How to Manage in Times of Crisis Part 3

This article resumes with quotes from Ichak Adzies new book. He continues on with integration issues for the organization.

What does not kill you makes you stronger. Act. A crisis is your time to show your true colors as a leader. Look inside, because that's where the solution is. You cannot control the outside, but you can control the inside.

You believe the danger is that while you manage the long term solution, you'll go bankrupt. So what do you do? You must manage on multiple fronts - cash and systemic integration. And preserve your strengths.

Be cautious about firing people. Get rid of the non-producers, but you should have done that long ago. Why does it take a crisis to make you do the cleaning up? If you are 20lbs overweight, do you cut off a foot? Now your weight is fine, but you don't have a foot. In tough times, what do you do personally? Throw one of the kids out on the street so others can eat?

It doesn't make sense to cut critical people. Cut fat, not muscle. How much will it take to re-place, re-hire, & re-train good people later on. Conserve your assets so when the upturn occurs, you are ready to roar again. Alternatives are to have everyone work fewer hours, or challenge your folks, with their additional time available, to come up with innovations and efficiencies. In so doing, you will also preserve the culture of mutual trust & respect you have built with human resources.

Every organization needs to align 4 sub-systems: 1) Your purpose 2)Responsibilities 3) Structure of authority 4) Reinforcing behavior. Tell everyone you want to hire, this is our value system; if you don't share these values, don't work for us.

Be careful with authority. As the company grows bigger & bigger, the founder can't make every single decision, so he delegates. First he delegates the right to say "no", but keeps the right to say "yes". Layers of "no-sayers" develop, & bureaucracy results. You have to pass the problem and its solution up to where there is authority to say both yes & no.

We'll end the review here. It is my fervent hope that you have gained as much from these insights as I have. Please do yourself a favor and buy the book!