 |
Get Organized to Escape Being Burned by the Hot Tin Roof of Complacency
Author: Donald Mitchell  | Posted: 12-11-2007 | Comments: 0 | Views: 3 | Rating: (50)  (?) 
My purpose for this article is to shake you out of your complacency, to make you to think, and to get you to act.
What if a cat landed on a hot tin roof and just stayed there? The results wouldn't be pretty.
The same result happens when organizations become satisfied with doing what they've always done; they are burned on the hot tin roof of complacency, resulting in a searing obsolescence.
Consider all of those organizations that don't exist any more than were once considered world beaters. They patted themselves on the back, repeating the same old same old, and they quickly became irrelevant. When was the last time you rode on a Concorde SST? Are you still following the Scarsdale Diet? When did you last eat at Minnie Pearl's? Did you stay at Howard Johnson's during your last vacation? Can you still find your George Foreman grill?
Consider all of those organizations that pretend that everything is fine . . . when anyone can see that they are in trouble. The hot tin roof of complacency will eventually burn them, too. Do you shop at Sears as much as you did 20 years ago? Do you consider GM cars and trucks when you need a new vehicle? Do you still read a daily newspaper? Do you watch the nightly news on ABC, CBS, or NBC?
How can you get off that hot tin roof of complacency? You need breakthroughs; breakthroughs you can best create by designing and delivering 2,000 percent solutions (ways of accomplishing 20 times more with the same time, resources, and effort). This article shows you what actions you need to take now to get the most benefit for your organization by hopping off the hot tin roof of complacency onto the upward rising elevator of continual breakthroughs. Here's the list:
1. Write down where your organization is performing well in relation to your needs for tomorrow.
2. Write down where your organization needs to improve now in light of tomorrow's potential.
3. Write down those areas where your organization has to improve in order to perform close to its future potential and set deadlines for when these changes need to occur.
4. Share what you have written with those who will have to make the changes. Give them copies of The 2,000 Percent Solution and The 2,000 Percent Solution Workbook and set dates for completing plans to meet these deadlines for change.
5. Begin helping everyone in your organization learn to identify stalls (bad habits that make you complacent and retard improvements, overcome them through stallbusting and create many 2,000 percent solutions by employing the management process described in Part Two of The 2,000 Percent Solution.
6. Put measurements in place within each key activity to track the rise and fall of complacency throughout your organization.
7. Check to be sure that the dates to begin repeating the eight-step process for creating 2,000 percent solutions are being observed.
8. Reread relevant materials about how to create 2,000 percent solutions annually.
Copyright 2007 Donald W. Mitchell All Rights Reserved.
Rate this Article:
Current: 5 / 5 stars - 1 vote(s).
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/business-articles/get-organized-to-escape-being-burned-by-the-hot-tin-roof-of-complacency-257767.html
About the Author:Donald Mitchell is chairman of Mitchell and Company, a strategy and financial consulting firm in Weston, MA. He is coauthor of six books including The 2,000 Percent Squared Solution, The 2,000 Percent Solution, and The 2,000 Percent Solution Workbook. You can find free tips for accomplishing 20 times more by registering at:
====> http://www.2000percentsolution.com .
|
Submitting articles has become one of the most popular means of generating quality backlinks and targeted traffic to your website. Join us today - It's Free! |
|
Related Articles
Create your Dreams of Perfection
By: Donald Mitchell | 18/10/2007 | Business
Daydreaming is fun, but living those daydreams is infinitely better. This article looks at how to turn your dreams of perfection into everyday joy of having that perfection.
Change your Service Hours to Draw More Customers and Beneficiaries at Low Cost
By: Donald Mitchell | 14/12/2007 | Business
Many organizations operate nine-to-five, Monday to Friday, without considering whether different hours might be more attractive to customers and beneficiaries. This article explains the value of reconsidering the hours and scheduling of the people who provide products and services.
Let Enthusiasm Lead you Down the Most Fruitful Paths Towards Flawless Performance
By: Donald Mitchell | 19/10/2007 | Business
Achieving perfect performance is often desirable but traditional carrot-and-stick approaches aren't sufficient to achieve that result. This article proposes using enthusiasm, better communications, and a better redesign process to approach perfection.
Breakthrough Methods
By: Donald Mitchell | 23/10/2007 | Business
Teams make most improvements. This article looks at how you can go from making ordinary improvements into accomplishing breakthrough, exponential progress by selecting the right team and leader.
Prepare an Unstoppable Path to Breakthrough Success
By: Donald Mitchell | 29/10/2007 | Business
Unless you prepare a sound roadbed, the road you lay will soon become unusable. Preparation for creating breakthroughs teaches the same lesson: Getting organized in the right way determines your success. In addition, preparation builds confidence that you will succeed . . . helping create the breakthrough.
Enjoy a Bigger Pot of Gold at the End of the Rainbow Through the 2,000 Percent Solution Discipline
By: Donald Mitchell | 30/10/2007 | Business
This article explains the value and importance of not only creating 2,000 percent solutions (ways of accomplishing 20 times more with the same time, effort, and resources) but also repeatedly seeking to improve upon those solutions to make more exponential gains.
Keep Jumping Into the Deep End . . . Even if you Don't Swim Very Well
By: Donald Mitchell | 31/10/2007 | Business
Complacency steals most of our potential. This article looks at how you can create a more stimulating environment that will unlock that potential and give you the ability to continually make breakthrough improvements.
How One Plus One Can Equal 400 Times More Profits
By: Donald Mitchell | 13/11/2007 | Business
Choosing to combine ways to add 20 times more revenues and reduce costs by 96 percent can create 400 times more earnings for a company while an individual 2,000 percent solution may not even grow earnings by 20 times. This article explains why choice of paired 2,000 percent solutions to create is an essential element of a successful business strategy.
Got a Question? Ask.
Ask the community a question about this article:
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do people pick up bad habits so faster than ...
By: no | 09-07-2008
why do people pick up bad habits so faster than good habits.
Internet Marketing Systems ?
By: maha | 03-07-2008
Teach me about Internet marketing systems ?
I assume that there are two types of organisations ...
By: drabsv | 18-06-2008
I assume that there are two types of organisations according to the relation structure-people:(1) organisations which expect employees to adapt to their rules, roles and conditions of work. If there are not enough candidates, these organisations react by either increasing salaries or by coercing people to work there through various mechansims - manipulating unemployment rate (e.g. outsourcing work to overpopulated Asia, letting immigrants in); mandatory labour service/ military service; etc. In brief: "the individual must fit into the system". An example of a policy of such organisation: "working time is set Monday till Friday, from 8 am till 5 p.m".(2) organisations which create their rules, roles and work habitats with the human in mind, from the very outset; they also maintain feedback loops to change (improve) those rules, roles and conditions for work when necessary. In brief: "the individual must fit to the system and system must fit to the individual".An example of a policy of such organisation: "the working day is 8 hours; standard working time is set Monday till Friday, from 8 am till 5 p.m but you can arrange with our managers a different schedule, convenient to you". If my assumption is correct, any examples of type (2) organisations?
Project management tool request of advice
By: israelblechman | 16-06-2008
What project management tool would you recommend to a small business (about 10 employees)?
I remember watching a tv report about an islamic ...
By: drabsv | 11-06-2008
I remember watching a tv report about an islamic religious school and they showed children shaking their upper bodies rhythmically while studying the quran. They asked one of the teachers why were the children shaking and he explained it helped them learn better. Does shaking really help you learn better?
I need your feeback
By: voterperson | 09-06-2008
My friend Steve was unjustly fired from the bank he worked for due to the fact that the branch manager is a horror show. She harasses the staff, customers, etc. So when my friend Steve was unjustly fired he wrote a letter to the CEO. It was a detailed damaging letter concerning the branch manager. (FIRST STEVE SENT THE LETTER TO THE CORPORATE OFFICE AND FOLLOWED IT UP WITH A PHONE CALL. BUT MY FRIEND STEVE KNEW THE CEO WOULD NEVER SEE THE LETTER AT THE OFFICE SO HE OBTAINED THE CEO?s HOME ADDRESS AND MAILED IT TO THE CEO?S HOME) HERE ARE EXCERPTS FROM THE LETTER STEVE WROTE: (1) When I was helping the safe deposit attendant one customer (male) came into the branch to go into his box. I signed him in and he and I retrieved his box from the vault. When he went into the coupon room he realized that his sister was waiting on the banking floor. He asked me if I could watch his box while he would go and get his sister. I told him that I could not do this but I could go and get his sister, which I did. As his sister was walking to the coupon room the branch manager ran after him. And as the coupon door closed, the branch manager knocked on the door and asked the sister if she was on the signature card for the safe deposit box. The sister said no she wasn?t so the branch manager kicked her out of the room. Of course the sister and the customer was upset. I decided on my own to check with the higher ups and they told me that only the person who is on the signature card can retrieve the box but that person can bring in as many people as they want into the coupon room. (2) And one couple came in with their five year old son to go into their safe deposit box. The son held my hand the entire time he was at our branch and walked with me wherever I went. The branch manager said to me in a nasty tone of voice: "You are not allowed to walk with him" The couple was upset because every time they came into our branch and I gave their son my undivided attention he came out of his shell and made many friends at school.(3) The branch manager told one of my coworkers when the branch manager and the coworker had a disagreement that this coworker needs to go to see a psychologist. And the branch manager printed out and handed to my coworker two pages off the Internet on what psychologist to see.(4) About two weeks ago in the morning I asked the branch manager if she needed any copying done and she replied: I am a grown woman I don't need any one asking me if I need copying done. . Let me tell you on a professional level I am here just to work. (5) My coworkers are so afraid to have conversations with one another because they are so afraid that the branch manager is going to say something or write them up.(6) CUSTOMERS ARE CLOSING THEIR ACCOUNTS LEFT AND RIGHT AND OPENING THEM UP IN OTHER BANKS (7) A few months ago the branch manager yelled at one my coworkers in front of a customer. This coworker is a teller and she had a customer at her window. And then not to long ago the branch manager told this coworker of mine that this coworker is very unprofessional. Please keep in mind this coworker is the most professional person I know and she is quieter than a church mouse trying to avoid a cat. (9) The branch manager is supposed to put in 40 hours. However, she comes in late (around 9AM) and leaves 3PM or 4PM. 10) The branch manager has made trouble in the other branches she used to work at. One person that worked with her at another branch said ?Thank God she is no longer at our branch? . ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- RIGHT AFTER THE CEO RECEIVED THE LETTER (AT HIS HOUSE) THE BRANCH MANAGER HAD A REVIEW AND WAS PUT ON WARNING. MY QUESTION: Since the branch manager was put on warning is she monitored and if so how? (Keep in mind she is a manager in a bank branch and her boss and the higher ups are not there every day). STEVE?s ex-COworkers told STEVE that ever since HIS letter THE BRANCH MANAGER comes in early and stays late and she even moved very close to the job AND SHE IS NOT BOTHERING THEM THE WAY SHE USED TO.. The ex-coworkers told me that she twisted and turned the truth to get Steve fired, BUT in addition she has twisted and turned to get other people fired. And she has been transferred from one branch to another because no one wants her in their branch. My two friends told me that their branch was interviewing for a teller position but when the candidates came in and saw this branch manager the exact words of the people who applied for the job said "Oh no not her, goodbye I am not staying for the interview" I know for a fact she was put on warning. I spoke to Steve's ex-coworkers (becaues I am friends with two of them) and they told me she was put on warning and she is totally different, but she still has her moments. This manager had a way of twisting and turning the truth to her benefits. To sum her type the backstabber.
Q&A Powered by: 
Latest Business Articles
15 Ways to Improve Your Closing Ratios and Sales Presentations
By: Katrina Sawa | 26/07/2008
It is not enough to do launching effective marketing campaigns to obtain new customers and to continually market to your existing database for more referrals and repeat business. In addition, you must be able to ask for and close the sale. Otherwise, it is a waste of time and money!
In Searching for Cost Reducitons, Look at Total Cash Flow Costs Rather Than Accounting Costs
By: Donald Mitchell | 26/07/2008
If you are a privately held company, look to reduce overall cash costs when considering alternative cost reductions, rather than the impact of reported earnings.
The More Trust, the More Time to Succeed
By: Andrew Cox | 26/07/2008
Bill Oncken, in his book Managing Management Time, says that the more trust you have with your "universe " of people, the more time you have to do the things that lead to success. Trust is hard to earn. Once lost it's hard to regain. It's the most precious asset in any relationship - at any level - at any time. Read on to see how a successful Division President builds trust.
10 Tips on the Issues With Selling Professionals
By: Drew Stevens | 26/07/2008
The world of professional selling is rich with information related to selling skills, sales training and techniques to assist professionals. However, after much rhetoric and information I am finding something completely different...a problem with selling professionals.
India - the Next Economic Powerhouse
By: Paul Hata | 25/07/2008
India is one of the fastest-growing countries in Asia. In 2006, India recorded a 1.2% of world trade share overall. The stat was picked out from WTO. The growth is mainly due to the liberalization that took place in India way back in 1991. Ever since then, there's no looking back.
Customer Service Toolkit
By: Drew Stevens | 25/07/2008
All businesses make money, yet those that are customer focused are more profitable.
Top 10 Brain Training Future Trends: New Mind/body Focus, Brain Trainers, and More
By: Alvaro Fernandez | 25/07/2008
In an emerging, dynamic, high growth market, like brain training, it is difficult to make precise projections. But, we can observe a number of trends that executives, consumers, public policy makers, and the media should watch closely in the coming years, as brain fitness and training becomes mainstream, new brain trainers appear, and an ecosystem grows around it. Here you have the Top Ten trends I predict.
Commercial Loans and Working Capital Financing Special Reports
By: Steve Bush | 25/07/2008
A prudent approach to working capital management is becoming more difficult for most commercial borrowers. Commercial loans have always been more complicated than realized by most business owners. Recent financing difficulties involving commercial mortgages, SBA loans and business cash advances have added significantly to the complexity of the entire commercial...
|
|
Business 
