Houston we have a problem in Banana Island

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This is the situation, big organization with issues in an office that is located in the other part of the world. The problems started to arise since months but the main office have been ignoring, underestimating, having other priorities…

But the big day came, the situation has exploded and have enough visibility to hide it. It’s time to send someone to fix the issue.

There are thousand of things that can happen, but here is what I have seen so many times.

What is the guy with the authority to decide (the one with the “problem”) going to do?

The situation is,

  • It’s a temporal issue, nothing that should take more than 6 months to be fixed. 6 months? it should be fixed in 3 +  some trips afterwards to ensure the things are calmed.
  • I have a Mid-senior management team between thirty and forty years old, some of them with children, some other with the ambition to stand out, some others accommodated…
  • I have really key priority initiatives, and I do not want to lose my key people on this.
  • You have team with individuals that you like and dislike.
  • This is going to cost me so much, and potentially it can erode my results.

Decision making process of the guy with the issue,

  • I will not send the key people I like will stay.
  • I cannot send the key people I do not like will stay.
  • For non-key people, initially I won’t make any distinction between likes/dislikes.
  • I have some people with ambition and willing to relocate to willing to stand out. But this is not a real opportunity for them, in 6 months s/he will come back with more experience and demanding more things.
  • I will not send people who is willing to re-locate as they will try to stay more time than required, and me paying the transfer.
  • I have some people in the comfortable zone and willing to stay.

He will send the person that fits in the following features:

  • Person working on no-key initiatives: this keep the real priorities aligned.
  • Person not willing to move:  basically the other will want to come back ASAP, and this will promote that a proper solution is found soon. This is risky because the cost can be lower or higher!
  • Person that if I do not see during next 6 months, I don’t care: this responds to a personal behavior.

That’s it!!!

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