If the team asks the founder for a strategy session, it’s both a bad and a good sign. Why is it bad? The very fact of the request speaks to the extreme desperation of the employees-they are confused, disoriented, and tired of exerting extra effort for nothing.
In large corporations, management brings down strategic plans that are often divorced from reality, but at least they are there and can be criticized or tried to improve. In medium and small businesses the situation is sometimes worse. Everyone pretends to understand where, why and how the company moves, but it is not fixed anywhere in a clear and structured form. And the market winds are constantly changing, forcing the captain of the business to suddenly lie down on a different tack. What’s left for employees to do? First, to develop the ability to read the owner’s reactions, and second, in their discretion to decide locally what is best to do.
If there were computers instead of humans, perhaps they would end up agreeing on something. But people have different experiences, IQs, psychotypes, values, and ultimately personal interests. So even those of them who sincerely want the company to do well bump into each other because of differences in information, assumptions, and interpretations. But cynics, intriguers, and liars feast like crocodiles on a herd crossing in these murky waters. In such chaos, talented people don’t stick around and run away, burn out, or give up. Even if the business has historically had a margin and liquidity reserve, general inefficiency will sooner or later destroy that reserve.
Why would the owner want to maintain a delusional state of affairs? Oh, there could be many reasons. From infatuation with other businesses to a desire for power, because confused people are easier to manipulate. But if we do not take the most destructive extremes, it often turns out that the question, “What is our strategy?” the founder does not know the answer himself. Out of pride he cannot admit this to anyone, including himself. But since he is expected to be the bearer of secret knowledge, everyone plays a silly game as if the company has some kind of genius strategy.
Okay, but what’s the good sign? If, in spite of all of the above, a group of employees joined forces, gathered their spirits and approached the owner with the initiative of a strategy session, then all is not lost. It means that there is a strong and healthy core in the team. The worst reaction is to ignore them, to resent their “disrespect” or to grudgingly allocate a budget for inviting a moderator, say, let the kids have fun. On the contrary, if the founder gratefully accepts this team momentum and personally leads the process, there is a great chance of developing a winning strategy that will give the company a fresh start.
Yours sincerely,
-Alexander
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