My staff are not working hard enough on my future plans. Why?

Dear Aunty B,

We have a mid-sized private company that has spent the last few years furiously pedalling and have got some good results. Now we need to really hit the expansion button but I can’t seem to get anyone excited by our plan and staff are dragging their feet.

We have held some strategy sessions and everyone says they are on board with the plans for FY11 but then little seems to be happening. My GM says they are burnt out and need a rest. My feeling is that we are not doing a good enough job motivating them and we can’t afford to waste time. How do I get them working on future plans?

Frustrated boss,
Melbourne

Dear Frustrated boss,

Stop, take a deep breath and reflect for minute. You have been through a critical period and have asked a great deal of your staff. And now you are asking more. Not only do they need to keep doing their current job but you are asking for them to focus on a lot of new things just as they are getting their head above water. You, my friend, have fallen into The Acceleration Trap.

In Harvard Business Review‘s April issue there is a very insightful report on companies that, in order to cope with intense market pressures, increase activities, raise performance goals, shorten innovation cycles and introduce new technologies. That’s all fine and it works in the short-term. But as the report found out, CEOs that regularly take on more than they can handle and try to make that intense level of activity the norm, can harm the company on many levels.

The HBR report has looked at 600 companies over nine years to understand acceleration and they found that over accelerated companies come out worse than their peers on performance, efficiency, employee productivity and retention. In fact, half of the companies in the report were affected by the acceleration trap and most were not even aware of the fact.

The symptoms of an over accelerated company are employees who are too overloaded with too many activities and don’t have the resources to do their jobs properly. Or the overloaded staff have so many activities they and the company are unfocused and activities are misaligned. Companies that perpetually get in the habit of overloading deprive workers of any chance of recharging their energy. Employees can cope if the end is in sight but when employees don’t call for a halt, employees can feel demotivated by the constant frenetic activity.

Here is what you must do.

Have a break; stop the action for a bit. Ask employees for things they can stop doing, things that are not working. Eliminate those. HBR recommends asking this great question: “Which of our current activities would we start now if they weren’t already underway?” Then get rid of the rest.

Make sure you have a reduced number of goals, that they are achievable and the staff have the resources to carry them out. Finally give your staff a time out. It is the end of FY10. Why not tell your staff that the new plans don’t need to be looked at for a month and that July is a month to recuperate and recover. And then be very specific about the plans for next year so they don’t feel overwhelmed.

Good luck,
Your Aunty B

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