Business: Maintenance or Progress?
Pond outside my home
What’s the difference between maintenance and progress in business? When I’m doing the day-to-day operations of my business, I’m just maintaining. If I step outside of the day-to-day and develop a vision of how to make the business better, then I am making progress.
The same is true at my house and in my garden. Sometimes I am making the property “better.” Occasionally we add something new or improve the property in some way. This year I added some lovely flower boxes in all the windows. One year we installed a larger hot water heater so we stopped running out of hot water. Sometimes we don’t do anything to make the property better–like the year we went on sabbatical and didn’t do all the little projects we usually do to make our home feel good.
But aren’t most of the tasks maintenance, really? If we spend a year without doing any big projects, even if I continue fixing or improving routine things, then the paint will be a year older, things will be a little more worn. No big projects mean the house looks older and older, it just doesn’t stay the same.
I believe a similar reality applies to leadership and people development in organizations, too. Taking a year away from developing people doesn’t leave you where you were, it takes you backward–just a little. Skills become a little less current, the dialogue in the organization gets a little more stale, and people have a little more distance from company values and purpose. Having learning projects engages staff, channels their energy, and keeps them moving forward.
I know the philosophy for many in this economic downturn has been “all hands on deck.” Focus has been on sales and marketing, and on bringing in as much business as possible. I hope the time has come to look around to see how to tend to the people in the organization. How can their development support the bottom line? What are the projects your house needs in order to be a well cared for home?
What are the first challenges that need to be addressed? What are the longer term projects that can create an environment to be proud of?
People development doesn’t have to have a high dollar figure attached. Much can be gained with intention and a strong development conversation. What skill could each person learn so that a year from now the organization would be stronger than it is today. Make a list. Have dialogue with employees to see what they are willing to add to their skill sets in service to that big picture. For my organization, I realize the growing edge for us is about social media marketing, Word-Press plugin integration, and effective use of press releases. So I look for free courses, read on-line, and ask questions about these topics when I meet someone who seems better at this than we are right now.
Progress is about a development culture for staff and a continuous improvement model for the organization. The world is changing fast. Don’t get caught doing only maintenance!
