“We Have To Decide This Right Now!”

In keeping with the pattern we have established of one week reading a story about individual change and the next week a story about group change, this week’s story is about a group’s experience with change.

In this case, we hear from the senior management team of a company I will call Yankee Supply. And in order to ensure the proper level of confidentiality, I will identify the team members as Paul, Tim, Sandra, and Ralph.

One problem this team faced was the inability to speak with one voice when attempting to introduce new strategies to the employees. You see, each team member, in their own way, had carved out specific areas of responsibilities which allowed them, for the most part, to act independently. However, when market conditions forced changes within the company that required them to compromise their individuality and act as a single unit, things frequently got more difficult. Because of their experience and tendency to be decisive problem solvers, each could usually arrive at solutions within a very short time. Their problem was settling on a solution they could all commit to. This group had never been able to find a process of decision making which respected their individual personalities.

And it is under these conditions, we visit them in the board room.

The pressing issue today was that they had been losing market share to competitors at an alarming rate, and the sales manager’s solutions were making no impact at all. The team had been brainstorming solutions for several meetings. During this process, the solutions seemed to fall into two categories: cutting expenses or increasing sales revenue. They didn’t think they could do both without creating too many distractions. On the expense side of the issue, they came up with a couple of things. One, reduce the sales force or two, reorganize the internal structure of sales by working on the friction that exists between the outside sales people and the inside sales support staff and hope this would reduce errors and cut costs. On the revenue side of the issue, they came up with three options: raise prices, replace personnel, or put some teeth into the performance management system for the sales people.

At this point it is easy to see why these business leaders were successful.

They were all dedicated to the company, bright, experienced and determined to succeed. Their brainstorming efforts had produced logical, well thought out, tactical solutions, any of which had the potential to solve their problem.

Let’s join their discussion at the point where a decision has to be made.

Sandra, who is determined to convince the group they need to cut costs, begins, “I am not going to go through another attempt to get the sales people to sell more. We all know Sam (salesperson) needs to go. Let’s just do it, that alone will save us $4,000 a month.”

Ralph, who also happens to be the sales manager, responds, “That is not your decision to make, if the decision to fire a sales person is made, it is going to be made by me.”

Sandra, “Wait a minute, I thought we were trying to decide together what choice to make.”

Ralph, “Yes, and notice the first choice you recommend is to get rid of my salesperson. Why don’t you look at the mess in inside sales that you’re supposed to be running? If they did their job better, we wouldn’t have to replace Sam.”

Sandra, “So now it’s my fault.”

Paul jumps in, “Here we go again, blaming each other. Why don’t you two just put your petty bickering aside and concentrate on doing the right thing.”

Ralph points his finger across the table at Paul, “Don’t you dare suggest I am not trying to do the right thing.”

Tim finally jumps up, “I’m sick of this, I’m done, and I don’t care what you decide. Do it and let me know,” and stomps out of the room.

Paul looks around the table and says, “Lets take a break, we’ll decide this later.”

Everyone leaves quietly.

And now we can see why the company will continue to struggle.

The management team is unable to make quality decisions, by consensus, in a timely way. So problems fester. Employees become frustrated over the lack of decision making, their moral continues to drop and at best they go “through the motions,” demonstrating little interest in the company beyond their paycheck.

This story has no happy ending. I, as a person interested in systemic changes, would push the leaders to work on a shared vision hoping they can find goals that will reignite their passion. Goals that are so attractive that the leaders will refuse to let their personality traits get in the way of their responsibility to make timely and effective decisions. Others might look for a more pragmatic short term solution and push the team to take the time necessary to create and practice an effective decision making process. In any case, I expect that at some point, due to a change in the leadership team or a crisis that endangers the company’s very existence, Yankee Supply will find a solution.

Odds are, they will continue to survive, but sadly not anywhere near the level of productivity they are capable of.

What’s your guess?

Have you experienced similar situations at your workplace? If so, I encourage you to share your story.