Picture yourself in a boat on the river. Oh, wait, that has probably already created an incorrect vision for many of you. This is not going to be a tribute to The Beetles, and there will be no discussion of tangerine trees and marmalade skies. For those of you who have no clue what I am talking about, go find someone who likes classic rock and ask about “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.”
So let’s try this again, back to my boat on the river … No, that won’t work either. Those were the lyrics to a song by Styx, on their Cornerstone album, although it wasn’t as popular as the aforementioned Beetles song, and similarly should not be confused with “Sail Away.” Maybe there is a way to calibrate your image processing a bit, so we all start to see the same thing. Let go of those rock-n-roll images. Shift your thoughts to something more like Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, and picture yourself on a raft on the river.
I grew up along the river, and know first-hand that floating along peacefully on a warm, sunny afternoon can be a very pleasant experience. Like life or work, though, the river is not always calm and predictable, and things around you don’t always stay balanced along the journey. The important thing to understand is how to manage the disturbances and still get to the destination.
In my world, the new senior leadership team heard (and believed) there may be an opportunity to significantly reduce costs, so he decided we should explore other service delivery options. Of course he made that decision without really understanding anything about technology management. He did not know what would be required to do a comprehensive evaluation and comparison of the programs, however he did trust us to figure that out. This most recent series of events and disruptions at work have somehow reminded me of what it must have been like for some of our early settlers, using flat rafts to travel the maze of rivers that crisscrossed the country.
In the world of the early settlers, a family may have heard stories about more fertile farm land a few states away. Based only on that information, they decided to file for a homestead claim and relocate. They would probably have started by looking at different ways of getting to the new place, while retaining as many of their valuable belongings as possible. After all, if they had already invested in livestock, farm implements and household goods, it would make sense to have those to start with in the new location. They could make their own raft by cutting trees, tying the logs together with homemade ropes to form a flat raft large enough to hold them and everything they owned. Then it would just float freely down the river and deposit them safely and gently at the desired destination, right? Just like we will magically be able to step out of the office one day under our current program, and step in the next day under some new program, any new program, without any perceivable disruption of any kind.
Well, not exactly. As the belongings are loaded on the raft to begin with, everything is neatly stacked and balanced, secured into its own specific location. The livestock, farm implements, household belongings, pets and family members are all aboard and the mooring lines are pulled in. A push pole and a couple of oars are probably important accessories, and if the raft was designed with a built-in rudder, all the better to get out to the strong current and start the journey. Similarly for our team, everything seemed to be going well at first, as we started exploring with a sense of excitement about possible new opportunities.
Then, about the time the raft gets up to speed in the middle of the river, the family dog sees a deer on the bank and starts barking. That startles the cattle and they all run to the opposite side of the raft. One family member grabs the dog to silence it, another goes to herd the cattle back toward the center of the raft, while everyone else instinctively runs to the opposite corner to counteract the shifting weight before the raft capsizes. Tragedy averted, only a few of the belongings got wet, and the raft continues floating along.
In the context of our evaluation of service strategies, one vendor who wasn’t competitive to begin with went barking at the door of the president’s office with the promise of a better option. Thankfully, that was silenced as they were redirected to go through the proper channels. In the meantime, the members of my team are continuing to tackle the daily calls as they come in, cranking through the scheduled inspections, and continuing the planning efforts for the various projects that are underway. On top of all that, we are gathering the information required to further validate the theory that it may make sense to implement some changes in our program.
Throughout their journey, the family on the raft is busy running here and there as someone catches a glimpse of jagged rocks or an uprooted tree that must be avoided. Occasionally, a sudden thunderstorm rolls in with strong winds and a drenching rain, ruining a few more of the valuables. That is exactly how it feels as we are running from one issue to the next in the daily work activities, while trying to avoid the obvious pitfalls in some of the proposed options. We are just trying to stay afloat until we get to some kind of designated landing point. Every new day brings a glimpse of hope, sometimes followed by a sense of frustration, which is disheartening for the members of our service team. Thankfully, we have a strong team with a sense of commitment to sticking together and making the trip a success for all involved. We are all starting to ask, though, “Are we there yet?”
Throughout all of this, we continue to be reminded of the importance of purposefully regrouping and collectively recovering after every unexpected disruption. Sharing information openly, and giving people the opportunity to be involved in decisions and actions that affect their future will help assure we are staying afloat. As far as that initial mental image of picturing yourself in a boat on the river, don’t completely give up on that. A day at the river can be a very relaxing and rejuvenating experience. However, if your journey is anything like the one we have experienced, you may want to consider something other than the raft. If we don’t get to a decision and destination soon, it will be time to upgrade to something more like a submarine, and I don’t care if it is yellow or some other color. We will continue to ride it out, trying to keep everything balanced between the service needs, the financial expectations, and the individual impact to each party. I hope to share more in a future issue regarding what we have learned on our journey.