Action: "Be a bystander to figure out what has to be done in your organization. Then act, but know you are running the risk of shocking people."
I would add one word to Dr. Drucker's thought today, and that word is: loyal...bystander. Don't you think that word is important too? I have had more opportunities than most to act as objective bystander, as a matter of fact, that's how how I made much of my own living, when I wasn't involved in my own businesses or turn-arounds. When one is a bystander, it is imperative to understand that "the ammunition is live". A dis-loyal bystander can create much havoc.
Example: I remember a time, very early in my career when a Manufacturer of Railroad construction and maintenance equipment brought me down to his facility in Montgomery Alabama. I had become somewhat of an expert on railroad maintenance over the previous two years (what a great job that was, all over the continents, out in the wild country... lots of stories there lol). So, he asks me to take a look around and meet him for dinner later. I did a pretty thorough walk-about, and made some notes, organizing the message. Which was, if I remember pretty benign, but with some solid findings. At dinner he graciously let me have the floor after introductory pleasantries. I did my thing... I hadn't gauged the shock factor at all. He almost choked to death, got redder and redder in the face, and just about had a fit. Needless to say, that was a total waste of his and my time.
Communication, communication, communication... be careful. As a bystander, there is the huge lure to formulate one's thoughts as conclusions or solutions. Never! A bystanders job is to SPIN the story, so that the owner buys in. SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham . It is also the duty of the bystander to create either a compelling inductive or deductive logic stream which leaves the owner with viable options for improvement to choose from... The Minto Pyramid Principle: Logic in Writing, Thinking, & Problem Solving by Barbara Minto . I had the luck to be trained by Barbara in person, what a treat and privilege.
One of my favorite stories is about the time I worked for the Pope. He told me that he wasn't hearing enough prayers coming from the convents throughout Italy in the summer time. Unfortunately Hewlett Packard was eating up my time, and I put a young Manager on the job (given it was pro-bono). After doing extensive data analysis, and finding that the key flow interruption was during mid-day prayers, the team found that the Rsquared of prayer output and outside temperature was 82. Well that was a wrap, now we needed the options for the Pope. Unfortunately, I had to be in Cupertino for the presentation, and the Manager got up, did a great job with the findings, hypothesis, conclusions but then forgot options and went right to recommendations. We were fired on the spot. The team recommended that the nuns wear Bikinis in order to reduce the heat impact in order to raise the prayer output.
How dis-loyal.
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