Wednesday, January 27, 2010

How not to turn around a country - I mean Company

There's a large company that is in serious danger of falling apart. They aren't where they want to be and the economy has more than taken it's toll. They have one chance to turn things around or they may have to close the doors - affecting tens of thousands of people.

So - the CEO creates a team of 7 of his best division leaders. Highly respected by their peers within the company and without. They are tasked with creating a proposal for a bid, which, if won, will save the company, the jobs, the people...

They have one week to develop this plan and present it to the CEO for his approval and then to the customers to obtain the bid. Everything depends on this team and the CEO is confident that they can do it.

In order for the proposal to pass the first stage - at least FOUR of the seven committee members must approve it.

But.....

Andy is hoping for Division Leader of the year award and he won't vote on anything that doesn't highlight the skills and strengths of his division.

Bob secretly is hoping to be the next CEO. He's not sure if he wants to this proposal to succeed or not. If it does, then the current CEO will look good and Bob's chances are diminished.

Tina hates her job and could care less about the proposal.

John had a run-in with Andy last year and refuses go along with anything Andy likes.

Susan doesn't really understand what all the fuss is about and needs more time to get the 'real issues'.

Joe will vote with Bob - but only if Bob allows three of his best managers to relocate to Joe's division. Sorry but it's a deal-breaker.

Tom dated Susan last year and it ended badly. As a result he won't talk to her during the meetings and refuses to listen to any point she makes.

Seven Days Later...

The committee gets back to the CEO and informs him that they're sorry but they were unable to create the proposal he asked for in the time-frame he needed. Would the CEO be able to relax some of the requirements? Or perhaps he could give them each a raise to give them a little more incentive to work together.

The CEO does his best but now it's time to make a company-wide address to his people...

Just sayin.......

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

A great story; what the nation faces every day. How about we don't blame the boss for our failures!!!!

Life Is A Lark said...

Good analogy. It's sort of like what we learned in Kindergarten-how to work together - as a group was completely forgotten once people got into politics.

Unknown said...

You hit the nail right on the head, Carla! :)