The business had grown slowly, steadily. The company faced financial headwinds and felt boxed in when opportunities presented themselves. They could see growth but struggled to find the right combination of people and product.
The business was mushrooming. Hard work and good positioning in the market created a number of healthy opportunities. The CEO and her team had weathered the difficult time of proving their bona fides and now they had several new projects that required attention and execution.
Everyone marvels at the incredible accuracy of space flight. The precision needed to get these missions off the ground is the stuff of legend. A little-known fact about the original trip to the moon was that, for all the talk of accuracy, that particular trip was off course almost 80% of the time! Nevertheless, the mission was completed, and the astronauts were on target when they got home.
Inventory backlogs plagued the company. A new system for tracking inventory has been deployed. The person responsible won’t use it, preferring to use an outdated approach.
What would cause someone to act a certain way despite a powerful personal reluctance to do so? Sergeant York did. Alvin York lived in the backwoods of Tennessee. As a young man, he was a hell-raiser and a tippler. According to the movie about his life, he experienced an event that inspired a strong faith journey.
The discussion of the Call-to-Action must not be taken lightly or glossed over too quickly. It sets the tone for the entire Compelling Journey. Leaders must be very clear on it and must also be prepared to explain thoroughly to their folks what it is and why it is essential to the organization.
On The Compelling Journey, we take the time to assess the current situation and describe the ideal situation so that we can help our clients distill their WHY. If they don’t have an overarching Call to Action for their organization, we begin there.
Change isn’t easy…Over two-thirds of all transformation initiatives fail to achieve their intended goal; many fail entirely. Nevertheless, organizations that wish to thrive need to find the way through.
Change…It’s upon us relentlessly. For years I thought that providing consulting services on how best to manage it was the ticket. While I did have modest results, a business owner stopped me cold when he asked, “Look, all this change stuff is great, but what I want to know is how will it move the needle?”
Trust is vital in high performance teams. Ask any leader and what they prize as the key intangible and the answer most often will be trust. Why? Trust promotes “flow,” that quality in which members are freed to perform in a focused, engaged fashion.
