Spring is the Time to Revive

For those who follow American baseball, you already know it is Spring time because the 2008 season has begun with training in the sunshine-belt.  Others might still be in the grips of the latest snowy blast.  Nevertheless, Spring is here and we should all seize the opportunity to do some Spring cleaning.  Using "Spring Cleaning" as a metaphor in both our personal life and in the organizations we inhabit we should seek out opportunities to clean things up, get rid of things we don't need, revive the freshness of our environment, and ensure an upbeat attitude towards everything we do.

Long Winter months have a tendency to allow things to pile up.  Things that are in the "round-to-it" file, meaning at some point you might get around to it, need to be evaluated to whether they need to get worked or pulled off the list all together.  By simply having a "round-to-it" list drains people and organizations of focus and energy.  Pesky visual reminders or physical stumbling blocks have a way of slowing down performance. 

Organizations also frequently let their systems get heavy over time.  The time span may be over a season or two, or over a number of years.  Procedures can become disconnected from the value-creating processes of the business, policies out of date or worse of all, the organization may become fragmented by functional divisions and its various parts are preventing the whole from moving forward with any great speed.  In one of my many earlier professional positions, I actually had the procedures counted within my large organization. As it turned out, we had more than 14,000 procedures that were owned functionally telling the business how to conduct work.  When was the last time you sat down to read the numerous procedures that describe your business?  I seriously doubt anyone would sit down and read 14,000 procedures or even half that many.

Think about the consequences of having disjointed business processes.  An obvious result is the organization working with an abundance of waste.  A far worse result is that people become numb to the disorganization of the business and their attitudes become resigned to surviving with the way things are.  The shimmer of spirit and sparkle in the eyes of the organization become dull and things like commitment, inspiration and motivation become rarities. 

I encourage everyone to place a little more spring into their steps and go clean house.  Make your personal and organizational work environment a pleasant place to inhabit.  Take note of what you have been putting off and get it done or pull it off the list.  And make your organization leaner and better defined so that people know what's expected of them and so the concept of teamwork can flourish.

Enjoy your Spring cleaning!