One Minute Manager
by Ken Blanchard
Mission Possible
Once there was a time in business when you could experience a change and
then return to a period of relative stability. That era was followed by
one in which, as soon as you got one change handled, you had to get ready
for another. Nowadays, the changes are occurring rapid-fire. In the heat
of this chaos, it's hard for people to maintain perspective.
Constant change is a way of life in business. In fact, to stay competitive
today, you have to simultaneously manage the present and the future.
Why? Because focusing on either dimension while ignoring the other is a
formula for failure. If you don't organize your company today to make decisions
faster and to move closer to the customer, you're likely to lose your present
market to a quicker competitor. However, if your fascination with what you
already have precludes you from creating what you don't have, you're likely
to end up as an accident on the highway to the future. A balance must be
struck between continuity and innovation.
A conceptual model that reflects the need to work on the present and the
future of your organization at the same time is the S-shaped Sigmoid curve
shown in Figure 1.
This model describes the natural development of things. Some call it a learning
curve; people start to learn through trial and error, develop confidence
and achieve mastery. But unless they continue to renew themselves, they
become bored and complacent, and performance drops off.
In terms of organizational effectiveness, looking at everything in terms
of the curve could prove depressing: Leaders would study where they are
on the curve and predict when decline will take place. Organizational life
would consist of little more than waiting for the slide to begin and then
trying to turn it around.
The curve experience may be compared to riding a roller coaster. In the
beginning as the car goes up, the climb is steep and slow, and everyone
enjoys the ride. As it approaches the top, the whole world opens up, and
people smile and enjoy what seems to be a mountain-top experience. Then
suddenly it plunges over the crest and hurtles downward-and the screaming
begins.
Many companies are experiencing the down side of that roller-coaster ride
today. Having achieved mastery in their industry, they jubilantly enjoyed
success-only to suddenly find themselves frantically fighting with the controls
as a sudden decline in market share or customer loyalty drops them off a
cliff. Their moment of peak success proved merely to be the prelude to their
plunge into obscurity.
Once you have under-stood the Sigmoid nature of development, you will realize
that you need not wait until a crisis occurs to begin to renew yourself
or your organization. Figure 2 shows you how this might look.
A study of the typical development curve shows that there is a wisdom in
anticipating the drop-off before it begins to occur. The point on the first
curve designated as "a" is the "observation point."
It is the stage at which a different plan needs to be put into effect. It
represents the best time to step back, contemplate your organization's progress
on the curve and consider launching a new one. By point "b," the
slide has already begun. At point "c," it's too late.
Whereas, in the past, organizations concentrated only on what they were
doing at the time, today's condition of constant change requires that they
pay attention not only to improving their present process (i.e., maintaining
the upward thrust of the first curve) but also designing for the unseen
future ahead (i.e., beginning a second curve). This brings us to our definition
of a world-class organization: An organization that is working effectively,
not just on one curve or the other, but on both at the same time, and learning
from both.
It will take time for the second curve to become established and the first
curve to wane. As a consequence, both curves need to coexist in the same
time and space. Living between these curves or waves presents today's leaders
with an interesting set of challenges. Chief among these are the need to:
Keep the first curve alive long enough for
the second curve to firmly establish itself.
Develop the perspective and discipline necessary
to allow funds to be siphoned away from the curve they currently are leading
(the first curve) to one that they may not be leading (the second curve).
Be able to live with and manage the confusion
and tension that results from having both curves operating simultaneously.
© 1996 by Blanchard Management Report, Blanchard Training and Development
Inc. Telephone (800) 728-6000, ext. 5201, or fax (619) 743-5030.
