it's a recession, we always do this in a recession

As long as we're talking about the perils of short-term thinking, and the first principle of the Toyota Production System......

If you're a leader of an organization in trouble right now (and whose isn't), what actions are you taking?  Are you doing what you always do in a recession?  Do you automatically start looking to lay people off?  Do you cut marketing efforts and training programs?  Do you hunker down and wait and hope for the best, thinking the storm will pass and you'll do what you always do when the economy rebounds?

Why?

Doing things the way we've been doing things are only going to continue getting us the same results.  That's true of the way we react to the recession too.  It's time to look at things differently.  Why not take a page from the Toyota playbook?  In tough times, their leaders have taken responsibility for leading the company and took pay cuts.  They've stopped production, but kept employees working.  They keep training the employees and put them to work on improvement projects.

And why wouldn't you?

Think about the talent that you lay off, for instance.  When the economy rebounds, how much time, effort, and money are you going to spend hiring new people?   And then how much time, effort, and money are you going to spend training those people to get them up to the level of the people you laid off?

There is a way to slow things down, but continue to improve, and hang on to talent all at the same time.  You might take more hits, more losses, right now than you want to.  But where would these types of actions put you in the future?

All the best!

P.S.  If you're one of those who has been laid off, see my series on layoffs here, here andhere

Oh.  And there's another one here.

If you're a leader in a business laying people off, see my post on how to lay people off the right way -- and training programs that you can use to help your business going forward  - including a program based on the management principles of the Toyota Production System,which can help any business, even yours.

Comments

[Wally Bock]

Fine post, Deb. As I mentioned in "Managing Headcount in a Downturn" (http://www.threestarleadership.com/downturn.htm )" two other good examples are Nucor and Lincoln Electric.

[Rise Smart]

So true! Many employers are getting creative to keep everyone on board and weather the storm. Sabbaticals, voluntary vacations, half-days - the recession doesn't have to mean a new job search.