HoW TO SURVIVE

When you have a great idea it’s easy to put it down to being really, really smart. Or the idea being obvious, but then again no one else had it, so maybe it was only obvious to you, as you’re really, really, really smart.

Over the years I’ve been fascinated by what gets in the way of good ideas, why don’t people see what’s right in front of them? Or why does the good idea that’s mentioned not get taken up? There are many factors in general, but in this circumstance of impending recession a few interesting things happen with some consistency.

There’s more detail below, but the short answer is get your head up, and look out. Think before you act. Many go too hard too soon, and rob themselves of the ability to do anything other than hibernate. We are too internally focused, too cost controlling, too much in survival mode. This is a valid mode to get in to if you’re a bear or a dormouse where hibernation is the plan, but the bird needs to take flight now, the penguin’s got an investment to make and if you’ve got the cunning you might be able to feed yourself by outfoxing the winter.

Here’s what generally happens:

Step One - Grief

The first step is what my friend Chris Savage called commercial grief. We grieve what we had, and we go though the steps: denial, anger, rationalising, despair, acceptance. The best do this quickly and get on to pragmatism.

Step Two - Action & Control

Unfortunately this means people grasp for what they know and what they can control. This leads to cost cutting, and an internal focus. Uncertainty is stressful so people go for knowns, sometimes choosing the certainty of a poor outcome over the chance of better one. We also tend to take less chances, staying in our area of expertise rather than using our skills in new ways. But whatever we do we get busy, we occupy ourselves in crisis meetings, often twice a day and over the weekend, with no time to do anything in between.

Step Three - Communicate

Communicate, communicate, communicate. The message is often ‘we’re in trouble, some of us will lose our jobs, can’t tell you who, we’ll get back to you with more information’. The problem with this is we’ve now pushed everyone from work crisis to personal crisis, so what little thought capacity was on opportunity is now on ‘what do I tell my partner, my kids? how will we pay the mortgage, the school fees?’. You can say good bye to at least a day for each member of staff to call their partner, contact the bank, renegotiate some bills, go over the budget, and so on. Then there’s the many chats with colleagues ‘can you believe it?’, ‘Bill should really go’, and so on.

You’ve also killed any chance of debate and quality decision making as people are in ‘keep my job’ mode.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs has kicked in and all people think about is personal survival.

Step Four - Be Part of the Solution

The next thing that happens is people want to be part of the solution, so they offer up cost cuts - after all it’s better to be in the meeting cutting your team than out of it getting cut. If you’re not in the room, get in the room.

Then there’s all this work to do, we’ve got salary reductions, stand-downs, suppliers to put the squeeze on. Plus we want to re-check in on whether we’ve gone hard enough. As you have to go hard. So that’s a good few weeks of work.

Plus we’ll also talk about how we need to be seamless - we’ll layoff half our people but no customer can notice (yes that’s the first time we mentioned the customer).

and so it continues…

But is there a better way? Try this:

Step One - Grief

That’s going to happen. But by empowering people with hope, and a toolkit we can help people through this more effectively. Everyone knows times are bad, it has never been more important to provide hope and to harness it’s awesome potential through a practical approach.

Step Two - Communicate

We need to have a conversation, a deep informed conversation, we need all the information we have and we need every bit of brain power we can muster. We need Aristotelian balance. A message such as ‘these are looking like tough times, we’re still getting to grips with it and what this will mean for our business. We want your insights, thoughts and ideas as we formulate our plan - we’re all in this together’.

Encourage people to speak to clients, colleagues, partners, friends. Find out who else has problems, why? What are others doing? Who’s doing well? Where do we think this will go? What opportunities are there? Always be looking, listening, thinking. The best sources may never enter your building and may not appear on TV; a real estate agent can tell you who’s still confident, a barista can tell you who’s cutting back, an electrician can tell you who’s investing, and so on. You need everyone gathering as much information as quickly possible.

Step Three - Problem Solving

You may have noticed that we jumped straight to action before, generally that doesn’t end well. It’s always worth spending a couple of days solving the problem first. This can literally be a couple of days. Generally half a day information gathering in people’s teams, asking a series of big questions. Then a half day workshop to begin to pull it together. There’s then some rumination time, followed by a refinement and commitment workshop and we’re ready. Often this is quicker to action than jumping straight to action, as that inevitably involves false starts as it’s not properly thought through.

Step Four - Set Up

Whatever plan you’ve agreed get ready to execute. A few days of focused activity to ensure you’re ready to act with military precision. If it is cut backs, be ready, be prepared and be able to say ‘that’s it we’re done’. If it’s opportunity get ready to make it happen, have your project disciplines ready. If it’s a deal be prepared to make the deal then and there. Get ready so when opportunity presents itself you can capture it.

Step Five - Execute

This is where all the value is delivered. Execute with focus, tenacity, innovation and determination. Stay alert and open to everything around you. Remember von Moltke - ‘no plan survives first contact with the enemy’. Be ready to adapt and respond, keep the objective clearly in mind and go win the day. Whatever plan you choose will depend on proper execution, so do not rest until it is done.

Read the TravelCard case study for an example of where it was put to good use.

For more thoughts on how to survive, or for help please contact us.