After the bloodletting – now what?
Business shrinking? Contracts diminishing? If you’re rightsizing or downsizing your company in this economy, make sure you don’t stop with the job half done.
You obviously have to do what the finance person or the Excel spreadsheet tells you. Nobody can run a business at a loss, and if it’s time to cut, you have to cut. But the team you’re left with afterwards will be a different team, containing all your best and least-losable people, on who you are now totally dependent for your livelihood. Yet this team will have just sustained one of the most difficult things that can happen to people at work, and if you aren’t careful, they will be easy pickings for competitors.
It’s absolutely essential that your cuts save enough budget to spend on re-forming and recovery for the team of people you are keeping after the changes. Set aside about $1500 a head for a team of ten or more. Then, once the changes are made, get help from someone you trust to re-form new team strategies and spirit. It’s not enough, by the way, just to do a class, go teambuilding, hire a consultant or have a party. Strategy is key.
In this economy, competitors will be on the lookout for your most talented people who feel alienated or unsettled after a change and are willing to look at a new job. Smart business who downsize and rightsize will know that the task is not finished – not nearly finished – until they have made a real investment in re-forming and re-aligning what is, in fact, a brand new work team. Anything else is like putting chum in the water.
If you are downsizing or rightsizing your company, give me a call on 202 257 5593. We aren’t consultants, so all advice is free.
