The Birth of Simple Leadership Consulting - Solving Crisis in Small Business
Happy Valentines Day! Ok. A little belated (but that’s another story as I completely reinvent and redefine healthcare…future book in the making). I wanted to share a little of the story about how I got this company started with a single need:
How could I apply 16-years of Improvement, Leadership & Team Development, and Corporate Culture Change toward Small & Medium Business?
The need was present. The small business I was working with was over 30% of their monthly revenue in the RED and looking down the doors of financial closure in ~1-2 months. And they were good people in a great organization, trying to make a big, positive impact to the world. So what do you do?
Step 1: Don’t Panic
FYI - if you have never read the book Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy from Douglas Adams or seen the 2005 movie, I highly recommend them!!!
Trust is the beginning of all success. I recently stumbled into Ted Turner’s scenario of losing $10B / day due to his AOL - Time-Warner merger in early 2000’s and instantly was reminded that to overcome any obstacle, the first challenge is having confidence in: 1) yourself to work through it 2) the Universe to help get your back 3) people to work together to reach a solution. So the first step was to help the leadership team calm themselves and focus.
Step 2: Focus on Goal + Current —> to create Action Plans
We knew about the financial problem, but what was the goal? Using some basic visual management techniques with post-its and flip chart paper (Small Business is low-cost vs. Corporate America) we got the team to identify all the recurring, on-event, and 1-off costs & income for the next month (in standard amounts / post-it). Then we did the same with potential revenues and finally drew a target box for desired monthly revenue. These were all different colors per a legend so the team could instantly understand what they were seeing. This exercise became the first action of every team meeting (daily / weekly pending need) — update the financial visual for current cost & income.
Step 3: Action Plans
Great! We now see that we have some income from late paying members. An easy win — who is going to do what to get those accounts paid-in-full?
The conversation naturally went to action planning which the leaders & team divided out the work. With the last question being, “Based on what we will do next, and the need, when should we meet again?” — in early use it was daily, then settled to weekly as the crisis was adverted.
That’s it!!! No 100-slide (excuse me, 121-slides) Powerpoint Presentations. No long-winded 5-Day Training Sessions. No 9-12 month massive Project Management. No extensive educator and consultant Dictionary of Terms and Definitions. No 6-12 month analysis of data, statistics, and cross-functional 30-50 person weekly conference calls. Sure, there is a time a place for those things (well, some of them), but most of the time, the answer is much easier and if we only cut the Waste of Consulting (I think that’s in the MIT 36-Wastes, isn’t it? Maybe it should be #37) we would find more effective solutions in 1/10th the time and cost — easily understood and adopted by leaders & teams, and usable by more businesses.
Then how might we: Change the World
Chris
See that is Simple! Want help? That’s why we are here. Our mission is to change the world and it starts with creating the greatest businesses and leaders the world will ever know! Joining our success list starts with a single contact.
P.S. Here’s some more Eagles celebration dance music from HGttG: https://youtu.be/u6Zoezcq1RA
Oh, and the rest of the story? Well let’s just say Branches of Wellness is now in a new facility, then expanded across the hall, and excited to be serving the community with their wonderful skills and resources — all on their own (no additional consulting necessary).