In my original post, Sentinels To Change, from March 2023, I showed how having a business with a process to allow your team to share their view of the future, can help you prepare for your changes that could devastate your future business or changes that could make you more competitive. Having a company full of ‘sentinels’ ensures that there is likely someone that will see the change coming, before it is too late to address it.
What if you also create a process that allows your team to articulate the changes that will need to happen for your business that can Run Without You? What if they are the visionaries creating a business that can operate, compete, and grow successfully, well beyond what you could do alone?
Why is this important? Because if you are the only one looking for future ideas to fill your future sales, it is like filling a pond with a single drip at a time. With others helping, you have a shower if possibilities for future opportunities.
Here are two Sentinel Processes you should add to your operations right now.
Communication Space
You likely already have sentinels in your company. People that understand current trends in their skilled area. They can see what is going to happen, and likely have already identified things that will be a major concern in the future. But, if there is no known space to share this information, no ongoing sharing that is modelled and celebrated, people are less likely to see it as ‘their job’ to share. You need a space in your regular routines (e.g. meetings) that highlights people that have ideas, without any negative feedback.
It is important that people feel heard, before the idea is nay-sayed, because, why would anyone want to share if people are just going to tell them their idea is not worth considering. Your business will get all kinds of ideas, some that are not worth acting on, but all ideas are worth considering. Hold judgment until after the meeting, when the idea can be carefully evaluated. If your company decides to act on it, ensure that originator is recognized for their share.
Permission to Share
If your company has a culture where an employee is told to ‘stick to their job’, and let others worry about the management and future, your people will not feel they have permission to share ideas. An open-door culture gives people permission to share anything that is pertinent to their job. It must include a process on where and how to share their ideas. I worked in a company some years ago, where the CEO had a literal open door policy. If his door was open, and it usually was, anyone could come and share ideas and insights, or challenges and problems. It was a safe place to share great ideas.
Sometimes ideas are less than great, and can be a challenge the company, but knowing is better than not knowing. The key to this open-door culture is it must not be followed by reprimand or shaming or people will stop sharing.
Start Now
If you have Sentinel Processes, you can ensure people have permission to share, and place to share their insights and be seen as a key part of the future of the business: Their future.
Once these Sentinel Processes are in place, your business has more opportunities. It could be sold in parts or in its entirety. You could stay as a CEO, or you could move on to other adventures, start new business, or simply keep part of the business so you can focus on what you love. The business could also grow to a much larger scale, serving a larger or different market. With Growth, your people could have other options within the company, creating a place where great people want to stay.
This article is 100% original content – The articles you read in this blog are 100% created by Barb Stuhlemmer, not by AI.
Leave a Reply