Recession! Great News! Clear actions you can take today.

Recession! Great News! Clear actions you can take today.

Winning before, during, and after a Recession.  Clear actions you can take today.

We are hearing the word “recession” more and more, it is on the horizon, in the minds of smart business owners and this is Great news! Awesome news!

For those who are prepared, recession is a time of opportunity, for those who are not it is a time of uncertainty and fear – We will not go into the psychology of fear but if you are not prepared, uncertainty and fear will consume you and your team, fear will become who you are, and when it does get ready to lose.

Get prepared, now is the time to do a few hours of hard, deep work to get ready to drive through and then thrive out of a recession.

Why do we have an informed opinion on this subject?

Context: Our leader Walt Brown is a seasoned business owner and coach with recession, global event, and season downturn experience scars.

In addition to 3 official recessions and the global event of 911, he ran 4 companies, (Layline, Musto Americas, Dubarry USA, and Tacktick North America) through 20 “yearly recessions” due to seasonality. These sets, with their reps, prepared us to be the turndown experts we are today.

Add to this the sets and reps we have been doing with our 200+ coaching and EOS® clients through the mid-2000s recession and Covid – Well, we have seen what works and what does not – we are seasoned when it comes to driving through and thriving out of turndowns.

So, what can you do?

You need to be able to “see the invisible”. You need to be able to visualize and see your entire organization and how you are structured. As the recession hits, as the tide goes out, as the fuel runs low you will start to be faced with more and more decisions, big and small, your people who are accustomed to “things as they are” will lock up and more “stuff” will flow your way.

Being ready to take action immediately, without hesitation, while also owning a clear template to rebuild properly - this is the key to your success as you drive through and then thrive out of a recession cycle.

The time to do the work is now before things start to change before fear creeps in.

Now is the time to invest a few hard hours of work to take a full inventory of everything your people are doing, taking time to understand why they are doing it, how they are doing it, and with whom are they doing it. The opening is RIGHT NOW, while it is fresh and clear in employees’ minds and fear is not present.

Here are the steps, this is how you do it. (My team and I can help, or, you can learn more at https://organizationalcognizance.university, or, you can reference my book Death of The Org Chart and just do it on your own.)

1. Org Chart - Create or update a simple Org / Accountability Chart of everyone’s Job/Seat. (Just list all of your People, their Titles, and the one person they Report to. Put this into your Org Graph software. https://ograph.io)
2. Teams - With your Org/Accountability chart out in the open, you will see the components you need to create the teams that need to be gathered to do the next steps.
3. Roles - Create a full inventory of the Roles inside each Seat/Job using the “Flower Power Exercise.” This is the most important step and NO you do not have this level of critical detail, almost nobody does. Capture these in OGraph.
4. SOPs and WiPPS - Using the Roles from step 3, create a list of the Standard Operating Procedures, Checklists, Work Instructions, Policies, and Systems that are being followed, used, and logged into from each Role. Link these to your roles in OGraph.
5. Write and record. From your step 4 work, have your Role owners, and your people, write out the SOPs, Checklists, Work Instructions, and Policies (SOP - WiPPS). Have them list the systems they are logging into – very important. Store these in your OGraph software.
6. Core Processes - From your step 5 work, think about the interdependencies that exist between the SOPs, Checklists, Work Instructions, and Polices – which Roles depend on another Role to follow their SOP / WiPPS correctly? – these are the interdependencies that need to be recorded and documented as your Core Processes. Record these in OGraph. Note: For larger companies use a BPMn 2.0 compatible software.
7. Get a head start, begin thinking about People moves – Now that you have your Jobs/Seats and their Roles, SOPs, and WiPPS out in the open. Run each person through a Role-based GWC® exercise. [Get it, Want it, Capacity to do it – an EOS® Tool]. You are asking yes or no, does Joe Get, Want, and have the Capacity to do this specific Role that is part of his job? From this quick work, you will see patterns that need to be addressed now or in the future. A recession is a great excuse to make hard moves.

With all of this information documented and out in the open, you will be able to visualize your next moves before you make them. What if we lose this client, who does that impact, what moves will I make, and who will cover for that move? With the work above captured in an Organizational Graph everything will be documented, accessible, and out in the open for you to see, ready for you to take advantage of.

Feel free to reach out. This is work we help out clients with every day and we can help you. Budget between $10k and $40k.  A cheap insurance policy for your future. 

Do not wait, you need to do this work anyhow - even if a recession does not manifest.