I grew up on a farm when John Deere A’s were still in use. The John Deere A (and others in the same series) were a 2-cylinder tractor that incorporated a large cast iron flywheel in its design. It was the flywheel that smoothed out the low-revving engine and gave the tractor its remarkable pulling capacity. They were referred to as Johnnie Popps, since they emitted a pop-pop-pop noise that was very distinctive, and could be heard from a distance.
When I think of a business, I often visualize a large flywheel attached to the organization. Successful organizations focus their attention on making their flywheel go faster, realizing increasing the momentum of an organization results in tangible improvements in performance. Organizations that are able to focus time and resources on flywheel acceleration can be very successful and profitable.
In most organizations however, propelling the flywheel faster and faster can be a difficult and inefficient task. Not because they don’t know what to do - in fact it’s likely in their business plan. It’s right there in front of them - plain and simple. But they have a problem. And that problem is friction. Friction amounts to the activities and assets that actually slow down the flywheel - aka Momentum Killers. Friction amounts to the activities that create unwanted noise, heat and distraction. Most of the time, friction occurs inside the organization in areas such as:
- People: How many times have we experienced a rough cog in our organizations, yet the problem continues to go unresolved.
- Communication: For some unknown (or known) reason, communication within and across departments is strained and ineffective.
- Compensation: Is the compensation plan delivering results, oris it creating unwanted friction with unintended consequences?
- Systems: Are the systems in place holding your organization hostage?
Too often, organizations focus almost solely on momentum generating activities. This is the source of their energy and purpose. Meanwhile, momentum killing activities is what’s really determining their present and future. I’ve have simply been inside too many organizations that allow momentum killing activities to survive and thrive. It’s the elephant in the room. It’s the ugly cousin in the corner. It’s the organization that lives for a paycheck, and that’s it. I’ve also worked with organizations that have a healthy balance between increasing momentum and figuring out how to correct the momentum killers in the organization. And its this type of organization that becomes the high performance organziation of tomorrow. Because this is the organization that deal with their Silent Problems.
