March 2010
Are You Still Waiting to Figure Your “New Normal”?
As an organizational consultant, I generally work with four to six different businesses in any given month. As the Chair of a Vistage CEO group, an additional 14 to 18 businesses have been added to my world of business experience. This increased exposure has certainly enhanced my understanding of the impact of this recession on the business community.
A sports metaphor seems the best way to describe how I see the world’s having changed for many of the businesses I work with. If the “ball” in this “sport” were to represent opportunities, clients, or sales, then the “game” businesses played before the recession would be like singles tennis. Just as singles tennis players have a lot of chances to hit the ball, businesses had more clients and opportunities to generate income. The game was fast and predictable, and the focus was on becoming better at increasing revenue and profits.
Now the “game” is more like baseball, and businesses are like outfielders where the pitcher is throwing a no-hitter. Imagine going from a fast-paced game where the ball is always coming back across the net at you, to standing in the outfield waiting for the much less frequent opportunity to make a play. You’d have to learn a whole new set of skills, including how to play on a team.
Staying focused on and “in” the game can be really challenging when you need to be patient and prepared to react to what may eventually happen instead of to what is more likely to happen sooner rather than later. When you are used to moving quickly and staying active it’s naturally difficult to slow down and stay focused.
Operating in the “New Normal” will require each of us to adopt a new way of “being” and of “playing the new game,” developing new business practices. As discussed more fully in other articles in this month’s newsletter, we will need to:
- Accept that we are in a new environment, where the economy and rules of the business world have changed. Learn those rules and figure out how they affect your industry (See “Trends for the New Normal”).
- Recognize that your customers, vendors, and other business contacts are members of your “team” and begin, or improve, working with them like a team member. Form business alliances, marketing partnerships, and other collaborative relationships and work together creatively (See “Looking for Opportunities in All the Right Places”).
- Know your position on the team, the role you can play in helping your team win, and learn everything you can to be the best player possible (See “Resources for Following and Getting the Money”).
- Acknowledge that you will need to change personally and adopt a new way of “being.” Change isn’t easy, but that doesn’t mean it will necessarily be bad. It might even mean increased revenues and an opportunity for a happier, more balanced life (See “Paradoxical Results”).