Too often we find that management have had a “good idea” in the face of an issue and have tried to change things. Then something goes wrong and three or four months later it is forgotten about. Then they have another “good idea”, perhaps to solve the same problem. The same thing happens again and four months later they have given up.
Each new initiative is greeted with less and less enthusiasm until after a few more tries, no one does anything at all because it is doomed. Cricketers would say your bat is broken before you reach the crease.
One company had employed four different Distribution Managers in eighteen months, all of whom tried to change things and quite quickly gave up and moved on. Finally a new manager arrived and made it happen.
What was different?
There are five things needed to get there:
| Vision | Without this you get confusion. |
| Skills | If you do not have the skills you get anxiety. |
| Incentives | If the incentives have not been thought through you get Slow adoption. |
| Resources | The funding and people resources need to be there – without them you get frustration. |
| An Improvement plan | If you do not have a plan, you do not know how to get there or how long it will take, so you often get false starts. |
So do not let it happen to you!