Big Red Car here on a day when he could not come up with a good Google Adwords title for the post. Sorry.
But, hey, not to worry, going to be 85F today in the ATX. Ahhh, a Texas winter!
So, I’m eavesdropping on The Boss and a couple of his CEOs chattering about this and that and the subject comes to — “How does a CEO grab the company and shake them up a little when things are going fine? No crisis but needing a little shaking up? Throw off the winter blues?”
So, here is the answer to that simple question.
1. The CEO conducts an Anonymous Company Survey. [Ping me if you want a good exemplar of a CAS. I’ll send you one.]
The Survey asks some tough questions:
What do I not know that I should? This is the classic “blindspot” question.
If YOU were the CEO, what are the first two things you would do?
2. The CEO analyzes the information obtained from the Anonymous Company Survey.
3. The CEO has a one-on-one chat with each of her direct reports and discusses the information. Not in the raw form, in the analyzed form.
4. The CEO has an offsite meeting with her top management to reinvigorate Vision, Mission, Strategy, Tactics, Objectives, Values, Culture and to chat about the results of the Anonymous Company Survey.
5. The CEO has a company wide Town Hall meeting in which she announces a couple of initiatives she is going to launch because of the enlightenment created by the Anonymous Company Survey.
She reminds all of the Vision, Mission, Strategy, Tactics, Objectives, Values, Culture of the company and asks — “Are we headed in the right direction?”
6. At that Town Hall meeting, the CEO insists on answering every question until the last dog dies and then demands FIVE more questions. You stand there until the awkwardness is about to drown everyone and you force those questions out of their heads and into the room and then — YOU ANSWER THEM.
You think this doesn’t work? Then, do it and prove me wrong. Haha. You KNOW I’m right, don’t you?
It is that easy, y’all. That’s all you have to do to inject a little energy back into everyone’s step, to prove you’re listening, to find some damn good ideas, and to throw off the lethargy of winter.
But., hey, what the Hell do I really know anyway? I’m just a Big Red Car. Paint job, y’all?
