What to do During the Slowdown? Prepare for the Upturn!

Taking advantage of a slow-down means staying the course. There are other meanings of the word growth, after all, which have to do with:

1. Strengthening technical and leadership skills;
2. Reviewing previous decisions and results;
3. Re-visiting processes and procedures;
4. Engaging in deliberate and creative thinking about how to take advan-tage of the economic re-orientation and prepare for the next upturn.

All of these past times are appropriate for slow downs and actually allow employees and leaders alike to feel, and rightly, that growth is continuing albeit in a different form.

Beyond the fact that laying people off and responding with cutbacks may be just the wrong thing to do when things are pinched, consider what else companies do too soon when money gets tight. They tend to cancel training budgets, cut back on face-to-face meetings (saving travel expenses) and pressure the sales force to save the company by "selling our way out of it."

Out of what?

While other companies prepare to ambush us by hiring our discarded employees, they are still training their own talent to work differently in the evolved next level economy, which will inevitably emerge from the slow down. Make no mistake, it will look, act, and taste different. The key is to sell into it-not out of it.

The only responsible strategy is to create your own upturn by seeing the challenge creatively and using your best strategic thinking skills to mastermind your turnaround. The importance of "training" to this effort, whether it's traditional, non-traditional, embedded or formal, is crucial to your success.

The paradoxical truth remains at times like these. A slowdown is a time for action and a time for study, too. The following points highlight the key points to address:

1. Think Creatively - Train and facilitate managers to think boldly and courageously about how to leverage change for the company's benefit;
2. Make Employment Adjustments Compassionately - Train and support managers in moving people effectively and sensitively out of the company, or into new jobs, as situations demand;
3. Grow Your Stars - Train managers about how to give more effective performance feedback and quality mentoring essential to improving future individual and team performance - Avoid losing your key employees in a rush to cut short term costs - it costs a lot to replace them later!
4. Focus on Team Development - It's time to take your teams beyond the usual team building games to new levels of empowerment, accountability and collaboration.
5. Accelerate Processes - Speed up and streamline "time to revenue" product development cycles.
6. Create the Future - Analyze thoroughly how the slowdown will affect the nature of the upturn, including determining how the economy will affect our products and services, then create irresistible responses to what customers are going to need and want.