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Does Your Organization Suffer from WHEN WE Disease?

WHEN WE disease occurs when individuals in organizations say “when we have the new system, technology, more staff, additional resources, training or some action by another department or the government, we’ll be able to do so and so.” 

 Gee, what are you going to do today, go out of business?

  WHEN WE is a great excuse for doing nothing or more of what’s ineffective—or worse yet pretending to do something.  A good counter to the WHEN WE excuse, “You don’t have it—how do we get around it TODAY?”

 Ten ways to reduce WHEN WE excuses in your organization:

1.       Respond quickly, decisively and proactively to change. Southwest Airlines is a great example of proactive leadership. After 9-11 Continental was an example of reactive leadership—they let an event distract them from getting passengers back on planes. Continental was first to ask for a bail out and to talk about lay-offs--actions that would compound an already messy situation. Focusing on raising prices, cutting people and costs may have set back a remarkable turnaround of a failing airline by Gordon Bethune!

2.       As soon as WHEN WE is spoken, ask HOW could we get around that today? You’ll be amazed at the simple answers you receive. It’s usually just a matter of just doing it. An organization was entering sales orders twice. The misunderstandings were almost comical. The culture had defined entering sales orders as “data entry and below salespeople.” However, salespeople were all computer proficient and actively using the computer. One salesperson, who didn’t like to hand write sales orders, had developed a spreadsheet he and others were using to enter sales orders. These spreadsheet orders were printed, given to “data entry” and then sent back to sales to be “proofed.”  By finding one individual willing to learn direct order entry, the dam broke very quickly! The sales manager, who didn’t buy the “data entry” argument, saw that the entire department quit sending orders to another person immediately. Everyone was trained in less than a month.

3.       Use existing resources. It takes some creativity and thought, but resources are too often improperly deployed. The sales order story above is a prime example. What are yours?

4.       Connect your employees to purpose. Do employees have a purpose, or are they performing a task? Tie goals and statements to purpose and ensure employees do the same. For example, an employee requests to take Excel training. How does he or she plan to use it on the job? What is the plan to practice the training immediately so training sticks? Expect employees to have a plan and purpose. What are the pay offs of training? The Excel training practice plan and purpose might be: “develop quotation spreadsheet within first week after training (practice plan) to track and better monitor quotes to close more sales (purpose).” Purpose keeps us anchored when things change. Set goals with a purpose—you’ll find your employees become more purposeful. With a plan, they become more productive.

5.      Action plan and timeline. Get the individuals who need to make the change together and timeline (commit to) a plan. One organization I was working with had been trying to implement cross training for two years; with a simple plan, they achieved full cross training within six weeks. The plan was the key to success.

6.       Get around the “we don’t know.” Often individuals use ignorance of something as a reason not to do something. Encourage your people to be resourceful and find out. In the same cross-training situation, management had bought how complicated data entry was and was literally allowing a poor performer to hold the company hostage. By calling another office and finding out how long it took to train and enter orders, a true picture emerged—we quit letting poor performance and ignorance hold back an organization.

7.       Does it serve customers—both external and internal? Keep open to new ideas and perspectives—but ask—how will this serve external or internal customers. Many of the things that frustrate employees most are being unable to produce good quality work in a timely manner. Use this need to your advantage. Find out what affects them to serve customers.

8.       Don’t try to do too much. Identify the exceptions that create difficulties and work on them. You may have numerous items and processes that go into products and services. Focus on which ones cause customers problems—both internal and external. When you know what problems and services are creating difficulties, those are the ones that require attention. If certain products are returned at a high number or certain services are complained about, alter them. Leave the others alone.

9.      Employee involvement doesn’t mean getting something done is optional. Employees can sometimes think “being involved” means achieving something is left to each individual’s discretion. At the first sign of balking or complaining let the complainers know in no uncertain terms that achieving a goal is not optional. My clients are often surprised how directly I speak with employees—and even more so how well the employees respond to it. Employees are adults. Treat them accordingly. Don’t pussyfoot around. Stand for something.

10.   Reduce your WHEN WE Tribe. If you have managers who continue to use excuses, find some who don’t. These managers are always waiting for another department, resource or group before they can “do something.” Don’t tolerate “when we” or say it yourself! Employees respond to leadership and commitment by management. Get some true change going and you’ll find employees often push harder than managers—if they see and believe it will truly change their working circumstances. One of the saddest moments in my practice was from a group that had worked extremely hard to achieve a better departmental product. Their parting comment to me was they believed their managers were going to NOT TAKE CHANGE ANY FURTHER so some real progress could be made to treat root causes.

People want to feel good about what they do. WHEN WE disease frustrates this desire and keeps good organizations from becoming great ones. Respond to the day-to-day challenges of staying competitive. Strive to eliminate WHEN WE Disease from your organization.

To learn more about how Southwest Airlines responded to 9-11, see parts of an article we published in Business Magazine, Powering Change When You Don't Have Much Time to Get It Right.

Janice Scanlan helps organizations develop leadership and business processes that support continuous improvement and adapt to change. Do you have a great WHEN WE observation, tip or story? Email Janice at janicescanlan@earthlink.net and mention WHEN WE.