I will admit it: I am a serial fixer. I love to bring order to chaos. Three times in my career I’ve had to clean up an organization in crisis because of embezzlement. The knowledge and experience gained from the first later led to a new employer and a new consulting client, both of which had suffered the light fingers of an embezzler.
 
As a matter of fact, every role I’ve ever taken on was a mess when I started. Twice in my career, I walked into my new office only to find it littered with boxes. In one instance, boxes even covered the desk and occupied my new chair.
 
How to tackle messes, be they physical, like the ones I just described, or jumbled, mislabeled or outdated electronic records and confusing systems?
 
Let’s start with the simplest offensive: the list. Making lists of things to be done, breaking down larger tasks into increments: that’s the start. The reward of making a list is the joy of crossing off a task as it’s done.
 
One of my favorite sayings is “Yard by yard, it’s hard, but inch by inch, it’s a cinch.” It’s these small accomplishments that make the large accomplishments possible. Each “inch” is a small step in the process.
 
Your list should include doing the research and analysis that provides information for your comprehensive plan. That plan, of course, should be the pathway to achieving your goals. Is goal-setting, with input from appropriate others, on your list as well? You can’t clean up a mess without knowing what you want your organization, your systems or even just your office, to look like as a result.
 
Let’s return to my box-filled office again as a tangible example of a clean-up job crying to happen. Here I was, first day on the job, and presented with a visual representation of the deeper systemic problems I was hired to fix. Personnel files were unlabeled, unsecured and scattered throughout the office. A short time on the computer showed me that the company’s outdated software and antiquated systems were woefully inadequate to create a harmonious and smooth-running organization. My predecessors either didn’t recognize the problems hampering operations or didn’t have the fortitude to tackle them.
 
Without a plan, and a goal, I could have spent countless hours just shuffling box contents and trying to master computer systems that just weren’t up to the job. But (remember?) I love to tame chaos using what Agatha Christie’s detective Hercule Poirot would call “order and method.”
 
So, I carefully reviewed the contents of each box, digitized what should be kept and shredded the paper records, along with unneeded materials. I made another list: functions that didn’t function as they should.
 
With those now-online “boxes” straightened up, their contents winnowed and clearly labeled, I was ready for the next step: an organizational makeover to tackle those non-functioning functions. And that’s what Lumina Business Solution’s next Insight will describe. A new year, a fresh approach!