Until time travel becomes possible, there is no benefit in planning for yesterday. It’s done; take the lessons as they are and move on. People understand this concept, so why can’t businesses?
Have you eve had trouble, interfacing with Them On High (ie: Your Boss’ Bosses) in your company?You know who I mean, people who repeat expectations like mantras, expecting that more drill means different results in the future. Einstein’s definition of insanity in action. We’re coming out of a recession, everything’s looking up – but none of the behaviours have been affected by what’s happened lately. The buying habits of our clients have changed and forward looking people knew they would but the line is still the same; keep the numbers up. Look for this percentage of gains.
What is this nonsense?
One of the first mentors I had when I was coming into management said once that no business plans for a loss. You don’t act on things you know will harm your goals, it’s the same for people as it is for businesses, so why do we see the same thing over and again? If you’re seeing this kind of behaviour, it’s a clear sign that your Them On High are doing just that. Corporate wisdom being what it is, they’ve convinced themselves that level is good enough, and have made the failing choice to be content.
The trouble is, if we’re not using the same metrics we always have, how do we decide on new ones? Hungry Mooks (read as: Shareholders) are limited by their usual lack of context in this, since they usually don’t spend a lot of time on the front lines, keeping the lights on by their every word. So how do we divine new numbers to make look pretty on charts?