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Uncertainty reigns king these days. Whether we’re talking about the current economic situation, the pace of technological innovation, or how we keep ourselves healthy, it’s just plain difficult to figure out who to listen to and what to do these days.
We are inundated with mixed messages from many sources – radio, television, internet, social media, as well as friends and family. Everyone has an opinion, and many purport to be experts. With all this information available to us, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and experience “analysis paralysis” – that inability to do anything because someone or something is telling us we should or shouldn’t do something.
So, how do you address uncertainty? And, how do we combat this paralysis? It appears things are not going to get easier anytime soon, but I am getting a little tired of the status quo, aren’t you?
There are three things I suggest to break through the uncertainty, and start creating value for your organization this year:
Be Decisive
While there are so many messages competing for our attention, deep down we know what we need to do to succeed. We know there are corporate goals to reach, strategies to execute (you did finish defining those last month, didn’t you?), and targets to reach. It’s time to just get moving on those tasks. If we don’t get started, we’ll never get to the finish line.
Decide on the specific tactics you need to execute, the resources you need and issue the orders. Much like a general issuing orders in battle, you need to take command of your current situation and provide the guidance and direction your staff needs to succeed.
What are you waiting for? Get started!
“Sharpen Your Tools”
In order to execute your plans, you will need certain tools – sharpen those tools if they are not ready for action. Your toolset may include:
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Employees – do your employees have the training they need to be successful for you? Have they been cross trained sufficiently to allow your organization to absorb any “shocks” that may come along this year? Are they sufficiently motivated? (By the way, did you see the latest report from The Conference Board indicating that only 45% of workers are happy with their jobs? Further, that 22% do not plan to be in their jobs next year? How will that impact you?
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Business Processes – are your processes running at peak performance? How do you know? Do you measure what is important to your organization and actually monitor the performance of the metrics? Are your employees doing a lot of rework? If you haven’t recently, ask how they could do their jobs better – they will give you a lot of fresh ideas you can use to sharpen this tool.
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Technology – the technology is use in your organization should support your processes, not hinder them. What was the last time you looked at how your various technologies are working together, and how they are supporting your staff? Do they need some find tuning? Just ask your employees how well they are working – they know best, and will give you an earful if you just ask.
Execute
Okay, this one is probably obvious; however, with the current level of uncertainly you might be unsure where to start. Here is my suggestion – begin with one or two short term efforts. Select one or two short term, small projects that are lower in risk, but provide significant value to the organization. (Stay tuned – a new eBook on assessing project risk will be available soon.) Starting here will potentially minimize the investment required, but provides a number of benefits upon completion:
1) Successful completion of the effort and realization of the project’s benefits,
2) A sense of accomplishment to energize others in the organization, and
3) Momentum to take on the next project.
Allocate the appropriate resources to the task, and empower (no, challenge) them to produce the desired results and let them go. One word of caution – one temptation will be to go after the “low hanging fruit”. Be careful, and assess whether that is truly the right decision. While this may be the easiest place to start, this may not be the place to realize the best value for your investment. Don’t start there and find the fruit is rotten!
Bottom line? Scan the environment and keep you finger on the pulse on what’s going on; however, get your head up out of the sand. GET STARTED! And start creating value for yourself and your organization. It’s a new year – where will you be in December?
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