Excitement and energy are high. As a leader in your company, you and your team have identified some endeavors you think will improve how the business operates, and perhaps generate additional revenue. It’s new territory for everyone and there’s risk involved, but confidence is high that it’s the right decision.
Planning sessions mapped out specific goals for the next year and milestones along the way, so you can track progress towards objectives. You roll out the plan companywide and rally the troops. Everyone’s onboard. It’s time to take off! Let’s get to work, right?
Defining new goals and creating a documented plan to achieve them is a critical step to improving the performance of your company. Looking forward, brainstorming about possibilities is the space many entrepreneurs love to live in. Where can we go? What great things can we do next? How can we do things better?
But wait, there’s more!
Equally critical, and too often ignored, is making sure your people and processes have the ABILITY to support that plan. Can they get you where you want to go? Evaluating your company’s current state needs to happen BEFORE you start implementing new plans to reach your future state.
It’s the less exciting, and sometimes uncomfortable step that will either increase or decrease your chances of successfully hitting goals and the speed at which you do it.
I equate this critical step to a preflight inspection performed by a pilot before take off. As they walk into the cockpit, destination known and flight plan in-hand, they perform a series of checks before it’s “wheels up.”
The purpose is to ensure the vehicle (your company) and crew (your employees) have the ABILITY to get you where you want to go. If the plane takes off without the right training, buy-in, processes, and tools in place, disaster awaits!
Evaluating your company’s current state involves a pause from the excitement of starting something new, to answer questions like:
- Do my employees have the right training and motivation to accomplish what needs to get done?
- Will our current set of tools (reporting, financial, communication, etc.) suffice or will we need something different?
- Do employees have the capacity to add this new work to their load? If not, do we stop doing some things or look to bring on additional help?
- Are our current processes and tools used by departments designed to work together as one flowing system? Or is there evidence of siloed and duplicative efforts between these groups?
This process identifies significant items that need to be addressed BEFORE work starts on your new plan. You’re essentially detecting and fixing any potential roadblocks before they negatively impact your plans down the road.
So, the main point here is to remember that as you lead your company on new endeavors towards greatness, keep in mind there are two critical steps to consider – knowing where you want to go and understanding your company’s current ability to get there. These two elements, combined, should be well articulated in your plans to make change happen.
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