Corporate
Disconnect
Tim Connor, CSP
Corporate disconnect is
the major contributor to every one of your challenges, problems or negative
issues that undermine your growth, profitability and effectiveness as an
organization.
I don’t care whether your
sales are less than one million or over fifty billion; you have 10 employees or
50,000. I don’t care if you are a
start-up or you have been in business for over 100 years. Let me repeat: Corporate disconnect is at the
heart of every problem you face today, yesterday and in the future. Do I have your attention yet?
Some of you may be
wondering what corporate disconnect is as I am referring to it here. One of the popular topics of many of my
management and leadership programs is entitled just that: Corporate Disconnect
– what’s contributing to it and how to avoid it.
In a global and rapidly
changing world there are non-stop opportunities and challenges facing business
owners, executives and business owners today.
These can literally put you out of business in a moment without regard
to your history or they can catapult you into the future with tremendous speed.
Change is and has been the
mantra for business leaders for a number of years. Change has and will continue to plague your
plans and your dreams. Change will
require that you keep the vigil and your hand on the wheel with courage,
foresight and passion. Change is not
sensitive to your lack of direction, goals, plans or strengths and weaknesses. It is totally indifferent to your previous
successes and achievements. And your
lack of ability to anticipate, prepare for and adjust quickly to change whether
you choose them, like them or agree with them is a critical ability that
without it will doom your organization whether as a slow kill or an overnight
disaster.
If you have ever been in
an airplane at 40,000 feet on a clear day I’m sure you’ve had the experience of
looking out the window and being able to see for hundreds of miles but also
realizing that you couldn’t see any detail on the ground.
To describe CD I’m going
to use the illustration of flying as a passenger on an aircraft. This illustration is straightforward and easy
to apply to the concept of CD and all of its ramifications, symptoms, causes
and solutions.
Let’s say you are
returning from a business trip and you have been flying for a few hours over
the western part of the US heading toward Los Angeles. As the pilot announces that we are flying
over the continental divide you peer out the window and realize that you can
see the topography of several states; Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico and
maybe even a few others. As far as you
can see however you can’t see any detail.
No cows, trucks or houses. You
are just too high to make out anything other than the vast expanse of raw land.
An hour later the pilot announces that we are beginning our decent. As you descend through the 20,000 foot level
you notice that you can’t see quite as far but the detail is getting a bit
clearer. You can see houses, roads and
factories but you still can’t tell if that’s a cow down there or a truck. As
you get closer to the ground you notice that you can’t see as far off in the
horizon but the details are getting clearer.
Thirty minutes later as you approach the runway a thought occurs to
you. At 500 feet your view of the
horizon no longer exists but the details are quite clear. You can tell that there’s a red truck
traveling on the highway off to your right.
You land and another safe trip behind you.
The analogy. Presidents, CEO’s, CFO’s and other senior
executives are typically flying at the 40,000 foot level in their
organizations. They can see a long
way. Their vision for the future is
clear and their awareness of major storms or opportunities can be easily seen
at this altitude. But details? Not a clue.
Middle managers, directors or senior staff employees are typically
flying at the 20,000 foot level in their organizations. They don’t have as clear a view of the
horizon as their superiors since they are 20,000 feet lower but their view of
the details is a bit more evident, not totally clear but better than at the
40,000 feet level.
Then there are the
employees in your organization who are flying at the 500 feet level, almost at
ground level. They don’t have a clue
what’s going on beyond their desk or the building next door but they can tell
you what customers think, what policies or procedures are working or not
working and what is generally going on in the bowels of the organization. The know the details, they live them every
day but they, for the life of them, don’t always see the connection between the
reality at 500 feet and the vision or decisions at 40,000 feet.
Here’s the simple truth in
once sentence. If the reality of what is
going on in the marketplace, with your customers, with your competitors or with
your employees is not getting to the 40,000 feet level I will guarantee you are
experiencing CD. Or, if the vision,
leadership or goals at the 40,000 are not finding their way to the 500 feet
level I guarantee you are experiencing the many negative issues of CD in your
organization.
So what is corporate
Disconnect? It’s when your employees who
do the work don’t see a connection of their efforts to the vision of your
senior management. It’s when your senior
management makes decisions or takes actions at the 40,000 feet level; new
policies, new products or services, acquisitions, new divisions or branches,
new anything and they do it with getting in touch with the reality at 500 feet
– beware. This is a recipe for lost
customers, lost revenue, lost growth, poor employee retention, and any other
negative corporate malaise you can think of.
Got a bad case of CD in your organization? Here’s a little truth to consider. I haven’t
found a single organization in my 40 year speaking and training career that
didn’t have some degree of CD going on in their organization. So, it would appear that have a case of CD is
normal? Yes, every company has it.
Here’s the real
problem. I don’t care how bad your case
of CD is or whether you are aware of it, fixing it, ignoring it - whatever – As
long as you’re CD doesn’t ever touch your customer of the market place, no
problem, you will most likely survive CD’s symptoms. However, if your CD does touch your;
customers, suppliers, the marketplace, your prospects, watch you. You may be in for a long and difficult
recovery period and a few emergency room visits along the way.
So now you know what CD
is. Want to know how bad you have it –
whether you need surgery or over the counter meds?
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