Be Open to Change

Every year, tens of thousands of businesses close their doors. Every year, thousands of non-profit organizations close their doors, or accept mergers, or fail to provide needed programs. Every year, thousands of congregations / ministries are forced out of operation. All the result of not generating enough revenue, whether from sales revenue or contributions raised.
Throughout my almost 40 years working in Strategic Planning, Corporate Community Affairs; Non-Profit Management; and Marketing, I’ve observed way too many cases of business owners / general managers / CEO’s, executive directors, board leaders, and clergy who get “locked” into a way of doing things—a pattern of operating—and an unwillingness to self-evaluate—whether they are finding success or not!
Especially unfathomable are circumstances I’ve seen ( many of them ) where business / non-profit / ministry leadership are aware of a downward spiral in revenue, over a projected period of time, and are emotionally or emotionally incapable to step back, analyze, and create new strategies that may turn their organization around and become financially sustainable or profitable.
When you are losing money daily, weekly, monthly, and annually—when you are, over a period of months unable to create sufficient revenue to meet your needs or run programs and ministries, why do people find it so difficult to accept looking at being analytical and creative in their organization?
If a business owner / ceo / general manager or the leaders of community / religious organizations find it so difficult to conduct a self-analysis –an objective self – evaluation, then why not find someone outside of their organization to conduct that evaluation? One of my services is doing these kinds of evaluations, but there are project managers and consultants like me around the country who are available to assist organizations. ( Of course, I like to think I’m one of the best in delivering these services –but the important step is to find someone you trust!)
Sadly, so very often, we watch businesses and organizations fall off the proverbial cliff, and wonder what might have been done to change the outcome.
Business owners and organization leaders have to be emotionally committed and invested in their decisions and ways of operating, which I understand. However, part of that emotional investment –and often financial investment –should be a willingness to step back and evaluate what’s working and not working on an annual basis. When we fail to accomplish that analysis, the downturn in revenue often results in fewer services, products, or programs being provided to customers / clients, which perpetuates the downturn, which then turns into a precipitous free fall to oblivion!
What’s so sad and frustrating is recognizing that the pattern can be broken, the result could have been altered, the doors could have stayed open, the services could have been provided, if only an honest analysis was accomplished, followed by (generally simple-not rocket science) action steps devised to create effective strategies.
Every business, government agency / department, organization, and ministry should undertake a self-evaluation and budget evaluation every 12 to 18 months at the very least. Then, use common sense and creativity to develop more successful strategies in the next 12 to 18 months. That most businesses and organizations don’t conduct this process in bewildering.