Weekly Management Tips
“It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.”
~ Abraham Lincoln
Over the years I have discovered that many organizations have a variety of policies, products, services, positions, techniques and even people that are what I refer to as ‘sacred cows’. In other words – don’t mess with them – they are etched in concrete and can not be changed, altered or let go of. The people are protected because of their relationship to or with a certain manager or founder or because of their longevity. Many policies or products/services are sacred because they were the creation of a long-time manager or owner or department head and are perceived as now unchangeable and untouchable.
I have not yet worked with or seen an organization that didn’t have some sacred cows in their culture that need to be re-visited, eliminated or re-designed so they could move into the future with continued success and organizational health. I’ll bet if you look closely at your department or organization you will find a few sacred cows lurking behind closed doors or in some dark corner somewhere. The questions you need to ask yourself are:
- Are the current culture, internal environment or business conditions consistent with them or do they need to be re-designed?
- Do you have some people that need to be re-trained with different skill sets?
- Do you have positions or departments that are no longer necessary or relevant for whatever reason?
- Are some policies outdated and getting in the way of employee performance and organization effectiveness?
- Is it time to let go of a previous acquisition that is no longer in your overall best interests to hang on to?
- Are you considering an acquisition based on your ego only?
There are many others to consider. My objective here is to ask you to take a fresh look at your organization as if you were a consultant who was charged with evaluating the overall performance of your organization and with making recommendations to improve overall performance and profitability.
One of the best ways to accomplish this if you don’t want to solicit the services of an outsider is to ask your employees to give you honest upward feedback on behaviors, products, services, policies etc. that they feel are no longer current with the philosophy, goals, objectives or mission of the organization. However, if your culture is not based on honesty and emotional safety, my guess is that you will not get reality but what your people think you want to hear. I suggest that you fix this first before you attempt to eliminate your sacred cows! Otherwise you are only kidding yourself. The only way to prevent these dishonest views is to hire and outsider. Each year I evaluate many organizations of various sizes in terms of their contemporary position, philosophy, agendas and direction – given the reality of the business world today.
The world is changing faster than most of us can fathom. It is becoming increasingly difficult to create policies, procedures or behaviors that work both today as well as tomorrow. One minute one way of doing things was acceptable or even effective and the next minute – BAM – it is old hat and needs to hit the trash bin. It takes courage, insight, commitment, stamina and letting go of your ego to keep pace with an ever changing world by letting go of your old paradigms, conventional wisdo and to re-invent yourself and your business.