![[PHOTO] Light streaming through a key hole illuminating an old iron key.](../images/ph_findings.jpg)
(Excerpts from an interview with Milan M, a Moravec and Associates consultant.)
Interviewer: When in the midst of an organization change, what is it that makes the old days look so good?
Milan M: What made the old days so good was the group of talented people working together to achieve worthy goals. People remember the spirit of collaboration, cooperation, unreasonable challenges, competition, differences, and relationships.
For those remaining, the relationships endure to this day. They had fun. They worked hard - at times frantically and always with the knowledge that, if they didn't, one of several competitors would pass them. They all knew that that simply would not do!
Interviewer: Maybe organizations, departments, and projects that are restructured or in a variety of shrinking workforce situations can't be put back together again?
Milan M: At least not quite the way they once were. Once a champion (sport) team is broken up it can't be put back together again, either. A new team, with a winning chemistry, must be built.Change in work situations is not any different. What's left (after the changes) is a new organization.
Leaders who know this do not try to re-create the past. Instead, they create a new environment where they bring these ingredients together anew.
Unfortunately, some managers pick up right where they left off - acting as if there are no consequences from the layoffs or restructuring on the motivation, productivity, loyalty of those remaining (survivors), and company culture.Moravec and Associates consultants approach these transitions with strategic initiatives.
An example of a short-term targeted method is to re-recruit employees to the new (post-layoff) company.
Interviewer: Maybe we can't put pieces together once broken.
Milan M: But we all remember what worked well in the past and can, with the guidance of tested approaches, accelerate and replicate the principles, no doubt differently - and hopefully, a lot better. Competition is quicker and smarter. Markets grow and shrink. The economy is volatile.
But people remain pretty much the same. They respond when the right work environment is crafted.
Loyalty and layoffs are two opposing realities in uneasy coexistence in today's business world. The sooner management learns how to master "loyalty-layoff" situations the quicker they: