In June 2008, while I was teaching a three day workshop on facilitation and gathering and documenting business requirements, someone raised an issue about the economy and stated that the market is headed for a crash soon (within 6 months). Interestingly, the people attending the workshop were not investment specialists. They were professionals from across various industries with backgrounds in human resources, information technology, healthcare, project management and administration. In essence, they were operational and tactical professionals with the same learning goal of understanding how to get the information they needed to create solutions for business problems and opportunities within their respective areas.
Instead on doing the planned assignment we went with the issue raised. I was interested in knowing if a group of professionals from different industries and expertise could apply the five requirement type’s principles (business, stakeholder, solution, data, and implementation) to understanding a complex business issue. Thirty people (6 groups of 5) discussed and brainstormed the issue, defined the challenge, the market parameters, the solution options and build consensus with one key recommendation. They recommended that it would be wise to exit the market by August 2008.
So I decided to take their recommendation to the street. I interviewed three investment advisors independently. Each advisor told me that there was no way that a group of thirty people who were not professional investors could predict the market. They further told me that it would be smart to stay the course with my present investment portfolio and not make any adjustments. Hind sight is 20/20.
There are many lessons we can learn from listening to our people. We must include our people when it comes to understanding business problems, opportunities and creating innovative solutions. People need to work together to unravel complex issues. There are approaches and processes that can be applied to help you make better business decisions. Never under estimate the level of group intelligence of your people. They do know what they are doing. Having a common direction comes in real handy when investing in the success of your organization. More importantly, implementation is the key to the success of best laid plans.
We all know that hind sight is 20/20 and we can chalk it up to a character building experience. Or we can listen to our people. They have something important to contribute. Let them.
Question of the Week: What lesson have you learned from your people that could have made a positive impact on your business? Why did you not implement it? What would you do differently?
