The 36-Month Decision

Speaker 1 · 0:00There's a concept in decision science called analysis paralysis, but what I see in workforce leaders is something different, something deeper. It's not that they can't decide, It's that the cost of being wrong is so structural, so embedded in the organization's future that an act of deciding feels like gambling. A CFO, of course, can can correct the financial decision in a quarter, let's say, But a workforce decision, at times, if it's truly misaligned, that can take eighteen months to show up as a result and thirty six months to unwind. I've seen this throughout my career. And what and what and what doesn't get talked about enough is a leader's willingness to commit to the latter versus their comfortability with the former.

Speaker 1 · 0:56I often see so many organizations that are willing to make the wrong financial decision knowing that a CFO can clean it up in three quarters, yet they're not willing to bite down, I call it, and really get alignment around decision making. Really get alignment around patterns and timing and temperament inside the organization. Really get alignment around who was willing to commit to each other, who was willing to commit to teamship. That is something that creates so much fragmentation when those that are not when those that are leading are not willing to lead with that ability to bite down, that ability to lean into uncomfortability, that that ability to lean into the reality, which is we are misaligned. We are not speaking the same language around how we make decisions, how quickly we make decisions, who we bring into the table to make decisions, what what data points we make decisions on, we're going to lean into the consumer's perspective, how we're gonna lean into our own perspectives, how we're gonna read or react to the market, and how is the market going to impact our employee experience and our tend to and our and and our temperaments inside this organization today.

Speaker 1 · 2:04These are conversations that leaders are not willing to lean into. And these lack of conversations, these lack of decisions, these lack of workforce, I think, decision making capabilities, it shows up eighteen months, thirty six months, forty eight months down the road. And it's so hard to unwind. It's so hard because these small, consistent behavioral decisions and misalignment creates what I call patterns, what I call pattern recognition, what I call habits, what I call human beings just get used to being misaligned, and we just get used to the chaos of that. We get used to the feeling of that.

Speaker 1 · 2:47We get used to to the uncomfortability of that. And yet we we we subconsciously find a bit of a a bit of a fuel and an energy and an excitement to unwind all of that messiness rather than to lean into an uncomfortable conversation for fifteen minutes that could avoid thirty six months of messiness. We'd rather put the star on our chest and have the big badge of honor to say, I'm the leader that conducted the best change management overhaul. I'm the leader that built out all of the different systems and nuances for us to get back aligned. I am grateful.

Speaker 1 · 3:26I am excited. I am I am, like, all these I ams, I'm and kinda going off on a tangent here. It's only get focused. Rather than, I am the leader that's gonna sit us down when everything around us is moving fast, when we're not making the profit that we want, when we're not appeasing the board, when we have not made the best decisions and not and and we have not found or tasted or experienced the the outcomes that we all have been looking for quarter after quarter after quarter yet, in all of that chaos and in all that messiness, I'm gonna sit us down. I'm gonna sit us down to have a conversation.

Speaker 1 · 4:08I'm gonna sit us down to get alignment. And even if that alignment feels like a couple back steps in the wrong direction, I'm gonna lean into the exciting variable, which is it's time to change. It's time to change, and it's time to believe that having more transparent, more data tracking, more fluidity of how we of how we gut check and micro problem solve week to week misalignment, what might feel like even micromanagement in the beginning, but we're all gonna bite down and align on and get excited about and join hands around how that can help us thirty six months down the road. And I know this wasn't the cleanest episode, but if you all are following this thread, you'll know where I'm going with this. When you, as a leader, can make that decision, can make the decision to lean into six uncomfortable, annoying, horrible conversations that just feel dreadful, that just takes up the entire and sets up all the energy of the team in one week, if you're the leader that can appreciate the positivity of that thirty six months, eighteen months, twenty four months down the road from now from those six horrible and uncomfortable conversations, and if you're the leader that could understand that that threaded line, I do believe I do believe there's something there.

Speaker 1 · 5:43I do believe those are the leaders that can really make change. I do believe those are the leaders that are putting themselves in the positions to win. I do believe those are the leaders that have the best shot at having what I call the most productive and consistent teams that produce the best results because those are the teams that have vulnerability. Those are the teams that are that are gonna start to create teamship. You're gonna start to see middle management.

Speaker 1 · 6:09You're gonna you're gonna start to see individual contributors raising their hand, bringing up misalignment before you do. You're gonna start to see your your your technology workforce leaders inside your organization recommend certain tools that are great at identifying and sourcing and sniffing out misalignment and aggregating that data point to then find the the aligned outcome and and and proposition that we should lean into. You're gonna find your leader starting to to to to mention and quote, we need to get aligned. You're gonna start to see the word alignment spread throughout your sales, your, your Slack channel, your Microsoft Team channels, and your email threads. You're going to start to feel that alignment shift, which really is nothing more than having having the same level of shared data viewpoints that then leads into the best decisions and the most consistent decisions that we're all aligned on what those decisions are and what data points allowed us to get to those decisions and having extreme levels of empathy and transparency and communication.

Speaker 1 · 7:11That's really all it is, and that's really where you need to start. And I think once you can finally realize that's the beginning stage is when everything can change. So I just want to share this episode. I haven't given kind of like that motivational, emotional little pocket of misalignment, but it's just so, so important. So, again, to put a little bow on this, if you are willing to lean in to the micro misaligned moments and put those fire routes right there and then build systems around how to avoid that little micro fire starting again is when you'll notice thirty six months from now, you actually do have an aligned and a consistent and a predictable pattern and vibe and feeling of a business that we can all appreciate, of a business that is not just employees first, but that's team first.

Speaker 1 · 8:07That's love first. It's comfortability first. It's it's alignment first. So these are thoughts. Talk soon.