The suboptimal ways organizations shouldn’t hope for the best in 2019

As we journey in this New Year of 2019, virtually every organization will hope and expect the best to happen to them. The irony is that even organizations that have not developed their core strategies, evolved any game plan, or have not taken definitive steps towards achieving their desired results will still hope for this ‘same’ best. The truth is - the best does not come to organizations who are mere positive or who are wishing for the best. The best will and can only come to organizations that can match their desires with equal amount of strategic and time bound actions.

Over the years, some executives and managers have unwittingly used one key phrase and that key phrase has not worked in the best interest of organizations. They have told their subordinates, “just be positive and everything will work out fine”. Imagine a situation where someone tells his manager about his/her inability to meet a target or perform an expected task, and what the manager tells him/her is don’t worry - just be positive and everything will work out fine. With that kind of response, there is no way that particular staff member will bring the best for his/her organization. What the manager has done was to simply hope for the best – without proffering solutions or asking what can be done to have an optimized results. Dr Martin Seligman was right when he said, “If the cost of failure is high, optimism is the wrong strategy”.

Organizations are failing more than ever before because, they always assume some magical effect will turn around their situations. Such organizations believe that by hoping for the best, the best will graciously and calmly come to them – that is mere optimism and it does not happen most of the time. In order to achieve higher and sustainable results for the year, organizations and individuals would need to move from mere optimism to Optimal Thinking. The difference is that mere optimism will say, ‘our organization wants the best for 2019’, while Optimal Thinking will ask, ‘what can we do to achieve the best for our organization in this 2019, what are our options’? What strategy can we adopt? After sharing with participants in one of our workshops on “Developing a Highly Productive Workforce” in 2014, I realized an important fact. Many people can memorize their company’s visions and goals but do not understand or know the step-by-step actions to be taken to realize their goals. Every organization’s vision could be a wishful thinking if they lack a visible implementable game plan for achieving success. Let us assume that a particular bank in Nigeria has projected a profit of 100 million US Dollars come this 2019. To show a mark of seriousness and commitment, that particular bank is expected to provide answers and measures to the following questions below:

1. Is achieving the profit of 100 million US Dollars in our best interest?

2. Do we have the right structures and processes in place?

3. What are the best actions to be taken to achieve our goal?

4. What can be done differently in order to achieve the result?

5. Are there right people that will achieve the results?

6. What are the step-by-step strategies or game plan for the 100 million US Dollars attainment?

Without providing compelling structures and answers to the above, achieving the 100 million US Dollars profit will be difficult and impossible. The way forward for any organization that wants to succeed and thrive in this year is to avoid leaving one’s success to chance or serendipity. When your organization is not working, others are working and that means they are trying their best to be better than you are.

More so, many organizations have mastered the art of suppressing negative signals or negativity to their detriment. Most times, they tend to ignore negativity. Negative signals, events, thoughts and feelings are not resolved in our organizations when we suppress, deny, or devalue them. It would be like heaping layers of unresolved problems, which will ultimately affect our morale, stress level, productivity and teamwork. It is like putting a coat of fresh paint over rust. Eventually, the paint peels off and the rust resurfaces. What will a proactive organization who wants to achieve better results do? That organization will have to acknowledge the rust (which could come in any form detrimental to the organization), treat the rust, and then apply the best paint in order to have the finest result. In the long run, no organization can achieve better results by suppressing negative signals with positive thinking. Organizations that want to better their results in this 2019 and beyond must primarily acknowledge the reality on ground and try to optimize the situation and not sweeping the negative signals under the carpet.

Points to ponder: a. Does your organization have a step-by-step basis of how to achieve the best for 2019?

b. Has your organization confused wishful thinking and positive thinking with optimal reality? - How can you bring clarity to your organi- zation?

c. What does the ‘best’ mean to your organization and the entire workforce?

d. Do you know that whenever your employees think sub-optimally and seek to improve – rather than maximize, the company’s sales and profits are compromised?

Final note:

Hoping for the best has been totally misconstrued and sometimes abused by many organizations. These organizations more often than not hope for opportunity to knock on their ‘business’ doors. I like the saying – ‘if an opportunity does not knock, you will need to build a door and knock on the opportunity’. That means, we need to be adept and systemic in creating opportunities for our organizations even when they do not exist. It also means that we need to be proactive, decisive and above all an opportunity builder who does not sit all day long waiting for the best to magically come his/her way.

What would your organization do differently in order to invite the best results?

As always, I welcome your comments, questions or requests.

Would you want to know how most organizations sabotage their results and performance efforts and how they can employ optimal thinking to drive superior and optimal performance?

I would be glad to show you how! Have an optimal thinking year.