Scattershot or Strategic?
The chaos and the turmoil we’re seeing all around us. Look no further than the shenanigans of Elon Musk—most notably his directive (through OPM) coming late on a Friday afternoon via an urgent email to all federal employees to respond by Monday to the question: What did you do last week?
Of course, Elon Musk, and others in that inner circle, never worked for the federal government. Likely, many never worked for anyone but themselves or their family business. But this post isn’t about politics. It’s about the approach to take when making sound business decisions—scattershot or strategic.
Consider the decisions a new CEO was making. Without seeking guidance or advice or consulting with anyone, he was liberally interpreting policies—taking things out of context—and acting. After six weeks on the job, he was taking actions affecting employees that were outside the provisions of the collective bargaining agreement and the policies, and in some instances, failing to review their employment records.
Then there’s the manager who writes to a stakeholder that there’s nothing the organization can do to address a certain situation because there’s no protocol for doing so. Yet she set a precedent months earlier by taking specific action in an identical situation.
These situations beg the questions:
What’s the purpose?
What are you trying to accomplish?
What’s the goal?
What’s the best strategy for achieving that goal?
What outcome do you want?
What are the potential unintended consequences?
It’s obvious that Musk’s action was meant to induce panic and high anxiety and not uncover inefficiencies. But it triggered anger and disgust. And as a social media post suggested, if five statements were actually collected from 2+ million Federal employees about their accomplishments, it would show an incredible narrative of the wide array of work being done by committed and passionate Federal civil servants across this entire country. I don’t think that’s what he was going for.
As for the CEO, could he and his organization potentially be facing employment lawsuits or union grievances? Despite what his intentions may have been, I don’t think that’s what he was going for either.
Politics and the current administration’s antics aside, we can all think of (or have witnessed) circumstances where people put themselves into the same situation as the CEO did. They act first and ask later. They act quickly without thinking through the consequences of those actions. Or like the manager above, they dash off an angry or pointed email—with a message that would have been better left unsaid—that resulted in more turmoil, more work [for them], more ill-will, or worse, potential legal action.
Think strategically when making decisions—business decisions or personal decisions. Think more about the impact of your actions rather than their intent. Take your time. And ask yourself the questions listed above.