Ohmae's Key success factors LO11779

Peter H. Jones (Pphj@actrix.gen.nz)
Fri, 10 Jan 97 22:02:50 -0800

Replying to LO11760 --

Benjamin said: "What lesson was learned?" Regarding the need to establish
good communications at the start of a project.

The lesson for me was: Trust your instincts. And (if possible) stop. At
least take the focus off the immediate project, and sort out the
communications issues, before trying to move forward. I have to say that
this kind of problem continues to crop up for me too, and at least now I
recognise it, but I don't always find an easy way forward.

In an recent extreme, but similar, example, I recognised one of these
(inability to communicate) situations developing during a safety training
course I was running for a very important corporate client. Realising
that things were likely to get worse if I didn't address the person's
concerns (and behaviour) I stopped and confronted the person with the fact
that we had a communications problem. The result being that this guy left
the room rather that discuss the issue. I later found out that the person
concerned was well known for his negative, and disruptive, behaviour and
no one had ever stopped him in his tracks before. And the longer term
result was that people applauded the fact that someone had finally stood
up to this guy. Other people are now saying "that kind of behaviour is
not acceptable around here." But it was not easy at the time, and I
certainly didn't (and still don't) feel good about it myself.

In the short term I thought the above situation would have a negative
effect upon my relationship with the corportate client - because I'd upset
one of their people. Not so. The client remains (with stronger
relationships established) and business continues to grow.

This seems to have drifted some way from critical success factors. Sorry
about that. But you did ask!

Kind regards

Peter

-- 
Peter H.Jones, Peopletronics Ltd, PO Box 30 451, Lower Hutt, New Zealand. 
Tel.64 4 569 8875, Fax 64 4 569 8881, phj@actrix.gen.nz
WebPage http://www.Peopletronics.co.nz

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