Go Have A Look Revisited
Michael Devers
Co-Founder and COO @ Bahnbrecker | Executive VP @ Alta Towers | Strategy, Execution, Organizational Effectiveness
A year ago, I wrote a short post titled, “Go Have a Look.” In light of all that has taken place over the last 30 days, it seems to carry a different relevance now and I wanted to share it with you again:
When you come in out of the rain, you don’t stay inside forever. You check to see if conditions have changed and when it stops raining, you go outside again.
Far too often we don’t do the same in business. We make a business decision based on conditions and then don’t go outside and have a look around to see if conditions have changed.
Go and take a look for yourself in your business and tell me if you don’t find at least one process, system, or policy that is woefully ineffective because the conditions that warranted that process, system, or policy became obsolete years ago.
Really. Go have a look.
You can get sucked into the crisis cycle and feel like it’s overwhelming; it’s all too much. The next bit of bad news is only as far away as the next notification that pops up on your phone.
During the first week of social distancing, a friend of mine and his family broke from their normal routines and habits, which had all seemed so ingrained and automatic just a few weeks earlier, and instead took advantage of the gorgeous Texas Hill Country weather.
“We took a family bike ride. Hardly anybody was out. It was like New Braunfels when we first moved here. It was peaceful and beautiful!”
During the second week, I spoke with a business associate via phone to deliver some bad news. As we started talking, he apologized for any background noise I might hear as he was making lunch for his six-year-old twins. We spent the first five minutes discussing business and the next ten minutes discussing our families. We exchanged tales of our new normal and then he shared a conversation he’d had with his wife the night before.
“I’ve been going so hard for so long now with work without realizing it and it struck me that last week is probably the most time I’ve spent with my kids in years. This really came at the right time for me.”
Though I’d delivered bad news at the onset of our call, he was unfazed. The happiness he experienced from this realization was palpable in his voice.
Really. Go have a look.
