniting again and again, so formulating a long-term strategy is not something that it’s going to be done. have the time or energy to do it.

Putting the right people and processes in place will help you identify unexpected successes and competencies that in turn help you formulate a long-term strategy, design legacy products to match customer demand, and create great value.

In a changing situation, people seem to be focused on failure and can’t see the potential for success, but when you get out of firefighting mode and into proactive mode, it’s time to rally your drivers and build a strategy. to move the company into sustainable growth and high margins.

Then you can get back in the driver’s seat and say goodbye to the crisis manager.