In football, it’s called “going between the 20s.” That is to say, your offense or marketing department or sales organization is racking up considerable yardage moving the ball up and down the field, you just don’t have that many touchdowns to show for it. You have trouble scoring once inside the “red zone,” or from the 20 yard line in.
Football coaches are faced with this dilemma all the time. Do we junk the offense and go for a more quick strike attack or do we make incremental changes to the existing structure that would improve our chances somewhat?
In marketing, this would mean the difference between changing the theme of our efforts, canning the firm we’ve worked with for a number of years, or some other major action.
Why the Change?
1. First, we should be clear as to why we’re making the change. At the first of the year, there’s always a clamor for change–usually so merchants can get us to buy more–but it’s assumed that whatever the change is, it will make us better. This is not necessarily so in business, where the organization has to be given time to react to whatever change we’ve directed and where if we’ve acted in haste, the new firm might well be worse than the old.
If we have to make the major change–the equivalent of “throwing the bomb” in football–let’s make sure it’s for the right reason, rather than revenge, or “we’ll show ‘em,” or some other reason that would provide momentary satisfaction, but long-term pain.
2. Next, let’s take a closer look at what happens when we’re in the red zone, but fail to score. Sometimes, organizations make a major change merely because they’re afraid to take a closer look at what they’re doing and how three or four minor changes could bring the same result. What are seven or eight small changes the organization could adopt that would yield a measurable result.
3. Also, be aware of “false choices,” lapses in logic that yield bad policies. Such as, “If we fired X, we’d have a better chance of landing the Y account.” It may be that X is just one factor in a long list of reasons why we don‘t land the Y account.
4. You don‘t need to marry your decisions. Don’t set up false deadlines to force you to choose one thing or the other. But experiment to your heart’s content. Allow time to consider option 1 one day and then consider the exact opposite solution the next.
Or go ahead and have the revolution if you must, just try and leave plenty of time to audition the players in the unfolding drama.
