In
the professional life of a Business/Management Consultant, some assignments are
better than others, for different and various reasons:
- The level of challenge
- The people with whom you work
- Cooperation or lack of same
- The amount of buy-in from the stakeholders
My
last assignment had just about all the good things one could hope for.
In
the beginning, ownership was skeptical as to what I could accomplish.
Long term employees viewed me as a threat to their jobs and to the status quo, neither of which was true.
Instead, I represented myself not as an “Agent of Change” but as an “Agent of Adjustment”.
I
interviewed the employee population. Asked them lots of
questions. I assured them that all answers would be kept in the strictest of
confidence, and no attribution given when I made my report to ownership. I kept that promise, and it worked out
so well!
With
the cooperation of ownership, we installed good financial reporting and controls
by hiring an excellent CFO. We created an organization chart with job descriptions
for every employee. We hired a COO, so that the owner could do what he
loves best and not have to worry about the day-to-day problems of running a
business. We created budgets, something the organization had never done before! Each quarter we gave a report
of the financial results to the department heads. The employees were thrilled to
be included. Lots of questions were asked, and good answers were given.
At the end of the assignment (10 months duration), they had a farewell party for me. I felt very good about myself, knowing the company is going to become far more successful with all of these “ADJUSTMENTS.”
The moral of this story is that change does not have to be scary, threatening, or require a total upheaval to be successful. Effecting change by adding a few well-placed business adjustments really can make a significant impact on an organization.
