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Volume 4.3 Table Of Contents
- Leadership lessons from the new Daylight Savings Time
- Trend Watch: Unintended consequences of change create challenges / opportunities
- Digging Deeper: Don’t marry your milestones
- Ask the Expert:
- Speaking of Success
Leadership lessons from the new Daylight Savings Time
By now, most of us have adjusted to the early start of Daylight Savings Time (DST). However, before putting this event in the past, consider a few lessons:
- An ounce of prevention can speed progress: Sometimes the fastest way to move forward is to step back and take preventive action. For example, because most information technology departments had plans and processes already in place to quickly address areas of greatest risk and vulnerability, business has continued to go on with minimal disruptions despite the new DST. Extending this logic, there are many more types of potentially disruptive changes that occur on a regular basis. These include, but are not limited to: reorganizing departments, losing customers, and changes with suppliers and outsource providers. Putting together processes that can be similarly plugged in to address situations can save time, minimize risk, and ultimately speed progress.
- Minor change can have major impact: Whether it's the new DST, hiring an employee, tweaking a procedure, or getting a new contact at a customer or supplier, we often underestimate the impact of minor changes (see "Trend Watch" below). In fact, because they can seem insignificant, a series of smaller changes has even more potential to create problems. To avoid being blindsided, regularly evaluate minor changes as well as major changes. I’ve found that using a variety of sources to gain this information provides a greater ability to assess the degree of importance to place on any particular trend as it takes shape.
- Maintain a "Keep Adjusting" mindset: In our constantly changing business environment, strategic thinking and planning must be an ongoing process rather than a yearly event. Regularly monitoring your plan's effectiveness through checkpoints (small steps) and milestones (a series of related outcomes) enables you to evaluate what you've done to date, look forward to what needs to be done, and evaluate trends and changes that have occurred since you first developed your plan. This can serve as an opportunity to reassess whether the plan still serves your business objectives, or should instead be adjusted - or even shelved - to allow you to consider another path. (see "Digging Deeper" below)
Bottom line: Although you can never know what’s going to happen as a strategic plan unfolds, you can build in processes to keep your organization moving forward. Staying attuned to minor changes as well as major trends enables you to avoid problems, minimize those that do occur, and take advantage of new opportunities.
Trend Watch: Unintended consequences of change create challenges / opportunities
Often times, even minor changes have far reaching effects. This is especially the case for the new DST. Although the information technology effects are most apparent, don’t overlook the less apparent impacts as well.
You can learn about some of the unintended consequences
of Daylight Savings Time by visiting the "anecdotes
and incidents" page on the online museum WebExhibits.
Not only are the recreation, transportation and
candy industries impacted (to name a few); it
also may spur greater voter turnout in the US
elections in November!
What does this mean for you? Even if you are not in one of the industries that I’ve mentioned above, if your company is a customer or supplier to one of these industries, you will be impacted as well. For example, those of you in the IT industry will find many new opportunities to serve clients as they change schedules, and create new products and services to address extended daylight hours.
Bottom line: Trends and issues of external stakeholders such as customers, suppliers, and alliance partners, are just as critical to monitor as those in your own organization and industry. Stay alert and be prepared to adjust your strategy and plans accordingly.
Digging Deeper: Don’t marry your milestones
By now, most of us have adjusted to the early start of Daylight Savings Time (DST). However, before putting this event in the past, consider a few lessons:
- What has changed since we launched our strategy, and what is the same?
- Are people focused, or are they starting to go off in different directions?
- What has gone well on the execution, and what can we improve?
- Do we have plans and processes in place to address to handle "predictable emergencies"?
- Given changes that have occurred, is our strategy still serving our objective?
To discuss these and other questions you can use to evaluate the effectiveness of your strategy, contact Pam Harper at (201) 612-1228 or contact us.
Q: The terms "Business plan" and "business process" sound like corporate jargon. Why should I care?
A: These terms actually refer to two different things. Basically, a "business plan" is what you are going to do to achieve a strategy. On the other hand, a "business process" is how you accomplish a particular objective. While it's common to put together business plans, it's not as common for everyone to be clear about the processes involved in getting there - especially in rapidly changing organizations. In fact, one of the most common issues I encounter is when different departments have not clearly identified the process they have for working together toward the same objective. This can lead to confusion, conflict, and a host of persistent and unexpected problems that may gridlock the company's progress. Clarifying and communicating business processes as well as the business plan is the key to moving forward with maximum speed and effectiveness.
Quote: "If you can keep your head while all about you are losing theirs...maybe you don't understand the situation."
--Bumper Sticker--