“What comes out of your cup when it’s tipped over is what was IN your cup in the first place! In other word, a cup of business chaos or business order!”
What’s just common sense, to my friend Rob, is sadly not always obvious to some others!
Rob was directing his analogy to certain people/ workers in business…
“When tested by the pressures of life,” he said, “some people have unseemly things come pouring out; maybe things that are part of that person’s REAL makeup.”
Recession Strains Cup of Business Order
This got me to thinking about what our business experienced during “the great recession.” Consequently, we lost a major part of our business, forcing us to reduce staff by more than half. I admit, that tipped our “cup” and put a strain on our remaining staff. In addition, it put pressure on our existing systems, as we tried to scale back operations, while trying to maintain quality and service.
Happily, during those recession months, we bounced back in sales. The sad news about that is, it also put immense pressure on our reduced staff and systems. As a result, I don’t mind admitting, we had some unwanted issues.
The GOOD news is, with sales doubling overnight, our staff and our systems did not buckle. None of our staff lost their cool; and none walked out in the middle of what was an otherwise high-stress period. In fact, we saw an improvement in the overall morale of our company.
Why would that be? It was due to the “SYMPHONY OF ORDER” we’d been implementing into our business (our CUP), over the past twenty years. In other words, getting rid of the CHAOS and continuing to improve our systems of quality and service. As a result, those companies seeking small manufacturing job management software are looking our way for leadership and expertise.
When the Cup Tipped, We Learned New Things About Our Company
We used the opportunity to improve our processes even more, because the exposure, being under pressure, proved our systems a little less-than-perfect. But, we fixed them! Take a lean tour of order in a small business!
More good news! Due to the increased sales and improved cash flow, our staff received overtime wages to work on preventive maintenance and special projects that were long overdue, because of the recession. We cleaned, polished and worked on many projects, usually accomplished only in slow periods.
With just a few tweaks here and there, to the contents in our “cup” and we are back on track handling the new work load with ease.
Because of the pressure, our cup tipped over. However, what came out, was what we had put into it—ORDER Via Systems! No cup of business chaos here!
What’s in YOUR cup?
Did I mention—Great Systems Work!