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Transitioning from Fire Fighting to Growth Frank J. Ciccia See Leaders in a New Light

Big Ideas 1. Delivering your on your promises to your

customers 100% of the time, should be your greatest challenge collectively as an organization.

2. Your only true competitive advantage is your organization’s ability to innovate.

3. If you are focusing too much of your time on ”fire fighting”, then you are probably not devoting enough time on growth.

Leadership * Communication * Teamwork POSITIVE CHANGE

TODAY

CUSTOMERS The Right People Doing the Right Things Technology Processes Knowledge

RESOURCES

Goal Attract & Retain

Organization Purpose

WINNING OUTCOMES Customer Loyalty Sustained Financial Growth Increased Retention Increased Productivity Job Satisfaction Organizational Citizenship Employee Engagement

FUTURE WIN “The Promise” Key Competitive Differentiators Strong Culture Living your Values Exceptional Service

VALUE PROPOSITION

Independent Critical Thinking RESISTANCE

INNOVATION

Alienated Followers

Effective Leader/Followers

Passive Negative

Active Positive

Sheep

“YES” People ARTIFICIAL HARMONY

STAGNATION

Dependent Uncritical Thinking

Leaders have a Growth Mindset Where are you spending your time and energy?

Fire Fighting

Maintenance

Growth

Fire Fighting In continuous problem resolution mode Always Reacting Creates instability Expensive Not sustainable Other people’s priorities become our own You are burning up your time You do not grow in this mode

Two Modes of Fire Fighting THE CURRENT CRISIS (examples)

1.

Poor allocation of time (i.e. spend all day in meetings)

2.

Procrastination and time wasters

Others problems becomes your problem

3.

Poor organizational culture

Urgent Client Request

4.

Lack of or no people development

5.

Tolerating poor performers

6.

Leaders like or have become very good at Fire Fighting.

1.

An error has occurred

2.

Immediate lack of resources

3.

4.

5.

THE IMPENDING CRISIS (examples)

Environmental

Maintenance Delivering on “promises to clients, associates” Focused on long-term sustainability Creates stability with workforce and clients Creates stability within organization Makes us operationally and fiscally efficient Making good use of your time and resources Takes discipline Creates associate and customer satisfaction

Maintenance Innovation & Creativity Building systems and processes Creates instability for those who want you to stay the same and energizes those who want to grow with you Others grow as a result of your growth Allows you to embrace and create change Will involve an investment of time, energy, focus

The ability to foster growth is your competitive advantage

Time is your Greatest Constraint

Different constraint are decisive for different situations, but the most fundamental constraint is limited time.”

- GARY BECKER

Growth vs. Fixed Mindset FIXED MINDSET

GROWTH MINDSET

Skills + Intelligence

Set - You have what you have

Can be grown and developed

Main Concern

How they look / performance focus

Learning / Getting better, Process focused

Effort

Something you do when you're not good

An important part of learning

Challenges

Give up / Check out

Persevere / Work through it – Show more grit

Feedback

Take it personal, get defensive

Like it / Use it to learn

Mistakes

Hate to make them / try to avoid making them

Treat them as a learning opportunity

We will shift out of firefighting mode and into growth mode.

WHY?

• Growth is a mindset shift • Fixed mindsets lead to more firefighting • Firefighting reinforces and rewards chaos

• Firefighting devalues growth efforts • Growth requires investment

WHAT?

• Time Allocation Check In

Time Allocation Check In USE: Add an agenda item to your weekly team meetings for a “Time Allocation Check In” Mode

Percentage of time

Growth Mode Maintenance Mode Firefighting Mode

IN THE LAST FEW WEEKS, I OPERATED IN THE FOLLOWING STAGES:

1.

If you are spending more time in firefighting than you need to allocate, what’s causing this to occur?

2.

How much of your actions are contributing to this dynamic?

3.

What is one thing I can focus on next week to reduce our firefighting?

4.

What support/resources do we need to achieve it?

The Collective Win • One way for teams to focus on growth is to begin by establishing a “Collective Win”.

• It serves as a “rallying cry” for immediate, yet growth minded, and developmental change.

• A collective win is a combined effort that the team focuses on in the next 6-12 months that if achieved would create a win for the team, the associates in the organizations, and the people you serve.

• It is also an effort that everyone must be involved in.

Everyone must have a role, or task in it.

Can you identify a collective win for your organization?

1. Work in teams of four (4) 2. Present what you think the collective win to your small group

3. Gain Feedback from your group mates: • What I liked about your collective win is…

• An idea or suggestion is….

Closing Challenges 1. What changes might need to occur within you to

move from a potentially fixed mindset to a growth mindset?

2. What will you specifically do to build greater stability

(maintenance) within your organization that will allow you to focus on growth?

3. How will you communicate and gain buy in from your leadership team in order to work collectively towards this collective win?