The Nests of Spring

A bird flew onto the fence this morning with a beak full of straw, momentarily resting on its flight path to building a nest for a new family. Nests represent a supportive structure for new life. Many of the people and organisations I have consulted to have had the smarts to anticipate upcoming changes to their business and diligently prepared "the nest" for growth. Or, if they have been suddenly inundated with new work, the supportive structure gets built at a fast rate while growth is in progress. This has often meant:

• ensuring the right people are in the right places and all understanding exactly what they are to do and the outputs they are responsible for;
• giving thought to, and creating the workplace culture they desire;
• process flows are streamlined with waste eradicated and throughputs maximised;
• procedural documentation is created or refined;
• key performance indicators are thought through and established with regular reviews and accountability measures enacted;
• financial budgets and cashflows are prepared;
• marketing and sales opportunities are carefully inspected, planned and targeted;
• leadership are more fully equipped; people are trained and coached.

These are but some of the areas that make up the supportive organisational nest structure and whilst growth can be an exhilarating experience, the lack of structure can see declines take place at a depressing rate. If you are desiring to hatch the new growth of spring, or, are already experiencing the fruitful plenty of summer, take time to purposefully and strategically work on the nest. It will serve you, your people, your customers and stakeholders incredibly well if you do. PS. You might like to review the points above and give yourself a score out of 10 for each. Then, review the lowest 3, and begin lifting these to a satisfactory level initially. Also ask yourself the question, "what one, of these three, that if worked on will have a peripheral effect on the others?" If you would like help with any of this, feel free to reach out.