Where Do You Want to be When the Recession is Over?

Most executives recognize that the world they lived in before the recession will not be the one they return to when the recession is over. 

There will be repositioning, rethinking priorities and strategies. We will see executive teams work to reexamine their assumptions, many of which they'll discover turned out to be invalid and is part of what got them (and the whole economy) into trouble this time round.  Things like, debt ratios, risk tolerance, growth expectations and so on.

For some the task will be easy - they will focus on their core purpose and fundamental organizing principles and values, and get back to work with renewed intention and vitality. These folks will see change as an opportunity and will move fast to take advantage of it. Cisco under John Chamber  is a good example of this way of responding to change and Chambers and Cisco have a track record.

For others there will be a period confusion, uncertainty, mistakes, even disintegration. New leadership will be critical. Leadership in which the leaders reinvent themselves, and create a reinvention process for their organization. Paraphrasing Einstein, they will recognize, we can't solve today's problems with the same thinking that created them in the first place.

So the good news is the current meltdown is a call to transformational leaders to settle for nothing less than a transformational change of their organizations. 

We are not going back to business as usual so: rethink, reinvent, rebrand, reenergize and recommit the the core purpose, organizing principles and values of your organization and get to work. 

And if core purpose, organizing principles and values are not clear start there. Pile on all the help you can get until the "what you are up to" is clear. Alignment, collaboration, teamwork, and all the other building blocks of great organizations can't we put in place until this step is complete.