Certainly today’s economic environment is a difficult one. In most cases, rapid growth is a thing of the past and success in business today means grinding it out, day in and day out. However, these difficult times can also be a false crutch for sub-par performance. 

I’ve recently been called back to help out two former clients, both of whom have been in business for decades and are considered leaders within their respective industries. Both however are beginning to struggle, and to their credit, are looking in the mirror rather than simply chalking it up to the economy. 

In one case, the CEO wants to figure out why her team isn’t performing up to the standards set a couple of years ago.  During the hour-long discussion, we created the agenda for a half-day work session with the group to get them back on track. When returning to my office, I pulled up my files on the company and found an agenda from a couple of years ago that was an exact duplicate of what we’d just composed for the upcoming meeting.  The only thing I needed to change was the date. 

Sure, some of the players have changed, but the core team is intact, so I now needed to find out why it is that a couple of years later we have to re-address the exact same issues as before. In meeting with the group, I discovered that the things (tools and processes) we’d implemented the first time around that led to direct and positive change were no longer being used.

There are a million and one reasons /excuses as to why, but it simply comes down to corporate ‘boredom’. For example, the meetings that we established back then were so groundbreaking but are now considered boring and a waste of time because the information shared is no longer new and exciting. So six months ago everyone agreed that their time could be better spent on more ‘important’ things and the meetings were disbanded. 

What they failed to see is that those boring meetings are where the real work is done. Those mundane topics are what lubricate the wheels of their organization and by no longer covering these ‘every day’ items, they were allowing them to fall through the cracks and slow down the growth of the company. 

Unfortunately, this is not an unusual occurrence as most companies are guilty of this type of devolution. But winning companies understand and value the mundane moments over those that cause us to go ‘aha’.

To equate it to sports, any player or team can have a game or two where they make the big play and win in dramatic fashion.  But the champions are the ones that consistently pay attention to and work on the little things that eventually become boring. The great Michael Jordan’s morning workout ritual was legendary as is the time Tiger Woods spends on the practice tee.

Day in and day out champions work on the little things that only count when the game begins.

 Dwain – The BusinessBiker

As always – These are my thoughts on the matter, I could be wrong.  So, if you disagree or simply want to pile on, please do so either here on the BLOG or email me directly at Navigator@BikersGuidetoBusiness.Com  I look forward to hearing from you.

Stumble it!

Trackback URI | Comments RSS