Have you ever been in a situation whereby you or everyone around you is saying “we
need a reset?”
The need for a reset could be various, too much work, not enough staff, programs or
projects going astray etc.
Nonetheless, everyone agreed, and a reset shall be done, the button is purchased and shall
be pressed; correct?
It is done, then never done.
I have been in this situation a few times in my career, and I can relay very
openly that each time a major reset was needed, everyone agreed, then, never
done.
Nothing new or different was done and more importantly, nothing was paused or stopped.
The notion of the reset is great, and it sounds good yet very difficult to do in
practice partially because it requires a great deal of courage, fortitude
and leadership.
From experience, when a reset is required and universally agreed upon and not done,
matters get worse.
And, instead of proactively having the reigns in the hands of leadership, leadership
spends a countless amount of time digging themselves out of unexpected holes.
People get stressed, go on leave, quit, become more and more jaded and the quality of
work suffers.
Not surprisingly, without the reset, the holes get bigger, new holes arise, more
digging happens and months can become years.
And, just when you thought you were out of it, people start saying, “we need a reset.”
Once again, it is discussed, talked about, agreed to, and, never done.
More digging takes place in different areas away from the areas that were already
dug-up.
People get stressed, go on leave, quit, become more and more jaded and the quality of
work suffers.
Maybe more recruitment is done to replace the tired and those who left yet soon, they
find themselves suggesting the idea of a reset.
There might be moments, times, weeks, months where everything seems ok and normal and manageable, then, the reset button comes back out again.
All this said, what could we really do differently to break this cycle or the suggested
reset without real action?
To start, if a reset is in play, do a reset.
Define what a reset might mean even if you don’t do one.
This could mean a stop to new projects and programs.
A stop to recruitment.
A stop to expanding in new territories or new product development.
If could mean a cost analysis to see where the waste is and what works and does not
work.
What makes money and does not make money.
What is in-line with the strategic plan and what is not.
What are make-work projects and what is in-line with the Mission or the organization.
Asking questions is a great mechanism to get everyone on board to recognize the reality, we can’t just say we need a reset, we need to do a reset.
The two most important words might be, stop and pause.
You must stop and you must pause.
Without stopping and pausing, a reset cannot happen.
In operations management they might refer this to critical path. I tend to call
it the core necessary essential work.
Everything other than the core essential necessary work should cease.
Do this and reset, don’t do this and you might be talking about the reset that
never happened for years to come.
I’ve done that, I would prefer not to do that again.
If you say reset, I say, what will you stop or pause; really this time, do it.