When starting a project turnaround, you have to start by learning the scope of the project and developing a new plan to accomplish the goals of the project. Attempting to bridge to a broken plan can become a project of its own. It doesn’t add value to executing the turnaround and it actually dilutes valuable resources and consumes their bandwidth that could otherwise be used to execute the turnaround plan.
You have to convert to the new plan and not look back. That might be difficult for some team members. After buying into a plan for a period of time, it’s difficult to imagine the best solution is to roll a grenade into the room and start over.
The same approach applies to organizational turnarounds. After the discovery phase (interviewing everybody in the company to learn how things are done), you set the goals and then relentlessly execute the plan to accomplish them. It starts off messy, like cleaning out your garage. You start by taking everything out of the garage. If someone passes judgment at that moment, they might conclude that you’ve made a bigger mess. However, you have to stop doing what you were doing and start something new. You can’t steal second base until you’ve taken your foot off of first.
You have to convert to the new plan and not look back. That might be difficult for some team members. After buying into a plan for a period of time, it’s difficult to imagine the best solution is to roll a grenade into the room and start over.
The same approach applies to organizational turnarounds. After the discovery phase (interviewing everybody in the company to learn how things are done), you set the goals and then relentlessly execute the plan to accomplish them. It starts off messy, like cleaning out your garage. You start by taking everything out of the garage. If someone passes judgment at that moment, they might conclude that you’ve made a bigger mess. However, you have to stop doing what you were doing and start something new. You can’t steal second base until you’ve taken your foot off of first.
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