I am a big fan of John Maxwell and his writings and teachings in the field of leadership. He uses a simple analogy that I find useful in many contexts. Let’s look at how you can apply it in your organization to drive positive change.
Be Clear About Where the Bus is Going
This is the simplest and most important part of this whole story. For the rest of the plan to work you must be crystal clear about where you are going as an organization. Without clarity of purpose and a clear direction to go in there is every chance you will not get where you really wanted to go.
Get the Right People On the Bus
Once you are clear about where the bus is going this step is much easier because people will tend to self select. Imagine someone who wants to go home stepping on to the bus and asking where you are going. When you respond “downtown”, and they live in the suburbs common sense says they will voluntarily get off the bus. If you aren’t clear on where you are going you may be tempted to try to accommodate whoever happens to get on the bus.
Get the wrong people off the bus
You may have had people who were a part of your organization before you got clear on your direction. Once you communicate your vision of where you are going some people may not want to go in that direction. It is your job to get these people off the bus and it is important to do this in a way that causes the least possible disruption in your organization.
Get People in the right seats
You now presumably have only the “right” people on the bus, so now you need to get them in the right seats. You must evaluate your team’s individual strengths and weaknesses and make sure they are in the right roles. This can involve a myriad of tactics to accomplish, but it must be done and done swiftly.
Happy driving and stay tuned for more on how to give your bus a world class tune up.
