Triggering a full reorganization

How often do you stir things up in your company? I was turn to this topic by a conversation I had about operational efficiency. I was thinking about how often you should look at what you are doing and look for ways to improve it. If you go by the Kaizen methodology, then you are doing this constantly... this works great for small changes but not for big ones. Full-on reorganizations can be triggered by traumatic events but the price you pay in organizational stress is great.
I recommend you are always on Kaizen mode; it is a great way to do business and life in general. But, how do you decide is the right time to do a full-on reorganization? The conditions I think could trigger a full reorganization are:

• Financial results are not there for 3 quarters or more. You are underperforming and it is not the result of a disaster, and the recovery trend is not there.
• You tried incremental enhancements and they are not having enough impact.
• Your key decision processes are convoluted or ineffective.
• Key players leave or arrive into your organization (for example, after a merger or acquisition).
• Your market conditions have changed dramatically (new and strong competitors; new business models)

These are a few of the conditions; your individual reasons may vary and add to this list. If you decide that a reorganization is in order, just be careful to fix the issues with a holistic approach.

What to do with self-sabotaging people – Part 1

I was just in a discussion with one of my Linkedin groups as to how to handle people who are self-sabotaging. First things first, how do you spot a self-sabotaging person? Here are a few of their characteristics:

 

1. Self-sabotaging people are aware of what needs to be done, but do something else.
2. They stop learning and listening - they believe they already know what they need to know.
3. They stop asking for counsel or use the wrong advisors [we should use only wise and trusted advisors].
4. They spend their energy in menial things and events; they don’t pick their fights – they sweat the small stuff and everything is a conflict to the death.
5. They’re forever looking at the past: what mistakes they made, what [they think] people did to them, how they were wronged.
6. They are always looking at the future [but do nothing to achieve it] – they wish upon every star but never lift a finger to make things happen.
7. They make excuses for their behavior and don’t take responsibility – my parents treated me bad, my [condition] excuses my [behavior].
8. They believe the labels they apply to themselves – I am [neurotic, unlucky, ugly, fat] so I can’t change [something]
9. They always believe things are too difficult and find the negative in everything.

They not only waste their time, but yours. They come into your office and take precious energy away from people and things that really need it, they leave you exhausted and little less alive than before, they don’t leave anything behind but stress and desperation. But, what should you do with them? In my next post, I will present a good list of solid advice as to how to handle this type of person.

Deciding on controversial features for products

I’ve just discovered that leaving your account logged on Facebook allows CNN.com to somehow connect to it and see who of your friends have linked to CNN stories. To say the least, I was a little surprised to see a friend’s name with a link to a CNN.COM article, since I wasn’t logged into CNN and they didn’t ask for permission to connect to my Facebook account. My first instinct was to see behind my shoulder to see if the illuminati were behind me.

I did a little experimenting, logging out of Facebook and reloading the CNN page got me blank box with the caption that friends’ links would be shown there. Logging to Facebook again reintroduced the news about my friend’s link. Somehow they were getting access to my friend lists.

From the Product Management perspective, how do you decide on this type of features? I can think of several people who will love it, and a many more that will hate it. Obviously you want your product to remain competitive and offer features that go the extra mile for your customers. At the same time, if it takes a PhD to customize your preferences that would be a turn off.

To address this type of features, the steps I would follow would be:

• Prototype the hell out of it.

• Use customer’s panels and demo it in front of large groups

• Announce it and highlight it when it is shown for the first time.

• Build a “quick kill” or “shut down” button into the feature.

• Prepare for fallout in case it goes the wrong way.

Obviously I am simplifying the situation but the approach may help your company avoid Facebook-like privacy problems.