During the lockdown occasioned by the pandemic, We were afforded an opportunity for introspective reflection which led to a lot of insightful realizations like;
- Understanding that a lot of the meetings that kept me ‘busy as a bee’ and constantly drained, were absolutely unnecessary;
- Some ideas/projects would not be viable (even after the investment of time and resources);
- Many team members were just deadweight and weak links;
- I found it hard to communicate my visions and ideas effectively, which led to confusion on best practices and methodology to adopt;
- As our human assets grew, it became increasingly difficult to manage and direct to achieve maximum output levels;
- As our locations increased, complacency began to set in leading to abysmal performance and stunted growth;
- Feedback of a stifling workplace, fraught with a negative culture eroded the creative energy and innovative spirit We had cultivated over the years.
It was time to be still and fix the ugly beast We had created.
As our problems were generally in the areas of People management, communications, team building, and performance tracking, We restrategized leading to;
- Seeking help from experienced business leaders,
- Narrow our focus areas and streamline operations,
- Letting some people go (sadly) and infusing new energy (people) especially in our weak areas,
- pulling the plug on some projects that were not aligned to our core vision,
- rethinking our approach to work and transiting to remote working,
- Shut down some of our locations and invest in empowering our online communities to render our services through our mobile apps,
- Identify and work on opportunities that are within our core competence, instead of chasing fantasies,
- Leverage technology to solve some nagging problems (even though We are a tech firm, We had not utilized tech effectively).
Going Forward
As the implementation of our strategy is still on-going, the jury is out on the outcome. I do not expect 100% productivity, but 99% won’t be bad right? *winks
To improve on our weak areas of people management, communications, team building, and performance tracking, I am glad to have led the unit to build our people management platform — called Pipo. We currently use a plethora of apps and productivity tools, but we needed a tailored tool to manage our projects and talent in a single system, resulting in empowered teams, satisfied clients, and increased profitability based on the feedback we analyzed.
A great thing is that it integrates seamlessly with the apps we currently use and are comfortable with like Slack.
In the coming weeks, after positive outcome, We plan to release this tool for other businesses to use as a Software-as-a-service product to also help other companies in our predicament. Until then, it is fingers crossed! www.theroothub.com
